07.24.07
Fly away….already!
I think that is what the Mom and Pop Swallow are saying as they cruise through our sky trying to entice their babies to leave the nest box.
The 3 birdies spend all day looking out the box hole at Mom and Dad flying by.
Every now and then the parents popped in with a bug.
As of tonight they are still looking outside.
I had a nice heart to wing talk with them. I explained even though they like their nice warm nesting box and even though it is the only home they’ve ever known, it is time to fly. They just looked back at me without a word. Your parents cannot be expected to feed you the rest of your life. You’ve got wings…fly away already. (Apparently tough love on birds does not work!)
Now the Chickadees left yesterday. About 10am KT came running through the house yelling…”THERE IS A BIRD ON THE WINDOW, THERE IS A BIRD ON THE WINDOW”. I thought maybe she meant there was a bird that hit the window but, you know, she was right. There on the living room screen was a little birdie clinging with it’s little feet for dear life. The window was open so I had a very nice chat telling him that it was OK that Mom was flying around and would be back soon. We stood and watched to be sure the nasty neighbor’s gray cat didn’t come for a free meal. I wish I had the camera in the house to capture this event. He looked very scared but I would like to think our little therapy session perhaps delayed any future trama that may re-emerge later in his life.
Finally Mom flew by and the baby took the leap, flying in kind of a ,.:~.,~ up and down motion he made it to the redwood tree. So now that all 3 of those babies are gone we can clean out the box. One of our favorite things is to check out the nests and see what was used. Sometimes it is grass, usually there is some yarn and occasionally wool. Unfortunately, far too often, we find a dead baby bird.
Three down and three to go… I expect we’ll be birdie-less by tomorrow afternoon.