Birds Nest

Earlier this spring we noticed we had a birds nest in our Asian Pear tree.  It was too high up to see if there were any eggs in it so we watched and waited.  One day I was outside with the kids and heard a little chirping.  I looked up and saw these little guys staring back at me.

I became a little obsessed with them (I think we all did).  There was a mom and a dad and 4 babies (just like our family Jason said).  The mom and dad were so good.  They spent all day going back and forth bringing worms and berries to their hungry children.  It was funny how my maternal instincts kicked in when I knew there was another mom with young babies in my back yard.  I loved those babies and their sweet parents.  I would tell the kids to be quiet or come inside when I thought the babies were sleeping - and the mom and dad bird did not like when us or the kids got too close to the tree - so I made sure we stayed our distance.  I felt so honored that they felt my backyard and my tree were the perfect place to start their little family (I know I am being silly - but that is really how I felt)

This is the dad - so handsome.

Then one morning at about 7:00 am I heard frantic chirping for about 15 minutes straight.  I looked out the window and saw the mom and dad bird flying frantically around the backyard almost yelling.  I went to see what the problem was, I saw that their babies had hopped out of the nest during the night (totally normal) and had hopped down our window well, which had grates on them (not normal).  The baby birds couldn't get out and the parents couldn't get down to them to feed them.  I did some studying online and learned the best thing to do was to build a sort of stair way for them to try and climb out of - or at least something for the parents to climb down on to feed them. 

The babies were stuck down there for about 6 hours and me and the kids sat in our basement the whole day and watched as the parents continued to carry worms and berries down to their babies.  We could watch UP CLOSE the mom bird putting the worm in the baby mouth, take that Sid the Science Kid!  It was awesome. 

Eventually the babies hopped out, then hopped around our backyard for two days!  I wouldn't let the kids go out, I didn't want them to step on them or keep the parents from feeding them.  I just wanted them to have the best "nursery" in my back yard.  And then one day they flew away.  It was sad for all of us.  Our backyard feels lonely with out our little bird family.  Truth be told, we lost one.  We don't know why.  There was just a dead baby bird in the back yard one day.  I cried.