Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Backyard Birds

This past month we have had the pleasure of watching a pair of beautiful cardinals add to their family. The female chose to build her nest in a crepe myrtle tree about 4 feet off the ground right in front of my kitchen window. It took her about 2-3 days to build the nest while the male watched nearby (hmmm?). When we returned from our Memorial Day weekend camping trip there was one egg in the nest and by the next day there were 2 more. We were so excited!! 2 of the eggs hatched after about 13 days and the 3rd one followed the next day (I guess there is always a runt in the family right?). I have never seen brand new baby birds so up-close before. It was so cool!!! We all loved watching them grow every day right before our eyes. We tried not to interfere much but I do admit to placing an umberella in the tree during a nasty thunder/rain storm and also to pushing the nest back up into the fork of the tree branch before the whole thing fell out with all the birdies in it. I could tell that the mama bird appreciated it. :0) She was very calm and got used to me being around snapping pictures. The daddy bird on the other hand was really jumpy. While he did help feed the babies everyday, he would fly away with the food for himself if he heard even one little noise out of the ordinary.

The babies were only in the nest for about 10 days before our backyard was converted into a "learn to fly zone" for the babies. One minute they were all in the nest and the next they were out on the branches and one had even left the "home tree" without me seeing. Once I caught on I spent the next 2 hours watching and taking pictures of the momentous event. They would attempt to fly from tree to tree in the backyard. The parents were right there the whole time. The daddy bird looked a little frantic by way of his actions. It reminded me of parents trying to keep track of their kids at Disneyland. :0) One little birdie did pretty well but the bird that was the last one out of the nest struggled a bit. He actually never made it out of the yard all day and ended up spending the night on top of a middle support board on the fence. By the next day they were all gone though I could still hear them calling to eachother in the woods behind our house. They have been gone for almost a week now and we miss them a lot. It's not as fun to do the dishes anymore. I stare out at the tree into an empty nest. Boohoo! I was fun while it lasted though!


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7 comments:

Frank, Heidi and Family said...

That is amazing you got to document the whole process. I love the photos and now your family can always remember the bird family. That is so fun!

Angie said...

What a fun experience. I'm glad you were able to get pictures of the process. It's amazing how fast they grow!

Mindy said...

Wow, how neat! They sure are pretty birds!

The Harrises said...

nice shots miss jess.

Hey just saw Rachel Gunn and we got talking about Camp Pottawomne. Remember the good ole days and the nicknames?

Tia said...

I love this post! The pics are wonderful. So is the mom the brown one and the dad the red one?? They're gorgeous birds! That one shot inside the baby's mouth (top center) is amazing! Did you use a macro lens?
I'm glad you stepped in and saved the birdies too!

Jessica said...

@Mic - I totally remember our camp and names . . .at least I think so. Didn't mine have something to do with a tumbleweed???

@Tia - I did use a macro lense for the top center and top left pic. They look so much more amazing on their own. Might have to throw a few up on the photography blog. The center pic was taken with my iPhone. Not quite up to par with the rest. :0)

Tiffany said...

Nice pictures Jess! I just did a semi-similar blog with baby hummingbirds(bird being the similarity). Isn't it so amazing watching this process?