Empty Nest

Every spring I hang our spider plants out on the front porch, and every spring a little bird builds a nest in at least one of the plants. This year was no exception. The baby birds have been cheeping away outside the den window for a couple of weeks. I tried to take a picture about a week ago, but only had my little camera. The nest is like a cave, so it's dark inside, and the birds stop cheeping and close their beaks once they know you're there. If you look closely, you can see three closed beaks in a row just above the shot-destroying green leaf.


Simon used his camera a couple of days ago, but didn't fare much better. You can see the beak and black eyes of one baby bird, just below the leaf in this case.


They are difficult little buggers to photograph, especially since we didn't want to make mama bird too upset. It's too late to try for another picture as they left the nest yesterday. Almost. One of the babies must have fallen, as it didn't survive. But the other two made it out safely and spent most of the day hopping around and hiding among the clutter on the porch. The birds were making a lot of noise as the kids were going to bed, and Simon discovered that the neighbor's cats had the babies cornered on the porch. He scooped them back into the nest (then asked our neighbor to please keep her cats inside for a couple of days). We were worried they might have been hurt, or that mama bird would desert them, but she was still there with them in the morning. I heard a bit of cheeping as I worked, but mostly quiet. When Simon checked the nest around 3:30 it was empty. Hopefully the two survivors are out safely exploring the world.