Come, Mommy

We had a fabulous day today – it was Liam’s last day of Kindergarten, and so his class had a festival day complete with a puppet show performed by the children. Today is also my birthday, and I had a wonderful birthday lunch with Kevin and the boys and friends from Liam’s school, and then we had a celebration at home this evening. All of this was just amazing and I have a lot to blog about, which means that I don’t have time to write it all down tonight, I will get to all of that this weekend when I can do a decent job complete with pictures rather than just cramming a few things together tonight.

However, there is one very sweet thing that the boys and I discovered today that I just have to show everyone. First a little background-we have a little red birdhouse that we bought from Duncraft two summers ago. Each March since then we have faithfully cleaned out the house and hung it from the light on our back deck, outside the toy room door. Birds have used it each year to raise young ones, and this year is no exception.

We have had Carolina wrens nesting around our house for several years now-readers who have been around for a while will remember our little wren who accidentally got inside back in 2007.  Anyway, about three weeks ago Liam and I spent an afternoon watching a “Mommy and Daddy Wren” pair fly back and forth from a place where our neighbor had cut down a pine tree and left lots of needles to the birdhouse. Back and forth they flew all afternoon, flight after flight, each time carrying in one long pine needle. A wee bird would fly through the entry hole of the house, carefully tug the needle into the house, stay there a few seconds apparently arranging the needle, and fly out again back to the needle pile. This went on for several hours, and then the adult birds seemed to disappear.

Several days went by, and we did not see the wrens, although the nest remained in the birdhouse. In the meantime we were distracted by a pair of downy woodpeckers who have been raising a family up in our redbud tree. We have seen the parents visiting our feeders and feasting on peanuts and sunflower seeds. We have heard them calling to the babies, but the nest was too far up to be easily seen. Then on Monday, Kieran and I were sitting on our dining room floor and looking out onto the deck. We saw the adult downies come down to the feeders, and then within a few seconds they were joined by four juvenile birds who were very clearly just learning to fly and navigate the collection of feeders we have out.

It was very sweet to see the youngsters fly inside the feeders and peck at the seeds. It was not unlike watching human babies learn to feed themselves. Just as babies inevitably spill food and end up wearing some of it, the birds had a similar experience. Each baby would peck gingerly at the seeds. Once in a while each little bird was rewarded by being able to grab one or two seeds, but a lot of the pecks resulted in either not getting a seed out, or else dislodging a small cascade of seeds that would travel down and slide off of the birds’ backs. Eventually they got the hang of it and were able to get a decent meal out seed by seed.

Since then the downies have been out and about at the feeders and flying around the yard. I still was not sure what became of the wren nest until Tuesday when the boys and I were combing Casey on the deck. We were finished and went back inside, leaving a football size pile of dog fur on the boards. Not long after we went inside we heard the Carolina wrens calling to each other, and all of a sudden they were down on the deck grabbing bits of fur and flying them up and into the birdhouse. Evidently dog fur makes a great lining for a nest made of pine needles!

Then, this afternoon, we heard an amazingly loud chorus of baby birds cheeping loudly and constantly. Whenever we got near the back door the birds would quiet down, so we couldn’t be sure if they were in the birdhouse or in a nearby tree. We tried to get near the birdhouse as quietly and slowly as we could, but each time the birds would quiet down, and it was too dark inside the house to see much of anything.

Finally I had the bright idea of holding the camera up just outside the opening of the birdhouse…I took a series of shots…

…not much to see here…

…I think maybe I see the edge of a beak??…

…mmmmm, I’m not sure at all…

…BINGO!

When I finally did get a quick peek into the nestbox I could see four little mouths all gaping open. Each little mouth could hold a blob of food the size of a pea, and the wee birds are just incredibly adorable. I have never gotten such a close-up look at baby birds before, and I feel so lucky to have gotten a glimpse this afternoon. Kieran and Liam are just as excited by our surprise babies as I am- we’ve never been able to get such a close look at the wren nests before. It will be fun to see the babies grow and fledge over the next few weeks!