Leaving the nest.........

Last Friday (May 16th) was a busy day on the back porch of Cozy Cottage. When I first arrived I took a picture inside the next and all three babies were snuggled in tightly. Shortly afterward I heard a lot of chirping going on and looked outside to see that one of the babies was outside the next perching on the brass display rack where Mama Bird had so stylishly built her nest.

Before long two little birds were perched on the rack side by side. It didn't take long for one of them to find his way to the deck and had the misfortune of slipping between two of the boards where he was chirping loudly from down below! Papa Bird finally discovered his plight and talked and talked until baby finally came out and scurried to the tall grass around a nearby tree.

Before long baby #2 was on the deck and made it uneventfully to the yard where Mama Bird herded him to the safety of the brush-lined back yard. In spite of the fact that Papa Bird did his best to talk baby #3 out of the nest it took all afternoon, about 4-5 hours, before the last baby finally made an appearance. That is my favorite picture of all of them.....she made it safely with the rest of her family only a few minutes before we had a very unusual visitor.

A great big redtail hawk stopped by the backyard of the cottage and landed right in the middle of the yard. I probably wouldn't have noticed him except a flock of starlings was dive-bombing him very loudly to which his response was something like....."Ummm, what are you silly little birds doing???" I got within about 50 feet of him with my camera before he flew away.....he was really beautiful and majestic in his departure.