Empty Nesters. . . . . . . .

I had a feeling that today would be the day!

Yesterday evening we relaxed with a glass of wine on the front porch, 
admiring our gardening efforts, and watching the parent chickadees

 feeding their offspring above our heads. 

As mentioned before, Carolina chickadees are such amazing tiny

birds who are extremely attentive parents. Not knowing how many 

babies were there, but thinking there had to be several keeping them

working on non-stop food distribution, we just hoped we'd see the 

excitement of the fledging young, but realized it would be a hit or miss 

occasion.

Today, waking just before 7AM to brilliant sunshine, and birdsong, I dashed

 to the dining room windows, camera at the ready, to check the nest box. 

At first thought this bird was a parent bringing breakfast, then I realized it
 was a baby chickadee probably thinking about moving out and leaving home!

After watching it pop in and out for about 5 minutes. . . . . . . . 

. . . . . . . . . little claws appeared, first one . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . then the other, and in one whoosh it flew right out of the box at lightning

 speed toward a tree in the side garden.

And there I was, for the past week, worrying and wondering how in the

 world those tiny birds would get out of the box and, when they did, would

 they fall down onto to spiky hydrangea bushes and be injured! Who knew

they fly so well immediately. 

Hearing more excited chirping from the box, I knew there were siblings, so woke

Bob and he joined me on the porch. . . . . . . and for next 45 minutes we sipped 

our wake-up coffees, and me poised with the camera until my shoulders ached. 

I took 89 pix of birds sticking their heads out the hole etc!!!

In between fledging babies, one of the parents came back and forth with small

 bits of suet from our feeder, offered a quick taste then flew off with some still

 in its beak - must have been tempting the baby to follow. The other parent was

 probably waiting somewhere in the trees where the babies seemed to be headed. 

I noted that the first bird to leave took the longest to make up its

 mind - "should I stay or should I go?"

The next THREE, oh yes there were FOUR total stuffed in what must have

 become a very crowded and hot box by yesterday (the temperature outside

 reached the mid-80's here), made their moves quickly. Two more headed 

to the trees, but the last one flew up on our roof, bobbed all the way up the

shingles to the crest, and then flew to the trees to join the others.

This has really been a busy week in our garden for birds. We've also had 

four baby Carolina wrens appear - don't know where the parents put their

 nest this year, but they were teaching the cutest babies to look for

food and fly from branch to branch on the fig tree (wrens apparently hop

 about for a while before really flying any distance). The only birds remaining

 close to the cottage we're hoping to see fledge, are the nuthatch family in

 our large birdhouse, and with this very warm weather I'm sure they will be

 moving out any day also.

We do feel blessed to be sharing our garden with so many beautiful birds. . . . 

and now a new generation will be arriving at our feeders.