Peregrine Falcons. . . . . .

Above, meet Woodsie & Maddie - the last two brothers to fledge (preceded by

 brother Hank, and sister Xander who accidentally fledged when she fell off

 the edge a few days too early when exercising her wings - but thankfully 

was rescued from the parking lot below, rehabbed and is fine).

Confession time!  Much of the last couple of weeks, and this weekend, 
were spent glued to my laptop screen.  
I've been addicted/watching the hatching, growing, and then fledging of the four 
precious Peregrine falcon chicks from their nesting area on a 13th floor
 window ledge of an office building in Manchester, NH.

This building was actually where my husband worked for a few years early
 in his career - and visited many times on business for his company in the years
 following when we moved away from Manchester, first to Massachusetts and
 then in 1977 here to Raleigh, NC.

This pair of handsome falcons have raised chicks on the ledge with the sheltering
 box, perch, cameras etc., for many years and the annual springtime process has
 a large following of birders and bird lovers from all over.
Watching those tiny balls of white fluff grow and thrive, and with such caring
 parents, has helped me with the stress of being self-quarantined during all
 the sadness of the current time in our country and around the world.

Maddie & Woodsie enjoying their time together - they were 

exceptionally loving toward each other, once even lying next to each other 

and Maddie putting his wing over Woodsie, which was very sweet to see.

Woodsie - last to fledge on Sunday evening. . . . . . . .

. . . . . after several hours of mom and dad bringing food, dangling it

 before him but flying off with it and not allowing him to eat - cajoling him to

 fledge and meet back up with his siblings on a lower roof where the real 

training in flying and feeding would begin - Woodsie, flapped his wings and

took a leap of faith from the perch!

   

Parents assist their youngsters with finding food for another month or so,

 then the babies are on their own and fly away to find a home elsewhere.

Apparently these parents will return to this nesting site throughout

the year. . . . . hopefully they'll have another family next spring.

Mom telling Woodsie last evening, "it's time to fly away baby boy."

Second confession - I took hundreds of screen shots and videos of the 

falcons - just sharing a few here before I head off to work on learning

 how to use new Blogger today. It's pouring rain and dark and dreary so

 no garden chores required - a good day to stay in and focus on

 something I've been putting off for too long!

Here's to a good week ahead. . . .I'll be watching my garden birds only.

Special Sunday. . . . . . for birds and Dads!

It turned out there were actually eight baby House wrens in that little 

nesting box on the front porch! How they managed to fit in there,

and sometimes one or the other parents would get in there with them,

I'll never know.  During yesterday's sunshine and perfect temperatures,

I spent much of the day sitting at the window, nursing one of the worst 

colds ever, watching these birds and getting quite an education.

This adorable little guy, No.4, actually decided not to fly away immediately 

spending about 5 minutes looking in the window from the back of

the porch chairs before flying off.

As darkness fell last night there were still two left in the box and they

tucked in for another night. This morning I dashed to the window at 

6:20 am and saw a parent feeding them. At 6:30 am the two of them 

were pushing each other out the entry hole and off they flew one at a

 time into the fig tree. Ten minutes later they flew back to the porch,

chirping for their mom I guess, then both flew onto the roof of my car

and from there into the back garden where hopefully the entire family

 was waiting to be reunited.

Returned home from Ireland to find the hydrangeas looking really fabulous! 

Apparently there was not only heat but also a lot of heavy rain here so 

everything grew abundantly. Need to shop for Boston ferns this week as

my two hanging baskets are still empty!

Hung the flags for Flag Day on Friday and decided to leave them up over

 the weekend as it's a special day today.

A very HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the dads here

 in the USA . . . . . . and everywhere around the world

 where they are celebrated on this date.

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.