Baby Birds

We had an amazing experience this spring when a mockingbird built a nest in our rose bush right outside our back window.  We noticed that one of the cats was particularly interested in the window and when we looked this is what we found.

There were 4 blue speckled eggs in it.  Within a few hours, they started hatching.  Logan came running in to tell me and at first I thought he was confused, but sure enough, one was out of the egg and another was working it's way out.  All 4 were out by nightfall.

Every morning the first thing we would do is climb on the couch to see how the babies were doing.  We would watch the momma and daddy fly back and forth bring bugs and worms for the babies to eat.  One day I noticed that one of the parents had a garden snake in it's beak.  He then proceeded to give it to one of the babies.  It took awhile, but that baby managed to eat the whole thing.  I was sure it would choke, but I guess the parents knew best.

As we watched each day, the babies became fluffier as there feather grew in and they got much bigger with all the food the parents were bringing them.

We did some research and found out that the babies would leave the next after about 12 days and spend some time on the ground before learning to fly.  We saw one leave the next and it ran around our backyard for a day (luckily Wrangler was at the groomers most of the time).  The parents were definitely protective.  One of them swooped by me when I got too close trying to see where the baby was.

In the picture above the baby was sitting at the bottom of the rose bush where 2 branches forked.  Sometime during the night all the babies left the nest and we never saw them again.  We were sad they were gone, but it was truly an amazing 2 weeks!