This morning when I went to the garden at first the yard seemed quiet, soon I was excited to see here a much anticipated event. I heard the house wrens song but they were calling from high in the trees, far from the bird house full of babies. I sat down and waited then I spotted two wrens on the fence. Soon one of the fledglings stuck it's little head out of the house as the adult songs kept encouraging. The fledgling slowly decided to leap out! It flew about ten feet to the old lilac bush where the robins are nesting across the garden path. Then it kept going moving on to the bonsai table by the lilac much to the robins relief.
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| adult house wren with it's nest in the bird house |
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| adult wren watching me while feeding the little ones |
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| fledgling peeping out of house |
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| fledgling ready to leap |
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| fledgling on the table next to bonsai tray |
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| fledgling looking around the garden |
Once the first baby fledgling was out I realized the two on the fence included a fledgling with it's parent. This then was the second who ended up on the choke cherry tree. There a bunch of grackles appeared making a lot of noisy calls and one of them leaped on the little wren and began to try to harm it or eat it, I leaped to my feet and scared all the birds away. The tiny wren fell into the bushes below the tree. It soon appeared on the chain link fence next to my garden table and eventually moved to the willow beside me.
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| fledgling landed in the willow seedling by garden table |
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| robin with food for it's nestlings |
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| 3rd fledgling ready, set, |
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| GO |
The third fledgling came out about 10 minutes later and went right to the lilac about the same time a robin was returning to feed it's nest. Suddenly the big red breasted robin attacked the 3rd wren which fled to the alley blacktop outside the yard. The adult robin kept attacking the little guy one wren parent came to try to protect it but wasn't having much luck so I ran over and shewed them to stop a tragic event. It hid in the thick bushy growth of golden rod that grows at the edge of the yard.
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| fledgling ended up on the bark of choke cherry tree |
Once the third was out and making it's way up the choke cherry tree where it was pretty well concealed a fourth appeared at the door and came out safely hunting for parents. The fourth was less powerful and only flew 5 feet to the old Japanese maple tree.
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| 4th fledgling in the Japanese maple |
Once all the tiny house wrens excitement was over it was time I turned on the water to the garden faucets. No more danger of a freeze to crack the pipes. I had seen a mourning dove get chased earlier when I first came out to the garden, by the robin I presumed but I was very surprised to find a dove fledgling on the ground in the edge of our garden. It peered up at me with wonderment. I expect it's tiny heart was beating faster as I took some pictures. I have no idea where this baby was raised but it's well on it's way learning to forage for seeds and bugs on the garden floor.
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| mourning dove fledgling |
Yesterday a bold cat bird came to visit while I was sitting in the garden and I surmise it was a youthful bird as it came within arms reach to get something red on the ground by the potted plants. Then it took to the sidewalk in the next yard to dissect the treasure to eat with some difficulty.
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