We just recently had "Science in our own front yard". Around the end of July we noticed that in my hanging baskets out front was a bird's nest with 6 little eggs in it. "Wow, how exciting" I said, "but they probably won't hatch because it's right by the front door and every time we open the door the momma bird flies away". I did have pictures of this but can't seem to find them so just imagine in your mind a nest with six bitty eggs inside.
As we were walking out the door to go on our trip to Yachats John noticed that one of the eggs had hatched and we had a baby bird. "Well it can't last while we are gone so I'd better get a picture of it now, shoot my camera is underneath everything that we just piled in our car. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens and maybe get a picture later." So imagine in your mind, a nest with one baby bird and 5 bitty eggs.
When we came home, all the neighborhood kids came running over to inform us that while we were gone the eggs had hatched. We had 3 baby birds in the nest in my fuscia basket (which made the fuscia really difficult to water). "Wow, I can't believe they actually survived but I can't imagine they will last very long with all the pokey little fingers we have around here, but I guess we'll see what happens". So now I actually do have a picture! As you can see, there were still 2 eggs in there because for some reason those never hatched and one got kicked out of the nest. Does anyone know what those ugly yellow sacks are on the sides of their necks? They sure aren't the cutest things in the world.
So we watched them periodically and took loads of pictures of them. All the neighborhood kids came over daily to do the daily bird check. But of course I never thought they would survive and every time I checked on them I would check to see if they were breathing, low and behold they were breathing every time. Eventually you could hear the baby birds out there when their momma was around just chirping away trying to get food. Here is a picture of them bigger and just about ready to leave the nest. This next picture was taken and the next day they left and were never seen again.
As we were walking out the door to go on our trip to Yachats John noticed that one of the eggs had hatched and we had a baby bird. "Well it can't last while we are gone so I'd better get a picture of it now, shoot my camera is underneath everything that we just piled in our car. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens and maybe get a picture later." So imagine in your mind, a nest with one baby bird and 5 bitty eggs.
When we came home, all the neighborhood kids came running over to inform us that while we were gone the eggs had hatched. We had 3 baby birds in the nest in my fuscia basket (which made the fuscia really difficult to water). "Wow, I can't believe they actually survived but I can't imagine they will last very long with all the pokey little fingers we have around here, but I guess we'll see what happens". So now I actually do have a picture! As you can see, there were still 2 eggs in there because for some reason those never hatched and one got kicked out of the nest. Does anyone know what those ugly yellow sacks are on the sides of their necks? They sure aren't the cutest things in the world.
So we watched them periodically and took loads of pictures of them. All the neighborhood kids came over daily to do the daily bird check. But of course I never thought they would survive and every time I checked on them I would check to see if they were breathing, low and behold they were breathing every time. Eventually you could hear the baby birds out there when their momma was around just chirping away trying to get food. Here is a picture of them bigger and just about ready to leave the nest. This next picture was taken and the next day they left and were never seen again.
This isn't the best picture but this is actually one of the babies just before it was ready to fly away from the nest.
Again, every time we would open the front door the momma would leave her baby birds in fear of us doing something to her but she always returned to take care of her little babies. They did survive and ended up flying away one day. All the kids really seemed to enjoy watching this one and showing all of their friends. One that won't be forgotten.
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