Tuesday, July 24, 2007

They grew up fast!

Baby Mockingbird Update....

Here is how they looked a couple days after hatching.


They are all grown up!


Cute huh?

We had a big storm the other day and the nest was basically obliterated. We found one bird sitting right by the nest (that's him in the pics), another one lower down in the tree, wedged among some branches, and there were 2 missing. After much searching we found one more in the grass next to our neighbors' driveway. He seemed to possibly have an injured leg. We rebuilt the nest as best we could and put the 3 birds in it. We never found the 4th baby. BTW, that's what the advice online suggested - touching the babies does not cause the parents to abandon them.

The next morning one of them was dead in the grass (I'm guessing the injured one) and 2 remained in the tree. Later that day only 1 remained in the tree and by the end of the day they were all gone.

I believe, according to the internet, the babies were of the age where they would be leaving the nest. They were not ready to fly yet, but apparently they leave the nest and live in the shrubbery while momma bird teaches them to forage for food and such. Though we have not seen the 2 other babies, we hope they have survived! Unfortunately, with all the rain we've had they've gotten some odds stacked against them - lots of crickets have led to a big frog population which in turn has brought out the snakes and lizards. I hope the little birdies have managed to avoid the snakes and lizards! I sure try to!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How sweet. I love babies birds with their wild tufty feathers.