Fledglings

A fledgling looks up into the tree calling to his mother.

Last year about this time we were watching two robin fledglings taking flight and starting life on their own. We'd found them on the ground with very few feathers so we put them in an abandoned nest we had tied to a tree. I've learned a lot about baby birds in the year since that experience.

This year it's as if fledglings are falling out of the sky. Out of their nests anyway. Guess they do. There have been several in the yard over the past few weeks. This year it's Blackbirds and Robins. Blackbirds outnumber the robins by three to one in this case. I've watched as a mother Blackbird brings food to her baby at regular intervals. The fledgling sleeps in the grass or on the driveway in between visits. One evening he went to a fir tree and looked up into the branches calling out to his mother. She might have had a nest there. The next day he managed to get to the lot next to our house and I watched him from the kitchen window calling out when he was hungry. Mother would feed him and his little wings would flap as she did. He was out on his own flying the next day.

Yesterday a newly flighted Robin landed next to the feeder. I didn't recognize what kind of bird he was a first. He looked so exotic with spots on his chest and his feathers all kind of askew.

Tonight we have another baby blackbird in the yard. He's sleeping next to the drive close to the house. I went over before the sun set to look at him. He closed his eyes and would peek at me every so often just like my parakeets do to me sometimes as if they can hide by closing their eyes. He's a big fat baby, probably about ready to take off on his own soon. I've been hearing him all day. I recognize that call now, we've hear it so often.

They just sleep on the ground and the mother in me finds it disconcerting, hoping they'll be safe. If it would help I'd go out and sleep next to him, but I'm thinking he and his mother would rather I didn't. :)