Our baby birds

For the past couple of years now we have had a female fly catcher create a nest right above our front door and hatch babies, twice every spring.  Once the babies hatch and fly away we promptly remove the nest and hope she will find a better spot for her little ones for the next go around.

Alas, she came back again this year. Eiyaya..  See.. this poses quite a tense time for me especially when the babies hatch b/c I am afraid that as we walk in and out through the door all day long, (keep in mind that our door is only a couple of inches away from their nest), we will scare them.  I am terrified that we'll scare them so badly that they'll fall out of their nest or that they'll try to fly early and i'll come out one day to a little mangled bird on the ground in front of the door.  Ohhh.. the horror.. Stephen and Pete keep telling me that it's nature.. some may not make it, the stronger will.  Well.. I don't accept that, not on my watch!  So.. I hold my breath with each exit,  with each entry until we come out and they are gone.  

This year before we left for the day, I noticed that the little fledglings were stretching their mini wings.  Adorable!! I grabbed my purse and turned around again and noticed one of the babies was actually fluttering around the nest like he fell and was trying to get back up.. again..I was terrified!!! But.. against all of my nature I let the birds be, didn't assist just let them be.  The baby got back situated into his or her little nest of 5 and I quickly exited the door.  As I was walking out I turned around to tell Pete to be careful b/c of the baby birds are being very anxious and as he was walking out the birds completely exploded all around Pete out of the nest, right above his head. They went in all directions, left, right, to the ground, in the air, in our small trees in our yard.  We both were stunned.  As I walked to the car, I noticed Baily was watching something really close on the ground, on a closer look, it was one of MY birds, it was regrouping, sitting on the running board of our car.  I shrilled at Baily to leave him/her alone grabbed her and quickly moved away.  All at once the baby fly catcher flew away up in a tree. 

It was amazing, Pete nor myself have ever actually seen baby birds fly from their nest for the first time.  I of course immediately started feeling the tears welling up, I held them back.  As much as I wanted those little birds to find another home some place else, I'll also miss those little guys.