Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Testing 1, 2, 3

Monday, August 17, 2009

Bye-bye Birdie


Yesterday this little guy (an ordinary house sparrow) was sitting in front of our front door. Apparently he took a tumble from the nest over the door (stolen by his parents from a house martin family that built it).


Obviously he was not yet ready for fledgling status. We've already seen one clutch of fledglings emerge and hop-fly their way into the world; this guy was from batch two of the season. We did our best to avoid frightening him and Emily put some water out in a shallow lid. (Baby had no idea what to do with it, but Mama Bird did - hello birdbath!)

When we came home from our afternoon in Tirana yesterday, birdie had moved to the base of a downspout, a much better location away from our doorway. I saw Mama in the vicinity several times, so all appeared well.

Unfortunately this morning birdie was dead. There was no sign of foul play, so he apparently didn't fall prey to one of the neighborhood cats. Perhaps it was a bit too cool overnight, or perhaps he suffered injury in the tumble from the nest. Either way, it was a bit sad, but not wholly unexpected. Every spring and summer in Manassas we invariably had dead baby robins in our yard. In Mexico we had one young dove that didn't survive the transition to adulthood. The situation reminds me of a classic Yes tune, "Survival."

In any case, this will be the last season for this particular nest. We've resolved to remove the nest this winter and put up something (boards, screen?) to prevent birds from rebuilding in that location. The nest litter and droppings on our doorstep quickly overpowered any warm, fuzzy feelings we had for the cheeping of little birds. Besides, Mama and Papa bird hate the activity of our door opening and closing. Better for all if they relocate. I'm sure there will be plenty of new house martin nests to steal with all the new construction in the neighborhood.

On another note, this blog posting marks my return to more regular updates. I'm pondering several sorts of "projects," some written and some photographic, that I hope to start here shortly. Stay tuned and keep in touch.