Windowsill Bird Blogging

16 June

I took this picture on June 10. At least they look like birds now.



And this is only one day later:



This is one day after that (four days ago):



So far, so good. Mombird scolds me every time I go near the nest for pictures while the chicks impersonate rocks.

She scolded me this morning when I hung a sign on the gutter: "Do not disturb the bird nest." We'd scheduled a gutter cleaning for today. It was way past due. We had six-inch plants sprouting in the gutters all around the house.

The pot the nest is suspended from a bracket on the wall under the eave, tucked back from the gutter by a foot or so. This past week has been very rainy, and noisy with thunder. Between that and my regular visits to the nest I figured all four birds would be used to people by now. I even talked to the chicks this morning. "You're a good-looking bunch of chickens," I told them. Then I took this picture:



It was nearly 8 o'clock when Jack and I got home today. I half expected the nest, and its flower pot, to be on the deck in ruins. Before I did anything else I went into the back yard to check.

The pot was still there, the fuchsia intact, undisturbed. Mombird scolded me from the roof. I peered into the nest.

One chick. Just one chick.

In our mailbox was a note:

Hello.

We are sorry about one of the birds.

We didn't touch it or anything. But with all the noise it ran away. It was running by the weed in the back.

SORRY. Hope it will come back.

I walked the perimeter twice, listening for the chicks (they've been peeping lately) and to Mombird, looking for anything in the copious weeds that flood the edge of our back yard. I checked the flower bed and the compost pile. Nothing. Those chicks are too good at being rocks for me to ever find them in this mess.

I'm going straight to hell. Why didn't I wait until the chicks had fledged before I got all antsy about the gutters?

I watched through the window as Mombird fed the last chick. Maybe she knows where the other two are and she's feeding them. Maybe they got eaten already. Maybe stuff like this happens all the time.

Maybe that last chick is thinking, "Ha! Now I get all the worms!"