Look!! I made a movie!!!

No wait, this is about the birdies.

Well well well.

The last picture I captured with the webcam:



The last picture I took with TechnoBoy's camera, now that he and the good camera are back from TechnoWeenie Mecca:



Just after I shot that last photo, something startled Mama and she flew off the nest, and then, suddenly, so did all three babies. I climbed out the window I was taking pictures through (the screen was already off, the window is even with our deck) and ran around the back yard taking pictures of babies and cheering wildly for them as they flew, in short stints, to the forest behind the green belt behind our house. Their exodus from the nest was captured on the webcam, but as that video is currently several hours long, I'm not posting it until I have figured out how to edit a video :)

Here's the last I saw of the babies. Just after I took this picture, he clucked at me and ran off to hide under the long grass you see just behind him.



His father was delighted that I was there to chronicle this important event in his life:



Later this evening, I walked out past the fence to see if I could see any wee birdlets, and was delighted to be dive bombed by irate robins. I couldn't find any of the fledglings (did I mention it's a forest?) but I knew if the adults were trying to get rid of me, they were tucked safely away quite nearby.

Video coming when I figure out how to shorten it :) On the video, you will see how very ready to fly they were - several times it looked to me like they were ready to take off.

It's been a fascinating few weeks, hasn't it?

Day 13.

I need to change some information I gave the other day - they DO make sounds when the parents come. At first, they were so small that the sound was too quiet for me to hear even with the window open - now it's so loud that I can hear it even with the window shut. Even when the food has disappeared into their wide-open mouths, they will continue, just in case there's more coming. The Papa tends to bring larger beakfulls, and sometimes drop things into the nest that he then digs out, so there is sometimes more coming. It's not a cheeping, really, it's a hard sound to describe. Once they've been fed, they will sometimes just chirp a few times, but the chittering sound they make when a parent flies in with food is a more continuous sound. I managed to record it with the hand-held video camera the other day - hopefully TechnoBoy can help me figure out how to post that here someday soon.

Too cute not to share:

Twelve Days Old

"They grow up so fast," A sighed, checking the webcam this morning.

It is getting increasingly difficult to see all three at once without observing for a while. I don't know if it's always the same bird on the bottom of the pile, but if it is, I'd say it will get to spend some time alone in the nest after the first two have left, doing all the flapping and stretching it hasn't had space for until now.

This picture was snapped after the bird on the top had been standing on the other's head for at least a minute - the bottom bird finally wrenched his head out and bit the other one squarely on the chin.



Another one, just a few seconds before that:



And a few videos. These wee birdies are going to be out of webcam range in just a day or two, so I'm posting several.







And as I'm sitting here, watching Blogger try to post a video, the mama just flew in with a huge beakful of ...nesting material? which she is now busy stomping down into the nest, as the babies squeak at her in protest. How curious!

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No time for snapshots right now, but yes, darien, there are still three babies, and it's Tuesday morning. It looks to me like they could leave the nest right now, but the parents are still bringing food, so I may have a chance for a few more pictures yet :)

I know you're all curious ...

...but it's getting really hard to get a picture that shows all three of them, especially when there's activity, and there's getting to be more and more of it. Sometimes they'll stand up and flap their wings like crazy when the parent is there. The parent takes about 3 smacks of a baby wing before it takes off, apparently agreeing my "you don't have to go to every fight you're invited to" mantra.



some of the noon activity. I get so engrossed watching them that I forgot to hit "stop recording" until they've been doing nothing for awhile.

Ten days old, three mouths to feed

They're starting to stretch and flap their wings a lot, which often causes someone to end up sitting on someone else's head. They also peck little bits of whatever off each other's heads, which looks exactly like bickering siblings, especially when it happens after a prolonged period of preening/flapping - the preener/flapper will sit down and the bird next to it will reach over and peck its' head. They will sometimes preen each other - I think this is accidental, and it's more of an "oh look, a feather! must preen!" reaction than it is community behaviour.

This video is several minutes of preening and heavy breathing in an attempt to video a wingflapping episode. And right on cue, there's some wingflapping and chin scratching as I type! Give the birdie a worm for being so cooperative!



And an up-to-date family portrait ...