Bird tales...

Just before I went up to the Biltmore (in March), two very persistent house finches were intent on setting up housekeeping on the beautiful wreath on my front door. I had taken their early attempts at a nest down, but they kept coming back. Persistent wasn't even the beginning!!!!

Apparently, while I was gone that weekend, they completed their nest.

Scott didn't know I'd been trying to prevent this, so he didn't take the nest down. Oh well. Then the female finch started sitting in the nest. I wondered if she would lay eggs.

Sure enough, a few days after I got home, she had laid an egg, then another and another. I snapped a shot at 3:


...then 4:


Figured she was done, but realized she laid FIVE eggs!!!

After about 2 weeks of sitting on the nest, we saw baby birds. Oh, they were so ugly that they were CUTE!!!

Mama bird was very gracious in allowing us peeks up into the nest and I snapped pictures and videos when I could.




The birds grew quickly.



FIVE beaks/heads!



Video of the babies:


Within 2 weeks, they'd already begun to fledge, but were returning to the nest at night, and mama and papa bird were still feeding them. Last Sunday (April 25) we had really strong winds, and a gust picked the wreath off the door, slamming the nest to the ground. Luckily, the birds were all able to fly away, but I was devastated at how quickly they vanished.

Last week, Scott and I noticed that the nest seemed to be repaired, as well as padded up a bit. I saw a pair of finches hanging around again, and wondered if it was the same pair. This morning, I saw mama bird tucked deep into the nest....


5/4/10
Sure enough, we're going to have another brood of baby birds!!! As upset as I was with the initial set-up of nest, I'm happy they came back for another round. Of course, when they are finished, the wreath (and the nest) will go into the trash. The reason I was upset to begin with was that my wreath was custom made for me...so I can't just go out and replace it. Oh well....I'll sacrifice it for the babies!