Inaugural Flight

Every year, the local Wren Family builds a nest in the wreath right outside our front door. Why they pick this place is beyond me--it's noisy, we are always going in and out the door, the wreath moves whenever we slam the door shut. (The wife also wonders about this because every year this family ruins her new spring wreath.) I guess being out of the rain makes it worth it.

I've been watching the birds since before they were eggs. First the nest, then the eggs. Every time I'd go in the door, I'd take a peek--not always a good idea because that kind of behavior really pissed Mama Bird off. (She never did get used to me sticking my head in there.) Most of the time, I'd see the mama sitting on her eggs; other times, no one was to be found. I can't tell you how many times that mama bird swooped at my head.

Imagine my excitement when there were little, ugly baby birds in there! You can see three of them in the photo above that I took with my camera phone (yes, the white stuff is poop--they make a lot of poop). There may be more than three, but I can only see the trio. The big one on the top hogs most of the space--the other two are smooshed in the bottom right of the nest. No, I didn't name them--although, I suppose I could have.

Yesterday when I was home for lunch, I took my daily peek. This was after cleaning up the giant, foul, gross odoriferous gift left by Lucy (she obviously is suffering from gastrointestinal distress--so bad that I had to open all the windows and use ridiculous amounts of carpet cleaner). This was also after I heard the mama--and dad!--squawking like crazy from the gutter. I could see both mom and dad from where I was eating my daily bowl of lunch cereal--it was like they were yelling at the babies: "JUMPJUMPJUMPJUMP!!!" I'd never heard them yell like this before--chirp, yes....yell, no. The more I sat there, the more I was sure the two of them were demanding the babies to take flight. I stood up and went to the door--mom and dad kept squawking. I opened the door and the parents flew to the birch tree in the front yard. They kept yelling but at least it was from a distance......

A quick glance to the nest confirmed the reason for the squawking--Junior was perched on the edge of the nest and was steeling his nerves to take his inaugural flight! I couldn't believe it--he was standing there, balancing, waiting, thinking (well, that's what I'd be doing if I were to be taking my first solo flight).

I held my breath as I stood there.....

And, then the baby bird literally JUMPED out of the nest (scared the shit out of me) and took off on his first flight-- "woo woo woo whoa woo wooo woop!" He didn't do so good in the aesthetic-graceful flight department, but he got it right very quickly (splatting on the ground is motivating to stay in the air) and flew right to the tree where his parents were sitting. I'm not kidding--the three of them sat there singing their brains out. All three of them were chirping like there was no tomorrow. Proud as peacocks! Now, I know birds aren't happy, but if you would have seen and heard this, you would have thought these birds were indeed very happy.

I had just witnessed the inaugural flight of a baby bird. Who can have a bad day after seeing that?

Last night, I took a peek into the nest. The other two babies were still in the nest, smooshed in the back as they had always been. I'm thinking the big, now gone baby had flattened them and they weren't ready to take flight. For some reason, they hadn't taken advantage of having all that room now that Big Bro had flown the coop. I'm guessing they will be gone by the end of today. As I won't be going home for lunch, I'm thinking I won't get to witness their first attempt at flying, but I'll always have the visual of that first bird taking flight.

I wish the remaining two wrens lots of luck. They won't need it as baby birds fly out of the nest every day without trauma, but I'll wish them luck, anyways. I also hope all of you dear blog readers get to see a baby bird take its inaugural flight some day, as it truly is a heart-warmer. I know my ornithologist heart is still warm.

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