Thursday, July 24, 2008

Birth Announcement!

Talk about getting SIDETRACKED today! I went outside with a basket of hubby's dirty work clothes to empty pockets, etc., before washing them. As I was starting, I remembered the flowers on the south side of the house needed watering, so I decided to go hose them down and then let it soak in while I did the work clothes thing, so I could then go back and hose them some more. [On a side(tracked) note, if you've never used a water breaker (a.k.a. diffuser) for watering, you oughta get one. You can water really FAST that way without damaging the plants.] I dragged the hose over there, and then I noticed that I was already being scolded by the chipping sparrows and I hadn't even gotten close to their nest. Although I'd already checked it earlier this morning (and found 2 eggs... don't know what happened to the third... it was there yesterday), I decided to peek again. Lo and behold, one of the eggs had hatched! And O_M_G!!! I have never seen such a tiny bird in my life!!! Of course, sidetracked again, I had to run for the camera while the mom was off the nest. Here's what I saw. I think this photo is pretty close to actual size, if not a bit bigger. That baby couldn't have been an inch long, stretched out!! AMAZING!!!

Added note: This evening I checked the nest again to see if the other egg had hatched yet. It hadn't, but man, you shoulda seen that teensy eighth-inch beak open for food! So cute! And incredible!

Maybe I wasn't really getting scolded. Maybe they were just excitedly announcing their new arrival. ;-)

Well, since I had the camera out there, I figured I might as well head out to the wildflower bed and get some more pics. And I snapped a couple in the vegetable garden. And on the way back took some better ones of the moss roses, since the sky was clouded over but it was bright enough for them to be open. Somewhere along the line there, I did get the flowers by the house watered and the dirty clothes fit for the washer, washed and hung on the line to hopefully dry in this 70+% HUMIDITY.

And the other photos I took will be for a later post. ;-)

Another note: This post has been updated to correct identification of the nest and eggs. My apologies for any confusion!

3 comments:

Jessica Jones said...

Congratulations on the very, very little bundle of joy!

janet l moran said...

nothing better than baby birds! So glad you like the pics of your baby bird, I had a lot of fun with Jess and Alex, you must be very proud.

Grandma G said...

Yep, I'm as proud as any mother bird could be! :-)