The wait is over! The house finch birds eggs (situated in the repurposed sugar bowl of our wind chimes) have hatched.
They babies are (sorta) fluffy, (kinda) cute, and (definitely!) hungry.
May I present the baby birds living on our front porch:
Sorry, Mama Bird, for scaring you off when I came out the front door. (Evidently I am not to be trusted.) Thank you for letting me have a moment with your babies. We’re excited to watch them grow up.
Just like last year, we have a birds nest full of eggs on our front porch, situated in a repurposed sugar bowl that’s part of our wind chimes.
Last year’s eggs belonged to a House Finch and were light blue with brown spots:
I’ve been thinking that this year the birds were a different species because the eggs looked so different. Right now these dainty white eggs with brown spots sit in the nest:
(Yes, the egg count is now up to five!)
I’ve finally gotten a glimpse of the parents and the verdict is in… we have House Finches living on our porch AGAIN this year! So much for my theory that the eggs belonged to a different species. I find it fascinating that two birds of the same species can have such radically different egg colors.
I find it even more remarkable that the mother and father birds are both able to fit inside the sugar bowl at the same time, sitting on top of the eggs. The sugar bowl can’t be more than three inches across at most. What little birds! I’m trying my darnedest to get a picture of that for you. (I need to set up a bird blind. There’s no fooling this mama bird!) Stay tuned!
As if the uncharacteristically warm weather wasn’t enough of a clue in, the surprise on our porch definitely is a sign that spring is here.
There’s a new bird’s nest in our wind chimes!
Last year a house finch lived in the re-purposed sugar bowl of our wind chimes and raised one nest of birds successfully in the spring. Unfortunately, the mama bird disappeared (and presumably died), abandoning her second clutch of baby birds. By the time we realized what was going on and checked on the babies, we were too late. They had also died.
Talk about witnessing life and death firsthand on our front porch!
It was a life-shaping experience for us, surprisingly more for me than for our young daughter. Her understanding and acceptance of the situation was a lesson for us all. She calmly said, “They died, Mama. It’s okay. There will be new baby birds.” Oh, how she was right.
I wasn’t sure this day would come, but here we are with with a different species of bird (that we have yet to identify!) moved into the nest and having laid (at last count!) three rather perfect little eggs.
I feel both excited and hesitant over this turn of events. Hopefully we’ll have a happy ending this year! And if we don’t, it’s a reminder that life goes on…
I’ve been putting off writing this post because I wasn’t sure how to share this gently. In the end I’ve decided to just put it all out there and share the story, as well as my feelings and thoughts on the experience. Here goes…
Remember this nest? Those perfect house finch eggs?
The eggs hatched and baby birds filled the nest. After a few days, however, we noticed that the mama bird had disappeared. Neither David nor I had seen her. By the time we checked on the babies, we were too late. They had, in fact, died. What to do? We decided to bury them in the field in front of our house.
I felt sad about their passing. As a mama myself, I couldn’t help but relate to the situation: a mama bird, because of forces presumably outside her reach, left her babies abandoned, unable to survive without her. This is nature. This is life. As a biologist, I know this. To witness it firsthand on our porch turned out to be challenging.
Our three year old accepted their passing with such grace and acceptance. “They died, Mama. It’s okay. There will be new baby birds.” And she’s right. We talk about life cycles every day. Everything that’s born will die.
As soon as we placed the birds in the field, I started to feel better. After all, haven’t burial rituals evolved to give us comfort? I knew the birds were gone, that there was nothing more we could do. Accept and move on… after all, there will be new baby birds. There will always be new baby birds.
It seemed so idyllic until the birds pooped all over the nest and turned this perfect picture into a gigantic mess.
Nevertheless we watched four little birds grow up and leave the nest and loved every minute of it. We thought that was it for the season.
Yet here we are several weeks later with a surprise. Mama House Finch has returned and laid five more eggs, her second clutch of the summer!
Such dainty, little pale blue spotted eggs.
Since the four baby birds of the first clutch barely fit in the nest,
we’re curious to see how five birds will fit! Stay tuned.
