Halleluia Chorus / Nestwatch Day#41

NOW the housewren nestlings make the noise I was waiting for. The nest came alive in my absence. I had guessed the nestlings would have fledged in the eleven days I was gone.

Two wide open mouths at a time, poking through the doorway. How many in all? Do they take turns coming to the door? Time will tell, but only if I'm here to see it. Moe tells me he first heard them four days ago. Today they make a constant chit chit chit chit even when their parents are away hunting food. And when one of the parents arrives at the door with a new delivery they go stark raving mad. Halleluia Chorus or me first, me first me first!

I thrill to find I'm home in time for their first out-flying---the better to discover what happens immediately thereafter. The brown headed nuthatches disappeard completely on the lucky day I observed their first fledge, at 10:15 in the morning, never to be seen again. Heard but not seen. I was under the impression they would have returned to their house for a few days---wrong again---as in so many of my guesses based on limited observation and knowledge. Their fledge was a surprise to me, just four days after I first heard them. What a glorious moment it was, though. That was before I turned my backyard journal into a blog. Sorry you missed it.

Now hoping to be more attentive to housewren fledglings, as I'm home for almost a month before next trip. Mama and Papa Small no longer enter the house with the pizza deliveries. They only poke their morsels into the gaping mouths in the doorway and take off again. The nestlings are running their parents ragged, never to be satisfied, not unlike human families. If you look closely at the photo by the header of this blog, you can see the gaping mouth of a nestling through the doorway. That photo was taken today. Will try to capture a clear one of the nestlings as they emerge. That would make me sing.

Perhaps today or tomorrow will be their big day. Let me not miss it while I go to house for binocs. dkm