Baby Birds

A little over a week ago I was in our front yard watching the kids play and I could hear some very faint baby bird chirping. It was so sweet and sounded so close! Last year we had a nest up in one of our rain gutters outside Carli's room so I ran inside and up to her room to peak out the window. I thought maybe they were in there again (those never hatched, unfortunately, because of a huge storm and the mommy bird never came home), but it was empty. I went back out and looked in our front tree, but no luck there, either. The sound stopped and I gave up.

The next evening I was out and could hear the birds again. They had to be in our yard! I hunted around in our bushes and finally found the tiny little things in our bush/tree (I have no idea what kind of plant it is) right by the porch. There were 3 little tiny beaks open as wide as they could go chirping for food. How sweet! I knew the mother had just been there (I saw her fly out of the bush) so I knew they were being taken care of. I had the kids come look at them one at a time and very carefully and quietly. They were all thrilled! How neat is it to find 2 brand new baby birds in their nests in a place where they can see them easily?! Here are some photos of "our" birds. How fun are they?! I was looking forward to watching them grow and change and letting the kids have that experience.

Sunday we came home from church (2 days after finding the birds) and the kids all wanted to go check on the birds. Brandon and Kate were the first over to the tree and they kept saying they couldn't find them. I told them I'd be right over to show them where they were. The nest was hidden in the branches pretty well. I went over and I knew right where to look, but to my horror there were no baby birds! The nest was still there, however it was pulled down to the side and there were some feathers hanging around from the mother bird. Just behind the nest was a tiny little egg, one that had not hatched, that had fallen out of the nest when it was "attacked." We were all so sad that our little birds were gone. I instantly knew what had happened. We have had 2 or 3 stray cats wandering our neighborhood the past couple of weeks and I knew one of them must have gotten our baby birds. How awful!