Saturday, June 6, 2009

Baby Birds

Early this spring, I'd noticed that there were some stray twig-like things on top of the light fixture on my balcony. And I kind of watched out for it for a while, as it grew into a bird nest. I forgot about it for quite a while, then one Saturday, I woke up at around 6:00 am to the sound of knocking on my outside wall. (I live on the fourth floor.)
At first, I was seriously annoyed that the apartment maintenance was out there working at 6:00 on a Saturday morning, and I was all set to let them have it. (Yes, the noise was that loud, and really, the bird was not a woodpecker, so I think I can be forgiven.) I walked out on the balcony to look around at where they were working, and there was no one there. Then I saw the bird nest and remembered. I also looked down and saw a small piece of an egg shell, so I knew in no uncertain terms that I had to make sure the nest wasn't disturbed until the eggs hatched and were able to fly away ... of course, I had no idea how I would know when the baby birds had flown away if I was busy not-disturbing them.
Memorial Day Weekend, I was showing my mom and sister around, and we went out on the balcony, but first I made sure to jiggle the knob loudly. At that point, the eggs had surely not hatched yet. And Memorial day itself, I was going to set myself up on the balcony --- guess I forgot to not-disturb the babies --- but as I was setting up, Mommy Bird made her presence known and I decided I didn't want robin-poop on my computer, TV table, drink, snacks etc.
Anyway, a couple days ago, I decided to check on them again, but this time, from the safety of the bedroom window. I turned the slots in the shade to peer through, and sure enough, the eggs had hatched.


It looks like there are four birds here. Now, all I have to do is wait for the nest to empty.