Nest Two was located
in a hanging basket at my downstairs neighbor's front door. I could
look down into it each morning as I came down the stairs on the
way to work. At right is Mama Bird #2, an semi-suburban bird, residing
in Dekalb County, Georgia, 30319. As you can see, she wasn't too
keen on posing for pictures.
She was busy. She had
three very demanding mouths to feed, and spent most of her time
out foraging for them. They weren't picky about their food source,
either. When I would talk to them from the steps, they would open
their mouths like in the picture below, as if to say, "you
are a very large ugly bird, but we will let you feed us."
One night as I got home from work, my girlfriend and I noticed there appeared to only be two left in the nest. I looked at the concrete below, expecting something ugly, but there was no sign of the third chick. Hmmm.
It didn't hit me what was happening
until the next morning when I saw the scene at left: one lonely
concerned-looking chick, standing on the edge of the nest, contemplating
the two story drop below him. He was the final one to make his first
flight.
I snapped a few pictures,
and as soon as I got my camera back in my bag, Mama Bird #2 shows
up, landing on a nearby railing with a worm in her mouth. That was
the encouragement Junior needed, and he took the big leap. He landed
in some pine straw at the edge of the woods that I would imagine
are now his home. A fitting end to this little "found"
project.
Well, not quite. That afternoon on my way home, Mother
Nature arranged a parade of ducklings on the sidewalk of our condo
complex.
