When we sat the high chair out on the carport, with plans to wash it off the next weekend to sell it at a consignment sale, we had no idea it would be quite a while longer before we could do anything with it.
Because when we went to move it, we saw that a sweet mama bird built a nest in its seat. And of course, we had to leave it be.
I’m not sure what kind of bird it is…maybe a brown thrasher? Maybe you can tell from the photos. She laid four eggs. My son and his friend decided to remove one of the eggs and told me about it after the fact. I was not happy about it, at all. They only wanted to watch it develop and see if they could hatch it. Needless to say, Eli got a lengthy lesson about birds from me.
We candled the egg — no bigger than a peanut M&M — and didn’t see the shadow of an embryo inside, so it might’ve been infertile anyway. But Eli felt terrible for removing the egg, and became very protective over “his” nest. He was so excited the day he peeked inside and saw the eggs had hatched.
Three eggs became three ugly, pink, featherless, bug-eyed little things. It’s been fascinating to watch their daily progress, right there on our carport. When Eli had his friend Joanie over, they brought the mama bird fat caterpillars and much to our surprise, she snatched them up in her beak, ate them, then fed her babies.
In no time, they started sprouting downy poufs on their little bodies and their bulging eyes opened.
Then they grew tiny feathers and their beaks went from short and wide, to narrow, long and yellow, like their mother’s.
I added numbers on their foreheads so you can see them clearly:
When I’m in the kitchen, I hear them chirping and I know it won’t be long now til they fly away. Eli is preparing himself for that…but I know we’re going to miss them.