our newest 'neighbors'

A few weeks back, I noticed that the column on our front porch started 'collecting' bird droppings.  When I looked up, I saw the early stages of the construction of a bird's nest.  We opted to let nature be nature and not disrupt the plans of this budding little birdie family.

I've been checking in on this momma bird daily, and had noticed her spending a lot of her time, well, 'nesting'.  I didn't want to bug her and be nosy, so I just observed from inside the house, pointing out the 'tweet tweet' to the kids.

Earlier this week, I noticed momma bird had 'flown the coop', so I climbed up on a stepstool to discover her sweet little chickies had hatched! 

The nest is too high for the kids to really see, so each day, I've been climbing up on the step stool to snap some photos so we can watch their little transformations.  Momma bird is usually close by, on the eaves of our neighbor's house, and I don't stay long.  Randy thinks I'm crazy, because he grew up in 'actual nature', so he doesn't quite see my excitement over these cute little babies--espeically my little friend who seems to like the camera best...

The kids have named her 'Chirpy' :)

There appear to be five little birds, however out of the five, I think the Brynn best represents Chirpy.  Always in the front of the nest, head peering out to observe what's going on in the world around the quaint little nest.  There are two other babies who seem to be pretty chill, one on each side of Chirpy, who are pretty similar to Gavin's personality.  Just sit back, relax, and every so often gain a little curiousity enough to peer his head out of the nest to check out the world.  Then, there's one toward the back of the nest, who strains her little neck so proud and tall, wanting to be just like Chirpy, only not in quite the right position to do so.  This would be the Raegan of the nest.  It's amazing how in the last few months, we have watched her transform from 'baby' to 'toddler', from 'learning' to 'I know this and can do it myself' (although, she still is learning...she likes to believe the latter!).

I find myself being like the momma bird at times...she hovered so much while they were little helpless eggs, leaving only rarely for her own nourishment needs.  Now, even in just this short week since the babies have hatched, she is venturing out for longer periods of time, trusting them to be able to rely on one another for support, and to be more independent.

I know that my kids and birds obviously have a very different rate of progression through the early stages of their lives into independent adulthood, but if you could correlate the timelines, I think they're pretty similar.

We're enjoying watching this progression of life each day, and the kids can't wait to open the door each day to wish the little family good morning and see the newest photos I take.  Randy has already made plans to craft some sort of a 'block' so this location will not become a possibility again next year for another bird family--his concern mainly being the effects of the bird droppings.  I see his point, but I also love watching this experience through the eyes of my kids.  I love that they get to see this little bit of God's miraculous work right on their front porch each day.

Hi Chirpy!