Time to Leave the Nest Day OR Nature vs. Nurture

Linking up with Jen and all for the 7 Posts in 7 Days Challenge. (And for me, it will be a challenge, except I have a couple draft posts prepared, I just need to stay ahead of myself)

On our back deck, there is a bird nest in the rafters. It’s been there for two years now. On Tuesday, apparently the mama bird decided it was time for them to enter the world on their own and learn how to fly.  When I noticed them, there were two birds left in the nest and there were three more on the deck. Anyway, the dog was going crazy because she wanted to play with them.  As the evening went on, another one of the birds in the nest must have been pushed out. I tried to watch them but the mama and papa birds were going crazy because they could see me and the dog through the glass patio doors. When we went to bed on Tuesday night, four baby birds set a various places on our deck and one baby bird was left in the nest.

Wednesday morning, before I left for work, I didn’t see any of the baby birds on the deck, and the one was still left in the nest.  By the time I got home, two of the baby birds were back on the deck nestled together close to the house. And another was sitting on the track of the sliding glass doors.  Of course the dog was going crazy, she would have scratched through the glass if possible. I start getting concerned for the one baby bird left in the nest.  However, I could tell the mama and papa birds were still around.  I kept thinking should I help the last one out and set him gently on the deck? Or just let nature take its course.  I knew if I touched him he would probably be abandoned by mama and papa, but worried that he wasn’t going to get fed anyway.  I did nothing.



Thursday morning, I couldn’t find any of the other four baby birds, and the one in nest was still in the nest. When I got home, there were two of the original four baby birds on the deck again.  They were closer to the edge and were cuddled together.  Then I noticed that the mama and papa birds were feeding them, but they were also feeding the baby left in the nest.  At that point I started to relax a little about the poor baby left; I knew the parents were still feeding him.

 

 

Friday morning, there were no babies on the deck and I wasn’t sure if the nest baby was still there. As I watched Friday evening, I came to the conclusion that the baby bird left in the nest was finally gone.  The parents had left him there until he was ready.  Nature surely knows best.