Project on Hold

After completing the roof on the back of the house, featured in an earlier post. Kevin and Cameron were going to begin the stucco on the side.  This however has had to be put on temporary delay as we have little ones to wait on.

Stock photo of a wrentit

It seems a mama and papa wrentit pair found the corner indention in the support post a perfect nesting place.  Honestly it's so tiny of an area who would have thought they could have fit in there themselves let alone built this perfectly ordered nest and filled it with 5 tiny blue green eggs.

Corner support opening only measures 2"X 3"

Began noticing awhile back that everytime I walked past the end of the house when watering the garden a bird flew off. It took awhile to realize they were nesting there and by the time we did we already had eggs inside, so the stucco project is on hold until they all hatch and fly away.  In the meantime it's been homeschool lesson time.  The nest is too high for the girls to see into it so I climb the step ladder each morning and snap photos to mark the progress.  Needless to say mama and papa bird aren't too happy with me and sit in the nearby tree, or on the roof of the house and barn making the tat, tat, tat chirp that is associated with this bird.

First hatchling and two of the 5 eggs can be seen here

Backgound shows remnants of old foam insulation maybe we should have left in
place. Never thought birds would nest here.

3 babies huddled into one fuzzy ball

Todays shot shows all 5 huddled together in a mix of the bald pink
and fuzzy grey downy feathers.

Zoomed in to take a shot of mom and dad at the top of
 the barn, not too happy with me!

Our birdwatching lesson has taught us that these birds are known for their unique chirp. They are monogomous with both male and female participating in the nest building and care of their young.

As the eggs began to hatch we had the combination of bald and a bit fuzzy little birds that are so ugly they're cute.  It's been a bit challenging getting pictures because of the angle and small opening of the area they are in.  It seems all the eggs have hatched now and according to what we've read it will be about 15 days until they are grown and leave the nest.  I'll post more updates as they continue to grow.