Rain Gryphon

Both of the juvenile Doves are still alive and doing well. I thought one had perhaps been eaten by one of the local Hawks when I found a feather on the driveway, but they're both still in good shape as of this afternoon. I went to sit on the front steps, and about 30 seconds or so after I came out, first one then the other emerged from the front shrubbery, where I'm assuming they took refuge when they saw the door opening. They keep about five or six feet distance, but otherwise seem fairly comfortable with my presence. Both were picking and scratching for food in quite a relaxed fashion after they saw it was only me. One (the younger? It's getting hard to tell now) did a really weird, elaborate wing stretch right in front of me.

Doves: "Meh. It's only him."

A dead Robin fledgling, from the family that nested in the maple tree out back. I'm just about certain he crashed and broke his neck on his first flight out of the nest. That's really sad to see, after his parents put so much love and work into rising him, but it's gonna happen. These guys put their nest at least 50 feet off the ground, which may have had a bearing on events. You just never see Robins nesting that high.

I'm pretty sure he died in a crash, since he hasn't been eaten by anything but insects. If a Raccoon or a Hawk got him, there'd be bones and feathers everywhere, just like he'd exploded. If you look closely, you can see the bony ring (sclerotic ring) of the eye still mostly in place, which you just don't see on a dead bird if birds or mammals have been eating at him.

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The Robins in the tree by the driveway (a different family) that I climbed up to see on Aug 14th. I apologize for the quality of the picture, but I was lucky to get even that. There are actually three babies in the nest - you can just barely see the top of the beak and eye orbit for the closest one. The other two watched me climb up, curious and not the least bit afraid, then begged for food as soon as I had my hand and camera above them. I shot this more or less blind. The third one, probably the wisest of the bunch, hunkered down and tried to hide. Immediately after I took this, the Mombird started in with the alarm call, and they all went down in the nest and tried to look invisible. That brown stuff on their beaks is just dirt. Their parents feed them largely on earthworms, so you get that. It's actually beneficial for them, as it starts them out with sand and little bits of grit for their gizzards before they even leave the nest.

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In the little tree (yew?) by the front door, the doves are raising what are almost certain to be the last baby birds of summer. Doves can only feed two babies at a time, so they start early, and end late, getting in four or five, sometimes even six, broods per summer.

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Here's DoveDad on Aug 22nd. One egg, perhaps even both, may already be hatched. I was very wary about getting too close and frightening him, since if he was sitting unhatched eggs, he might abandon them. He's giving me the "Oh shit! Does he see me?" look here.

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A week later, on Aug 30th. Both babies seem to be growing and healthy. The parents have put a lot of work into the babies at this point, and are unlikely to abandon them if I poke around the nest. The real danger here is frightening the babies, in which case they might fledge early, which juvenile birds will sometimes do if a predator finds the nest. These guys are just a few days too young for that to be an issue. I avoided showing much interest in their tree after this, just in case.

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The evening of Sept 4th. I missed the older chick fledging, but here's the younger one, still in the nest. I was pretty sure he'd leave either tonight or tomorrow morning.

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15 minutes later.
He's technically left the nest at this point, but is still sitting on the branch beside it. I feel fortunate to see this, as one usually doesn't. Half an hour later he'd flown away, probably into the shrubbery along the front of the house, which seems a very popular spot for young birds to shelter for a few days as they learn to fly.