Life in Real Time
Seeing house finches fledge the nest
Hi, friends. Happy Friday!
I’m giving myself just 15 40 minutes with this post, wanting to share a fun and moving occurrence from my front yard this morning. We’ve had a family of house finches living on the underside of the front porch awning recently.
This morning, I took our dog, Annie, into the yard and found that one had fledged the nest. It was right there on the front walk, probably wondering how to steer clear of us. It squeezed through a gap in the gate. This was at about 10:50 a.m.
I had an 11:00 meeting, so I set up my phone to record activity around the nest. At 12:30 or so, I popped downstairs and scanned the video. The other chicks were still there. Why is there always one that says, “That’s it…I’m going,” so much faster than the others?
I decided I would record again. As I was fiddling with my phone, mom and dad finch popped back up to the nest. The endless encouragement they offer at this phase must be exhausting. They would appear, fly away, and reappear again and again throughout morning and, now, into the afternoon. This time, though, FOUR birds emerged from the nest! They fluttered about the front porch, and I was witnessing what felt like a miracle. It doesn’t matter that this happens all the time everywhere. What mattered was that I was there to see the babies that were living on my front porch take flight for the very first time.
I could have seen it on playback on a 3” x 6” screen, but instead I was feet away witnessing this wonder in real time. Life is happening right in front of us and all around us, my friends. Sometimes we catch the playback. Sometimes we don’t notice at all. Others, we actually bear witness.
I took my lunch from the other side of the window. Here’s a two-minute slice of life after the birds had fledged. There’s nothing too exciting here…just a sliver of the day’s activities. The nest is out of view, and this may be a good thing. It’s falling apart. There’s poop on the ground all around it. It basically looks like it’s been through a lot over the last few weeks. Still, mom and dad keep hanging around the nest, appearing to be asking, “Now what?” I know I’m anthropomorphizing here, but I have a deeper appreciation for the term “empty nest” as of this afternoon.
Still here? Here’s a post I wrote on the topic of fledging the nest a few years ago.
In Other News
It’s a typical spring at Cycle Forward. I’ve been to Alabama, State College, and Ritchie County, WV in the last eight days. Next week, I’ll be in Lewisburg, PA and WV again. Most (but not all) of this travel relates to the Parkersburg to Pittsburgh (P2P) Corridor Master Plan project. Learn more about the project, take our community survey, and register for an upcoming meeting here. More on all of these trips – including Alabama’s first Trail Town conference and PA’s first Outdoor Economy Summit – soon! In the meantime, if you live in Appalachia, now is the time to get started on your Appalachian Leadership Institute application.
Aw, what a sweet little slice of life! 🥰 Safe travels!