On The Fence About Leaving

When we left our baby Kestrels in yesterday's post with the first two to leave the nesting box looking up to see who would join them.

After a few minutes their brother stepped up to the opening - looked directly at the camera and put on a show for me. A show I would have to entitle - "Not So Fast."

The following are a small sample of over 50 photos of him about to leave the nest, then return to the safety of the nest and repeat for 20 minutes or so before taking the plunge. 

Both feet out

Squeeze the left wing out

With both wings and one foot out I can only imagine how hard his right foot and tail were working to keep him in the box.

He went back in for a rest

He folded both wing to get back in the box

A moment after folding both wings to get back in the box he turned and  took flight.

"Here goes nothing"

Upon arrival his brother, on the right, looked on quizzically as his brother went through the same balancing act he had used earlier in the morning.

Interestingly, we watched all five Kestrels exit the box (we did miss the first female's departure) but never saw them return to the box. With five nearly full sized birds it must have been an extremely tight fit in the nesting box. Once out I cannot imagine they wanted to squeeze back in.

We spent the next week or so glued to the backyard activities - we would have to search for the babies because they were anywhere and everywhere. They spent the first day unable to muster the strength to get very far from the fence and trees nearby. The next morning we noticed that the adult male undertook feeding the same three babies  - which begged the question - what happened to the other two and the Mom. We speculated that the newly minted aviators didn't have the strength to leave with her...so did they meet an unfortunate end overnight? Coyotes? Dogs? Cats? We never answered that question and instead found ourselves laughing at the baby Kestrel hi-jinx.

A favorite memory that summer was seeing the three babies sitting in a neighbor's abandoned straw window planter. The three sat side by side bobbing their heads in unison as their Dad approached with food. He fed each one in turn bringing in voles from the hillside. The sight of those three bobbing their heads like the Three Stooges will resonate with me forever.

I hope you enjoyed the Kestrel saga - it was a special summer for Holly and me.

My plan is to break out some of the owl photos from this winter before the weekend.