Empty nest

Sunday I climbed up to check on the babies and noticed two things:

• Our wee visitors now appeared more feathery than fuzzy, although they still had some bald-looking patches.
• The nest was getting quite crowded.

That was the last time I was able to get a good look at them. When I came home from work on Monday, it was so hot that they were all hanging their heads over the side of the nest, panting. I didn't want to bother them.

Yesterday when I left for work, mom was perched on the edge of the nest. We enacted our ritual, her freezing, moving only enough to continually give me the evil eye, while I kept my head down, pretending like I wasn't looking at her or her nest.

When I called home during the day, Tony told me that he had seen both mom and dad perched on either side of the nest. This was new. I had frequently seen his bright colors in the trees of the front yard, but I'd never seen him near the nest, even though my research said he should've been helping with the feeding.

By the time I got home last night, the nest was bare. I could hear a baby cheeping somewhere in the yard, but dad got really agitated when I went looking for him, so I finally gave up.

Later, I noticed dad behaving oddly on our front patio. I'm still not sure if he was seeing his reflection in the glass, or the cats, or what exactly was going on. I headed outside again for another tour through the yard.

Heard a baby again. Saw mom and got the evil eye yet again. No visual confirmation on any of the little ones though.

All said, I suppose that's for the best. There's at least one cat that wanders the neighborhood, and if I could've found the little ones easily, I would've fretted all night about the cat finding them too.