The cat came back

There is a song that was written many years ago with words that go something like this:

"The cat came back.......he didn't stay away
The cat came back........the very next day"

When I went to bed on Sunday night, the two remaining baby birds were fine. At midnight I went out by flashlight to check on them and found that they were okay. However, when I got up Monday morning, the nest was empty.

While I am sorry that this blog is ending this way, it is a good example of the cycle of life. Last year the birds in the nest that I photographed grew to maturity and did just fine. This year however, a predator was able to get to this nest. There are many great lessons that we can learn from this experience, perhaps one of them being that many things happen that are out of our control. Perhaps this lesson alone has been of value to us all.

Thank you for looking into this blog.

I thot I thaw a puddy tat....I did I did I did

A steady rain kept the nest quiet for most of the morning but when I went to check the nest in the early afternoon on Monday I was surprised to find only two babies. Both of them were hungry and anxious to eat.


I decided to check the bush and the ground to see if I could find the third baby. My thoughts were that just maybe one had fallen out of the nest and was on the ground and that just maybe I could save it. To my amazement I saw a cat snuggled at the base of the bush. After taking a picture, I chased the cat away and now will have to keep my eye open for his return. The next couple of weeks could be long.


A few minutes later Puddy Tat was sitting on a neighboring bank thinking through strategy.

When is supper served?

At 6 PM on Sunday night I checked on the new arrivals and found them eager to be served supper.

Life begins

I took one final look to see if the third egg had hatched late Saturday night. The two new babies were resting and the egg was intact


The first thing I did on Sunday morning was to go out to check the nest and once again I was rewarded by finding the third baby laying in the nest.



Meanwhile the mother is watching me closely to see if everything is alright. She does not seem to be overly concerned with the attention that I am giving to the nest.

Two eggs hatch

I had checked the nest this morning and posted that there was no change. Now at 6:30PM I checked the nest and two tiny little birds are hatched. They are cute and ugly at the same time. Already when I pull the bush back to sneak the camera inside, they are opening their mouths for food. Hopefully the third egg will hatch soon.

Amazingly, the mother is very tolerant of me being around the bush this evening. I thought that once the babies had hatched, she might try to scare me off. I believe she remembers me from last year and knows that I will do no harm to the babies.

No change

It is a beautiful Saturday morning in Virginia and I have checked the nest to find no change. The parents continue to watch my moves each time I check anywhere near the bush.

Since I first discovered the eggs, it has been 9 full days. This means that most likely the babies should hatch the first of the week and no later than Thursday. we will see.

Still waiting

There is no change at the Mockingbird nest.....just three cute little eggs laying there perfectly still. Mother or Father Mockingbird let me know they are watching each time I check.

On Tuesday, the shrubs and bushes are scheduled to be pruned and I plan to be standing guard to make sure this bush does not get disturbed. I hope they come around when I am here.

The nest

My research for the Mockingbird indicates that the nest is made up of dead twigs that are lined with grasses, rootlets, and dead leaves. This nest is placed in a shrub or tree, usually 3-10 feet high.

The nest we are observing is located in a shrub and is exactly 5'8" off the ground, well hidden from view.

This picture of last year's nest shows the materials used and even includes some cigarette filter material. This year's nest also has a cigarette butt lining the nest.

The eggs remain nestled in their location this morning, with no change evident yet.

Waiting for the eggs to hatch

I am very careful not to check the Mockingbird's nest too often, just to make sure that the parents do not get upset. Any time I am checking, I never see the adult birds until I am at the nest and then they will suddenly appear, usually on the roof gutter above.

So far, the eggs have not hatched. They are supposed to take 12-13 days to come out of their shell. I discovered them on Thursday, April 17th and I am not sure how long they had been there before then. However, we will probably have a bit of a wait before we see that they have arrived.





A class in North Carolina wanted to know how I knew the eggs were from a Mockingbird. This is an excellent question and one that I found the answer to last year. There are two main reasons to know that this is a Mockingbird. The first one being that I have seen the adult birds and they are typical Mockingbirds in both their looks and actions. The characteristics of this species is that they have two white wingbars that show up as large white patches when they are in flight. I took this picture last year when one of the adults was flying over me. Notice the white patches on the wings that are visible there.

The second reason I know that these are Mockingbirds is because their eggs are supposed to be bluish green, spattered with shades of brown. Most definitely these eggs can exactly be described in this way.




So we wait for the time when our new little birds will make their appearance in the nest that is located in this bush in front of my townhouse.

Discovering the nest

A year ago a family of birds built a nest in a bush in front of my house. I discovered it with three cute babies living there, anxious to be fed. Over the next several days I followed their progress and took pictures. My research helped me to determine that this was a Mockingbird family.

I wondered if the family would return this year and was disappointed when I thought they had found another place to build their nest. I left the old nest intact last year thinking that they might return to it, but no such luck.

About a week ago, I found one of the adult Mockingbirds perched on the hood of the Toyota truck that I park in front of my townhouse. He was sitting there looking in at my house, just as he had often done exactly a year ago. This made me hopeful that just maybe they had built a nest again. However, my search in the bush that day didn't reveal any new nests and the old nest was still vacant.

On Thursday, (April 17th), I was getting into my truck having left the house when I realized a bird had just flown out of the bush. Was the nest now in place? Carefully I walked over to discover the new nest with three perfect eggs.





I will be posting every weekday until the babies have gone through the process of hatching, growing and then leaving the nest. If you have questions, please post them and I will try to answer them.