Season of the Young

On June 7, our older niece gave birth to her second son. He arrived two days after her birthday and 15 days before that of his older brother.

House wren (Margo D. Beller)

In the avian world, June is a good month for babies, too. The birds that have flown into their breeding territories in April or May have found a nest site and a mate and then the eggs were hatched. Now, whether I am hiking or just sitting on the porch, I have been hearing very young birds either calling from their nests or following their parents around begging to be fed.

Some of these birds nest in the shrubs that border my yard. I don't look for nests - it is hard enough for me to find adult birds darting around in the foliage -  although I've found a few by accident or later in the year when the leaves come down and I see where the nest had been hiding. 

Today, from my porch, I heard the buzzy chirps of young chipping sparrows following a parent around the yard. A few days earlier, at the Great Swamp, a female redwing blackbird flew out from a bush and I heard begging calls. With my binoculars I could see the wide-open mouths of three very hungry blackbird babies. Just off the parking lot a man with a giant telephoto lens pointed out the rubythroated hummingbird female sitting on her tiny, lichen-encrusted nest, which he saw after someone else happened to see the female fly in and then showed him where to look. I expect to start seeing females at my feeder who need food energy to spend long hours on their eggs. Females do all the work; once they've mated, the male hummingbirds are no longer involved and start migrating south as early as July.

Unlike my niece, who carried her growing son for nine months and will rear him for many years, the birds have a much shorter time frame to create the next generation and teach them to survive on their own.

Take the house wrens using the box I put up in my backyard apple tree every year. According to the Audubon Field Guide, once the female wren lays her eggs it can take anywhere from 12 to 15 days for them to hatch, and then it will be another 12 to 18 days before the young are big enough to fledge, at which point they will fly around after their parents while they learn to feed themselves.

Another year's hummingbird at my feeder (Margo D. Beller)

I can't see into the wooden nest box but recently I have seen the female flying in and out of the box, so I believe she is on eggs, leaving every so often to get a meal or let the eggs cool off if the day is too hot. The male sings gently from the apple tree, more forcefully when he perceives a threat. Once the young are hatched I will see a lot more activity as both male and female shuttle back and forth from the box to the lawn to feed them insects. As the young grow the parents won't be able to fit inside the box and so will hang on the outside as the two or three young crowd the entry hole, begging for food. The parents will try to feed all of them but those that fight hardest to be fed will be guaranteed to survive once they leave the nest.

House wrens have two broods a year but in my yard the box is generally only used once because by the time the first brood leaves the apples are ready to be picked, either by the squirrels climbing up the tree or me using an extension pole to bring the fruit down. The skittish wrens go elsewhere. Then, as the summer ends it is time for these little birds to fly south for the winter.

When this winter comes around my newest grand-nephew may be just starting to sit up by himself but it will be a long time before he is able to move around, feed himself and leave the nest.