{"id":801,"date":"2009-07-10T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2009\/07\/empty-nest.html"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:21:39","slug":"empty-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2009\/07\/empty-nest.html","title":{"rendered":"Empty Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356825935118493826\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 312px; height: 208px;\" src=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Yesterday we noticed that the baby birds were so crowded in the nest that they were leaning dangerously over the edge. You may recall that in June, a mother bird called a Phoebe built a nest on the ceiling fan on our front porch.<\/p>\n<p>Around noon, John snapped these pictures. We realized that the biggest one, the &#8216;bruiser bird&#8217;, seemed to have already flown away, but the parents were still flying back and forth to feed the others. I said to John, &#8220;They&#8217;re like kids who won&#8217;t move out of the house!&#8221; The nest was in tatters. My porch floor is covered in&#8230;well, you kn<a href=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds1a.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356825530373961106\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 310px; height: 206px;\" src=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds1a.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>ow.<\/p>\n<p>Then at 5 p.m, John let Shadow and Pierre out for their playtime. Pierre has been visiting the birds, chirping and meowing back at them, since they were hatched. He can&#8217;t get up there. He sits under the nest and chortles at the birds. They squeak back.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre raced over&#8230;and suddenly the babies FLEW!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356825943100158306\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 311px; height: 206px;\" src=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/birds2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>They raced in all directions, flying this way and that, bouncing into the rain gutters, up and over the roof, mother and father bird chirping after them.<\/p>\n<p>And a very disappointed kitty sat on the porch, staring up at an empty nest.<\/p>\n<p>The babies were still flying around the house last night. One flew into the siding but was fine &#8211; he or she flapped up and over and onto the roof. This morning, I saw three sitting on the garage roof. They are using the house as a launch pad, taking short flights up and about and then coming back to the safety of the roof. I am relieved to see all of them flying on strong, (fairly) sure wings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Pierre1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356825950388556242\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 393px; height: 266px;\" src=\"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Pierre1-300x203.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>It&#8217;s so funny how what really happens is different from the perception of what &#8220;should&#8221; happen. I imagined that the day the babies flew, we would watch them tentatively hop to the edge of the nest, give a few test flaps of their wings, and fly a few feet. This was what I thought &#8220;should&#8221; happen.<\/p>\n<p>Little did I know that Uncle Pierre would be the ones to teach the birds how to fly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we noticed that the baby birds were so crowded in the nest that they were leaning dangerously over the edge. You may recall that in June, a mother bird called a Phoebe built a nest on the ceiling fan on our front porch. Around noon, John snapped these pictures. We realized that the biggest&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2009\/07\/empty-nest.html\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"","restrict_content":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2301],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Empty Nest - Home Garden Joy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empty Nest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday we noticed that the baby birds were so crowded in the nest that they were leaning dangerously over the edge. 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