Kerplop

The morning activity began with some sort of face-off in the driveway. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but could see a bird in the middle of the road. Went over. Oh, no!! A brand new fledgling. Sitting in the driveway was not an option, so I went close and coaxed the baby to the side of the driveway, the curb, hoping it could get liftoff into the grass. It couldn't do that. Instead it scurried-skittled along the edge of the step up. This wasn't a safe option either. I coaxed it back a bit and then it was able to get the 4" liftoff up into the grass. Much better. Hide in grass. Hide under plants. Anything better than getting squashed by a car or walked on. I had chores to do, so headed out to Broadway.

Back here an hour later, grabbed camera and went down to see how things were doing. There was no question about Papa finding and feeding baby. Parent very attentive. I went to garden and waited for sound. Cheep-cheep! Yes, there's baby sitting on branch being fed by Papa.

But this didn't seem right, because the new fledgling I had seen would never have been able to get up onto that branch. Waited. Ah, there goes another cheep-cheep! And there's new fledgling, call him Runner. Still on ground. Doing very nicely. Getting fed three times as often as Brancher.

Baby spent whole day running after Papa and Brancher spent whole day sitting in tree. I saw them at 8pm and this was still going on. The nest tree is right across the driveway.

Meanwhile baby sparrow has turned into a Budda.

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