Delights of Spring

I put up a nest box near my patio this year and a pair of Carolina Chickadees settled in.  I was delighted to find six hatched young when I checked the box on May 3rd after being away for a week at the New River Birding and Nature festival in West Virginia.

They were amazingly tiny, piled on top of each other, naked and pink.  But boy, did they change rapidly.  

I was lucky enough to be home sixteen days later when they each took their first flight.  This was a surprise. No fluttering stops and starts on the wing.  After a brief hesitation at the box opening, they just one-by-one took flight, zipping up to an oak's mid-canopy to waiting parents who rewarded with snacks.

Landing, on the other hand, was a different matter.  One fledgling grabbed a thatch of twigs for his landing and ended up upside down.  He looked down and around, as if to say, oops Mom, what now?

Sketch:  watercolor, ink and gouache on 9x6 pastel tonal paper.