Baby Birds

I love nature and animals of all kinds.  Before moving to St. Albert I lived on a secluded acreage of 6 acres.  I loved the trees and not being able to see any neighbors.  I had horses, dogs, cats, chickens and ducks.  The other benefit of living surrounded by trees is you get lots of deer and moose cruising through your yard.  I also had many feeders to attract birds.  Unfortunately my ex and I separated and we had to sell the place I loved and had lived for 15 years.

I moved into the city temporarily but longed for a house with a big yard.  I had never lived or been to St. Albert much, but the few times I had I was really attracted to all of the trees and parks.  I bought this house in the oldest part of the city.  The yard didn't have any flowers or much appeal, but it did have some massive spruce trees in the very back part of the yard.  I started adding flowers, plants and a couple of fountains.

At first I hardly saw any birds, but once the fountains got rolling, I started seeing more and more.  The robins came and made nests and this year I counted up to 15 cedar waxwings in my back fountain drinking and bathing at once.  This was so exciting to me, to see "wildlife" again, and it made this place more like home.

Then I noticed a blue jay nest in the tree.  One morning I noticed two blue birds bobbing around in our shade garden.  I went outside and realized they were two fledgling blue jays that were learning how to fly.  They were one the ground and the mom was following them around hovering from above.  She would go into a frenzy when i got to close and she would bring them food.

I kept going outside and watching to make sure neighborhood cats didn't come around and get my new charges.  They stayed on the ground for about 2 full days, so they are so vulnerable.  One evening i went to check on them and they were behind my garage on some old branches sleeping.  I got a picture of them that you might enjoy.

One looked right at me, the other had his head under his wing sleeping.

Then the next morning they were gone up into the trees above, they made it...at least for now!