Sunday, July 13, 2014

Outdoors -- the poor parents

Usually birds lay a bunch of eggs, but they only raise one chick of each brood to maturity.
Still, they usually have at least two broods in a season.
And they breed for 5-10 seasons.
Many years ago I did happen to see a pair of mockingbirds with two chicks out of the nest at the same time, but that was an exception.
Except maybe for mockingbirds.
Because my mockingbirds have hatched their second brood of the season.
And they are raising two chicks this time around!
I thought I heard two chicks calling, sometimes one from each side of the house.
I thought it was two mated pairs, each with one chick.
Friday I saw both chicks sitting on my back fence at the same time.
The same parent was feeding both of them.
For us, the plus is that it takes so many bugs to feed one chick, and twice as many for two.
So our yards are going to be almost bug free.
And nobody can complain about that!
Except the poor exhausted parents who have to feed those eating machines!

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

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