Oh boy. Those robin hatchlings turned out to be a lot further along then we thought. Yesterday, I came home and saw a strange bird on the nest. He had spots on his orangish /red breast! Which made me realize he was one of the hatchlings - only he was now a fledgling.

He hopped out of the nest and onto some nearby pvc pipe. He looked around. He looked down. He hopped around the rafters of the car port some more. All of the sudden he took off! He made it to the oak tree! Yeah little bird!

I looked up in the nest and only saw one little beak peeking up. The others had gone, and then he was gone this morning.

"Whaddaya mean they're gone?!" The Hub asked in genuine alarm when I told him.

"They're fledged. They're birds now. They're outta the nest."

"Are they coming back?" he asked. ( sometime I'll post a picture of The Hub. You have to picture this 6 ft. 4" guy with "handyman arms", broad shoulders, and salt and pepper hair saying all of this)

"They might, but not for long. You'll see 'em around the yard though. Look for the spotted breasts and short tails."

"But the nest! That's their home! Birda worked so hard on it! What about Birda? Is she coming back?"

"I don't know. Maybe she'll lay her next eggs in the same nest. That is if we didn't drive her crazy taking photographs"

"But wait! How do we know they'll be all right? There's cats out there! I just saw Fat Freddie ( that's the neighbors cat) out there this morning!"

"Honey, they're BIRDS! They're wild birds. They can fly. Really, the one I saw looked great, he had...good form. I mean, he looked pro when he took off. Birda did a good job with them."

"Aww man! I wish I'd said good-bye. I had things to tell them." he grumbled and then went out of the house.

I didn't ask what. I suppose it was personal.