Fw: Backyard Babies

Hello Kristy, It has now been 3 days since my latest backyard birding adventure has ended so I need to write to you before my feeble brain forgets the chain of events. Last Monday Mom came up for a tour of the gardens and a hunt for butterflies. As we rounded the south corner of my house we noticed a baby bird up against my foundation. Upon close examination we realized it was a Cedar Waxwing. I was not aware they had nested in my yard so I was quite surprised to see it. It must have fallen out of one of the nearby spruce trees because it did not have a real ability to fly, only flutter/hop. We assumed the parents were close by and continued our walk around the yard. We made sure that Elsa was in the house. About 30 minutes passed and as we climbed back up from the lower gardens to the back yard we realized the baby bird had become two! Two baby Cedar Waxwings and no adult birds in sight. Where were they coming from? So, we set up lawn chairs at a distance to watch. The two birds were inseparable. One hopped, the other followed. One fluttered, so did number two. They managed to cross about 30 feet of lawn with no particular destination in sight, and no parents either. After about an hour Mom decided to go home and I needed to mow the lawn so I picked them up and put them about 5 feet off the ground in my crab apple tree on the edge of my property. I proceeded to mow my backyard for about the next 90 minutes and when I went back to find them, they were not in the tree. However, they were peeping incessantly close by and I located them clinging to a peony plant. I guessed they were quite hungry by this time since it had been 3 hours since we first found them. I decided to feed them. Knowing Cedar Waxwings eat berries I decided to cut up some seedless grapes and feed them with tweezers. I gathered the babies up, set them on my picnic table and alternately fed each bird. Voracious appetites greeted my little grape pieces. When they were full I put them in a hemlock tree at the edge of the woods. As it was now dusk I thought they would settle in for the night. I kept hoping Mom and Dad waxwing would show up.

The next morning I went out to the woods in bathrobe and garden clogs to check on my charges. They were not in the hemlock where I had left them but I followed their peeping and found them both in separate shrubs about a foot off the ground some ten feet from where they had spent the night. They were wide-eyed and hungry. So, before I had my morning coffee I'm outside feeding grape pieces to "my kids". Then I decided that they were on the opposite side of the yard from where I had first found them. I transfered them back to the big spruce tree near my house so Mom and Dad waxwing could find them. I went off to work feeling pretty satisfied with myself and hoping the parents birds would take over.

When I came home from work they were not where I had left them again, but by listening for their peeping sounds I found one in another spruce tree and one in a tall mugo pine. Now when I approached they both opened their mouths wide. I guess I was starting to look like an acceptable Mom-substitute. So, back into the house I went to cut up more grapes and find my tweezers. These babies still were not flying, but they were able to hop and flutter enough to get themselves about 5 feet off the ground. I still had not seen or heard adult waxwings though, which was beginning to worry me. Could I keep them fed for enough days for their wings to develop and keep them out of danger if they had been deserted? I knew I would keep trying (and continue to keep my cat in the house!!) By the time dark came they had found a branch about 6 feet off the ground and were huddled together.

Next morning I was back out there at 5:45 am to check on my kids. I had a hard time finding them this morning. They weren't peeping yet and they had moved. The mugo pine has a crop of pine cones which looked deceptively like baby birds in the early morning light. As my eyes studied each branch I finally spied them, still huddled together, but 2 feet off the ground. As I approached they started to peep like crazy and open their mouths wide. Time for more grapes. I made sure they had a good breakfast and were nestled high off the ground before I went off to work.

Upon returning home that night I found the yard to be silent. I stood under my trees scanning for my babies to no avail. Suddenly a loud peep let out right near my ankle and I looked down to see one of my kids staring up at me with mouth wide open. Try as I might I could not find the other so I fed the one I had found. Then I heard a whistling noise overhead and spied an adult waxwing in the top of a beech tree. I was elated that they had been found at last. I went off to the lake for a paddling outing convinced that my orphanage was no longer needed. When I came home from the lake I looked for them one more time and found the two babies huddled together in one of my hemlocks, about 25 feet from where I had left the one earlier in the evening. They were definitely getting more mobile.

The next morning I ran out to the hemlock and the two babies were still nestled together in the same spot and very much wide- eyed. They were too high for me to get to them to feed and I had high hopes that their parents would now take over. I went off to work confident my job was done. When I got home from work I rushed over to the hemlock and the birds were gone. I called Mom to give her the day's update and while on the phone I thought I heard a familiar peep coming from the far side of the yard. After hanging up the phone I walked the perimeter listening for the heartwarming sound. It was constant but not easy to tell where it was coming from. I rounded the corner of our shed and stood in the driveway next to our pile of wall stone. All of a sudden a peep was heard and it was really close. I looked down and one of my kids was sitting on top of a stone, blending in perfectly if not for the bright yellow band on the tail. I started to reach down and it opened its mouth wide. This time I took it in the house for a quick meal of blueberries. It flew from my counter to the window sill, obviously trying out ever-improving wings. After a hefty dinner I took it back outside and left it on an extension ladder that hung on the side of the shed facing the woods, very near to where I had found it. No sign of the other sibling. As I headed off to the lake I wondered if I would see it again. It had been a 5 day journey for us but I sensed it was coming to an end. When I returned my baby was gone and the peeping had stopped. Neither bird has been seen since. However, it was a heartwarming few days and I have pictures to remind me of the adventure. One glimpse and I smile all over again.