Empty nest syndrome.....

Hello everyone

**Note this is a long awaited update to our post about the sunbirds.  As this has taken me (Kate) so long, we have since had a few families use this nest but the following are the original family who built it. We have some very patient readers who have been desperately waiting for news and have probably given up all hope of me ever posting anything...I do not blame you and I apologise profusely for the delay.**

Our birds did indeed lay an egg in their precious nest, only the one.  But she (all the babies are female in our girls minds) grew and grew being fed day in day out by mama.  

As soon as night fell mama would settle herself in and just sit gazing at us as we came in and out our front door, not flinching. It was truly gorgeous...

One day we were literally walking in the door, and mama was off finding food, and the little baby just decided OK today is the day to fly the nest... and right there in front of us she jumped and tried to fly but plummeted to the ground. Panicking I tried to pick her up and pop her back in the nest thinking she wasn't ready (it is a myth that mothers will automatically abandon their babies if you touch them - however it is advisable not to).  But no, she knew she was ready and just flew off, hovering 3 feet from the ground but flying none the less.  She made it all the way to the trampoline in the yard and just clung on.

Mama wasn't far away and within minutes she came and fed her...

After a little while she flew off up to a tree and that was that, our baby had gone...

Our girls were so upset when they got home from school. But so thankful that she decided to fly the nest while I was here to see it and capture it on camera...what luck!

K xx

PS. From Col - Since beginning this blog post, there have been more families through the nest (5 or 6 but we are losing count), plus some minor infrastructure works in and around the nest. Each bird adds to the nest, and sometimes depending on the time of the year, Kate has to put up some protection for the nest to shield it from the Western sun. Given we are back focusing on renos I'll leave you with some shots from recent residents of the "Nest 'neath the Bell"...