VACANCY

I was sitting out on our deck, eating breakfast with my husband Steven and our son Alex, when I noticed a tiny bird sitting on the ground. A larger bird was swooping down towards it, chirping frantically then landing on a tree limb only to swoop back over to the baby over and over again.

“Oh, my gosh!” I said as I pointed to the bird on the ground. “I’ve never seen this before but I think we’re watching a fledgling leave the nest for the first time!”

Our birdhouse, which usually housed black-capped chickadees each year, had a family of house wrens this year.

I’d always loved watching the black capped-chickadees and at first was a little disappointed when the house wrens moved in. Their vocalizations and calls were much louder than the chickadees, almost demanding that we take notice of them.

Alex turned around in his seat. “Are you sure?” he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I can’t be positive but it looks that way to me.”

The Mama bird swooped down once more and the tiny bird tentatively started to flap its wings and awkwardly flew over to a lower branch of a tree.

“You go Mama!” I cried as the Mama bird followed the baby to the tree. A few more chirps and the baby was hopping up the tree branch by branch.

That’s when Alex spotted another baby sitting next to our lilac bush. “There’s another one!” He pointed over to the tiny bird.

Mama bird wasn’t far behind swooping around the new fledgling once again chirping her encouragement.

“She’s a busy little thing.” I said as I took a bite of my egg sandwich.

I looked over at the birdhouse and could see another house wren standing on the roof watching all the action. “Well, there’s the proud Papa.” I said as I pointed to the house.

“How can you be sure which one is the female and which is the male? They both have the same coloring.” Steven asked.

I shrugged my shoulders again. “I guess I’m just assuming.”

Steven looked over at Alex and tipped his head towards me. “Sounds like someone is being a bit sexist to me.”

Alex looked over at me and raised his eyebrows and started to laugh. “Yup.”

“Oh, come on!” I cried. “You two are being ridiculous!”

But they had a point. I really didn’t know which one was the male and which one was the female so I decided to cover my bases. “Great parenting from both of you!” I called.

“That’s better.” Steven said as he took a bite of his egg sandwich.

“So….” I cleared my throat. “Now that there’s a vacancy in the birdhouse do you think house wrens or black-capped chickadees will move in next?”

“I’m hoping for the black-capped chickadees.” Alex said. “They’re a lot quieter than these guys.” He pointed over to the house wren still standing on the roof of the birdhouse calling out to it’s young. “These guys make way too much noise. It’s like we’ve been living next to a party house for the last few weeks!”

“I have to agree with you there.” I sighed. “The black-capped chickadees are a lot quieter.”

Steven started to laugh. “You just like saying black-capped chickadees.”

I couldn’t help but smile and nod my head. “I have to admit their name is adorable!”