We're 'Empty Nesters'!

DOTH (Daughter of the House) and I nurtured them like they were our very own:
We were devastated when we found a smashed blue-freckled egg in the garden: But we rejoiced to see that three had survived (although we could never get a photo of all three heads bobbing at once!)

We crept in and out of the house, so's not to disturb them.

We cleaned up after them (lots of white splotches, and empty worm skins everywhere)

We kept an eye out for predators (those nasty but beautiful Blue Jays, and hawks circling overhead)

We resisted the temptation to sit out there on the patio, even during beautiful weather, so that mom would not hesitate to bring those juicy tid-bits at mealtimes:

And what happened? They left -- without even saying 'good-bye.'

Well, we were able to quickly say 'farewell' to this one -- who flew out of the nest when DOTH opened the patio door one morning:

We do hope he (or she) fared well, as when he lurched out of the nest, he didn't get very far in the air, landing in the grass. Then he toddled off through the fence into the neighbour's garden and that's the last we saw of him.

And then there were two:

We caught a quick glimpse of baby number 2, as he did virtually the same thing; flew to the grass and was gone. We never did see the third baby leave -- and all we have left to show for their visit (besides more white splotches everywhere to clean up) is this:
Well, it was fun while it lasted; our contribution to the maintenance of the ecological system, I guess.

And we got some great photos. This is my favourite:

Baby on left: "Mo-om, you're squishing me!"

Baby on right: "Mo-om, you're pinching my bum!"

Gotta go do some cleaning up.