WRITEPHOTO – Fledgling

Posted on August 25, 2022 by pensitivity101

KL Caley is our host and this week her photo is a tiny fledgling.

Fledgeling – Image by KL Caley

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a tiny bird hiding in a plant pot.

My tale is about Kamikaze Pete and a dog called Barney.

We’d put up three tit boxes on the back fence and called them Tit Terrace.
We had interest in Tit 1 and 2, but Tit 3 was never sniffed at, or not while we were looking.
Tit 1 soon had lodgers and it was fascinating watching the blue tits taking the nesting materials in to line their nest. Later it was just one tit delivering worms to the other sitting on the brood.
We never interfered, other than shooing off a jay and two magpies trying to get into the box, and on May Bank Holiday afternoon, I counted 15 fledglings emerge.

We were watching TV that evening and Barney was agitated. He’d been outside to do the business but was coming in and out, obviously trying to tell us something.
Our Barney (1995 – 2005)

We followed him out and he stood on the path looking down at the bottom of the fence.
A tiny blue tit was lying there totally exhausted after trying to fly.
Barney gave him space so as not to frighten the poor bird any more than it already was, and Hubby got a clean tea towel, gently picked him up, and put him back in the tit box.
We called him Kamikaze Pete when we saw him perched on the opening in the box the next day plucking up the courage to try again as his parents were giving him ‘verbal tweets’ of varying volume to join them.
We could almost see him take a deep breath before taking the plunge, and it looked like he was going to bomb again, but amongst loud twittering of encouragement, he flapped his wings madly and gradually rose upwards enough to sit on the shed roof for a breather.

We saw the birds several times after that in the garden, either on the line, shed or the fence, then they just disappeared, so I guess they were old enough to be independent.
We had interest in Tit 1 the following year, but nothing came of it. I wonder if the three boxes are still on the fence posts as we left in 2007.

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About pensitivity101

I am a retired number cruncher with a vivid imagination and wacky sense of humour which extends to short stories and poetry. I love to cook and am a bit of a dog whisperer as I get on better with them than people sometimes! In November 2020, we lost our beloved Maggie who adopted us as a 7 week old pup in March 2005. We decided to have a photo put on canvas as we had for her predecessor Barney. We now have three pictures of our fur babies on the wall as we found a snapshot of Kizzy, my GSD when Hubby and I first met so had hers done too. On February 24th 2022 we were blessed to find Maya, a 13 week old GSD pup who has made her own place in our hearts. You can follow our training methods, photos and her growth in my blog posts. From 2014 to 2017 'Home' was a 41 foot narrow boat where we made strong friendships both on and off the water. We were close to nature enjoying swan and duck families for neighbours, and it was a fascinating chapter in our lives. We now reside in a small bungalow on the Lincolnshire coast where we have forged new friendships and interests.
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27 Responses to WRITEPHOTO – Fledgling

  1. Sadje says:
    August 25, 2022 at 4:55 pm

    I’m glad Pete survived. Cute story

  2. KL Caley says:
    August 25, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    Aww lovely story. You can’t help but hope they’ll make it. KL ♥️

  3. Nope, Not Pam says:
    August 25, 2022 at 9:23 pm

    What a wonderful tale, Bravo Barney 😊

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  7. willowdot21 says:
    August 27, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    Nature is amazing, Ruby has been nose to beak with many a fledgling . Lovely story all the better for being the truth 💜

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  9. Gary A Wilson says:
    September 2, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    We had a robin fledgling fall out of the nest which was right outside our kitchen window, while my first son as a toddler watched. He insisted we help the creature and thus began a circus of attempts to pick it up with gloves that we hoped would not mark it for being ignored by the parents, then, to reach the nest, we had to pull out the window screen, while trying to keep the bird from hoping out of the shoe box we found and placed it in, but there were several times when the bird did get out and the chase continued around our kitchen floor. The creature did settle down once it was back in the nest, but we were careful to not further disturb it. Two days later – it was gone and I’m staking out the guess that he successfully flew off to live a normal life.

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