Found Junco Nest on Ground

Remember the fawn in the tall grass in the backyard BEFORE we mowed?

Here are photos of that same backyard AFTER it was mowed for the first time this summer!

The fawn no longer has tall grass to hide in.

But something else was hidden in the tall grass that could not be seen until we mowed. 

Can you spot it?

How this little life form survived the weed eater and then my rake is a miracle.








Thankfully, the mother flew up out of the grass and startled the person running the weed-eater so he looked before he cut and avoided the nest. But he didn't warn me about the nest! That night, after the mowers left, I decided to rake the grass before they returned the next morning.

The parent bird was not on the nest as I was raking. I just happened to notice the white in the grass, did a double take and realized it was a nest with four tiny eggs.

The rake handle is pointing to the nest.

This was taken on Wednesday. 

On Friday I left to spend the weekend in Bellingham in order to attend the opening of a very special quilt exhibit covering quilts from 1780-2007.  By the time I returned, the eggs had hatched.

Hey Mom...where's the food!

Two days later, my concern is that without the tall grass, the nestlings have no protection from the sun during those parts of the day when this area of the yard gets direct sun. Because of our many tall Cedars and Douglas Firs, this part of the yard goes in and out of shade as the earth rotates and the sun "travels" across the sky. This morning I went out to check and the top two chicks were panting!  As i observed them, this didn't appear to be an open hungry mouth. Instead, he seemed to be panting.

Below is the parent bird.

Close-up of same parent.