Today the baby mockers are 9 days out of their nest. These pictures are taken this morning. For the first few days it was easy to account for all of them. For the most part they stayed in our fenced backyard in the bushes, climbing to the highest point, poking their little heads out where they sat with wide open mouths waiting for food to be dropped. After a few days, they got more curious investigating beyond their playpen (the fence-6ft white vinyl). They progressed from bushes moving to trees either hopping/jumping up or flying short distances from one object to the next. I had a little anxiety and fear over this and the loss of what I felt was control. I spent a day or so wandering around trying to account for all of them and, creating havoc when I would see a hawk hovering low, but, quickly figured out someone was going to call the cops and have me committed so I stopped that real quick. Over the course of the week they stayed within the neighborhood block it seemed but were more spread out. You could hear them crying for food and spot one in a tree if you watched where the parents went with food. Mom and dad kept close tabs on them and their territory. They continued to feed them and were very busy flying back and forth but seemed more relaxed as they sang pretty songs, and made less aggressive noises. By the 6th or 7th day out of the nest we saw a flying lesson going on. So darn cute! Mom (or Dad...so hard to tell them apart), providing reassurance and direction. This was a "real" fly and not a sort of half hazard(haphazard) jump from one tree to another as they had been doing. It was much longer in open air space. And, this morning was an apparent feeding lesson. It was in our backyard where it is safe, the baby mocker was left to mosey around the ground to find food. And, it wasn't long before he surprised us and retrieved a little worm! Yum! We were watching from our window and I wanted to run over and give him a big hug but sure enough mom wasn't far away and the good mother she is came right over to her little one. Well, we feel like all of the 4 mockers born are still alive and becoming more independent. Soon they won't need their parents anymore, but, sure hope they consider this home and stay in the area!
