Empty Nest, Fledglings & Unfortunate Incident...

After the babies left the satellite dish(see previous post), I checked the pine tree in the front yard to see if any of those babies have left the nest and it looked like 2 had left and the two in the photo above were still there. I checked on them again yesterday morning and noticed one was perched on the edge of the nest so I knew it was going to leave soon, too. I just happened to look out my window and see the first one fly out and land in my front yard.
One of my neighbors lets her cat roam the neighborhood so I didn't want to take my eyes off this little guy until he was in a safe spot.

He stayed her for about an hour...

and then he fell asleep! Finally he flew up but landed in the same spot and stayed there for quite some time again. Then he flew again and made it to the roof!

I was thrilled he was now a bit safer from the cat but I feared a hawk would snatch him up as he was right out in the open. Then it flew to a safe spot in my backyard tree! Yay, I was thrilled. I finally got to witness a successful journey from egg to flight!

Warning! Sad story ahead :(

I peaked in the nest and noticed the little guy left was quite a bit smaller than his sibling and didn't quite look ready to leave the nest so I thought he might stay in there a little longer. Well, he had other ideas! Not even an hour later, I checked on him and this is what I saw...

He stayed her for a looooong time trying to work up the nerve to leave...

He finally did it and hopped into a shady spot on the side of the house. Once again, being a prime target for the cat...

The little guy was trying so hard to fly up and over my fence to get into the backyard and so I opened the gate for him and coaxed him through it.

He quickly found another hiding spot and stayed there awhile.

As an aside, it may not look like it but during this whole ordeal I tried to give this little guy his space so mom and dad could watch over him, feed him and know where he was. I was just keeping an eye out for the cat!

After he left this spot, his mom came down and tried to show him how to fly in this short video.

After flight school with mom, he hopped himself to a nice shady, hidden spot between a fence and our shed. Once there, he slept for a few hours. As it started getting darker, he nestled down in the rocks but kept chirping. The rest of his family had all bedded down for the evening somewhere else and I felt so bad leaving this guy all alone for the night. I just had a feeling he wasn't going to make it with that cat prowling around...and fox and racoons, etc. When the sun went down, he was sleeping quietly so we didn't interfere.

Morning came and to my relief he was still there! Yay! He was still staying in the same area behind the shed but was moving around a bit and chirping away. I didn't take any pictures of him this morning but I took this little video of him looking up at his dad on the fence...



I checked on him very frequently as I wanted to keep track of where he might go. I went inside for about 10 minutes and when I came back out I saw my neighbor's black cat dart from behind the shed, scurry under the bushes and hop the fence. The baby bird has not bee seen since :(

Now a bit of a vent from me: I know the period of time after a bird leaves the nest and before it learns to fly is a very vulnerable time because of the multitude of predators but what angers me is the cat that killed this baby bird is someones pet and doesn't need to hunt for food to survive, it does it purely for the sport of it (yes, I know, that's what cats do yada-yada, blah, blah). It came into MY yard as it does on a regular basis. I choose not to own a cat yet I have to deal with someone else's cat coming into my yard using my sandbox and grass as a litterbox! It irks me quite a bit to say the least. If you choose to own a cat, keep it indoors...your cat-less neighbors will thank you for it! There, done venting!