Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.
Victor Hugo
I’ve blogged about them for the last two weeks and promised myself that I will continue taking shots of them as long as they stay in the garden. Sad to say though,the hatchlings only lasted a week too before they died. Yesterday, after we came back from the Sunday mass, my son checked the nest and discovered that there were only two left of the three hatchlings which were born last Palm Sunday, exactly a week ago but they were dead. I don’t know what happened to the third one. Last time we checked, the nest was empty. I wonder how the mother Yellow-vented bulbul was able to transport the dead hatchlings to another place. We tried looking for them at the cluster of anthuriums and prayer plants beneath the gardenia shrub but there was nothing there. We ruled out the idea that our cats ate them. Our cats never stay in the garden and they hardly could reach the gardenia branch where the nest was.
Although things were short-lived, it was wonderful to experience this – watching how birds take care of their young. Like humans, they have the natural instinct to take care of their young. They seldom leave the nest unless they look for food to feed their young. Come to think of it, we have grown so used to watching several birds in our garden that we even made a bird feeder when we found out about the nest. Son made some research on how to make them stay in the garden a little longer. And here’s what I found about nesting, a very interesting article on bird life.
I would love to share with you the pictures I took on their journey from mere eggs to young birds. Every time I look at the spot where they stayed, I think of them waiting for their mother to bring them food.
Our Gardenia shrub where the nest was.
Perfect oval-shaped eggs….
Notice the slightly irregular shape of the eggs a few days after we discovered them.
These hatchlings were born on a Palm Sunday – 04-17-11
They were one day old here. 04-18-11
At two days, notice the growing feathers at the tip of their wings – 04-19-11
The last shot I took on 04-22-11 (at 5 days old) There feathers have grown in all places. Their eyes were still closed but they could sense movement.
I hope one day, these birds would come back to nest again.
Dreams And Escapes 
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