Quints & Triplets & Twins

An update on our triple backyard drama; all five of Mama Wren's babies hatched and thrived, did not jump out of the pot and otherwise behaved themselves. For a while there, though, the nest resembled a can of wren sardines (click on any of the images to see a larger version):



Mama left the nest (no room left for her) but came back faithfully many times a day to feed the quints, who barely uttered a peep. Then one day during breakfast I noticed some little heads popping up:



A few mornings later when I went out to check on them, all I found was an empty nest:



I can't be sure, but I want to believe that all five had successful solo flights and flew off into the sunset.

The mama fox had triplets, who were the cutest little things and ran around just like puppies. Because foxes are very skittish we stayed away from the den, so the only photos I managed to take were from across the yard and really too blurry to make them out. Still, here are my best shots of Mama and two of the triplets:



We haven't seen the foxes for a few days, and we think Mama took her triplets off into the woods to teach them how to hunt and stuff. On the other side of the porch, the new Mama Dove's eggs have hatched, and it's twins again.


We've named this pair Nelson and Desmond:



If this keeps up I'm going to need a wildlife daycare license or something.