Follow up on my sparrows....

Some of you may remember my post back in May about strange nesting places....

See those little dots on the wire? Those are English sparrows, also called house sparrows. The view is from my side yard in Hyannis and the funny oblong thing on the wire is a hollow wooden wire guide that used to protect the wire from rubbing against our big old sugar maple that met a sad and unfortunate end last year....

Early in the spring I saw the sparrows taking nesting material to the little wooden "house" and even then I wondered how it was going to work when it was time for the baby birds to fledge. The first group didn't do so well but some survived. The second group did much better and now we are on the third group...

There has been a lot of chatter and activity around the nest over the last few days and it seemed as if some of the siblings were still hanging around and in some ways were even cheering on their little brothers and sisters, cousins, or whatever they were to them. This morning was the first time the little ones came all the way out. You can see them to the left, looking a bit nervous perhaps....one is also on the top of the nesting area.

These little guys are still being fed by the parents and even some of the siblings it appears. I know that house sparrows are aggressive and invasive birds but I have to hand it to them for this one. Surviving and thriving in such an odd spot has earned a bit of admiration from me this summer. These are hardy, adaptable birds!