A little song sparrow decided to nest at the upper end of my garden in one of my tomato plants in mid July.
She built the nest in the middle of the plant between the higher rungs of the tomato stake. I’ve indicated the position of her nest with a red circle in the photo below.
Tomato plant on the left is where the nest is.
The picture below shows the corner of the garden to the right of the nest. The tomato plant at the right of the photo is where the nest is.
Upper corner of the garden to the right of the nest.
She laid one egg each day until she had four eggs.
Two eggs in the nest on July 16th.
Every day when I’d visit that end of the garden, I’d “look in” on her. There she’d be looking right at me.
She flew away several times when Bill approached but finally he was able to take a picture of her sitting on the eggs.
Mama bird on the eggs.
On July 31st when I looked in on her, she was standing up and looking right at me. I figured the babies were hatching.
The day after they hatched it rained. Mama bird protected them from the rain.
By August 2nd they had more than doubled in size.
Babies are 2 days old in this picture.
When I checked on them today they were gone.
We had hoped to get more pictures of the youngsters before they left the nest.
Maybe I’ll still see them in the garden still. There are plenty of places for them to hide and be protected.
These little song sparrows are always in our garden and often sit on the fence and sing to me as I tend my garden. They have a beautiful song and I wrote about them in an earlier post with a picture of one singing.
Couldn’t resist sharing.
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What a blessing! I feed the birds in my garden and they are good company while I work out there. (Song sparrows eat bugs.) It is so sweet that your sparrow felt comfortable enough to nest in your plot! I love it and am frankly a little jealous! Thanks for sharing!
Sweet. Reminds me of the time when I planted for the very first time. I planted sunflowers on my balcony in 5 gallon buckets when I was pregnant with my first child, and one day, I noticed a robin’s nest in it. I saw them “fly off” soon after their birth. A bit of “wilderness” in the “concrete jungle”.
Every year there is a robin who decides to build a nest somewhere on the back of my house. It’s always an inconvenient spot for me, and always results in a tragic outcome. This year the nest was on the window ledge of a crank-to-open window over a door I use to go to and from the garden. The nest was there before I knew it and I had to be careful about getting near that window and going in or out and disturbing her. She, too, laid 4 beautiful eggs–robins’ egg blue, and I eagerly awaited the hatching. But, sadly, in a few weeks, I came home to find the nest had been raided. Two eggs were completely missing and the other two were damaged. I’m happy to hear your story of success.
Thank you so much for sharing. Really made this a brighter day……….We are in the midst of a 4 day overcast, thunderstorm, misty rainy week. The sunflowers in the garden are bowing their heads to keep the rain out of their face.
What a fun experience. Have a nice day. Megan
What a sweet story Theresa. I especially loved your pictures. Sounds like it could be developed into a children’s book.
UPDATE:
Saw a little song sparrow in the garden today. You know — at the age where they look like an adult but without the tail.
I’d like to think it was one of “ours.”
Theresa
So, so sweet!
I have many, many bird seed stations in my yard. The “hoards” wait impatiently every morning till I take the lids off the feeders (lids to deter rodents) Much screeching and shoving….and me giggling.
That mama knew she had come to the right place!
my question is, what did you do when the tomatoes were ready to pick? I have a cardinal nest in my cherry tomato. she screams at me from a tree when I get close. I don’t want to cause problems, but tomatoes need picking.
Deb – most of the time I did it when she left the nest. But if she was still
on the nest when I ran out of garden time, I’d go over and pick tomatoes. She’d
fly off but came back when I finished.
Cardinals can be a bit more assertive. But if I were you, I’d just talk to
her softly and do what had to be done and pick those tomatoes.
Let me know how you do and what happens.
Theresa