Here today - Gone Today The End of the Beginning

On day 17 chick #1 flew the coop... er nest.  I was up early, before the sun was over the mesa, just in case this guy wanted an early start, glad I was up for it... so to speak.  There are four video's showing each phase of the fledge process that occurred this morning.  I'll intro each video and caption the pictures.

Video #1
This is our hero, the oldest chick, leaving the nest to hang out in the foliage of the honey suckle.  It took a lot of consideration and then he just did it. I was so proud!

Video #2
This video was taken with my camera (versus webcam) and shows our hero preparing for the initial liftoff. He wanted to look his best. The video is a little dark because the sun wasn't up yet. Can you see him in the upper left quadrant of the video?

Video #3
Our hero takes flight but (there is always a but it seems) all you can see is this flash across the screen. You will just have to trust me when I tell you that was our hero taking his first flap around the yard. He then returned to the nest as seen on the right side of the video. Dad came by to try and entice #2 out of the nest and almost succeeded.  After his return #1 will rest and tell lies to his sibs (not shown).

If I could put captions on what the sibs are saying we could all laugh.

Video #4
This is the last we will see of our hero. The series has been cancelled because the main character has flown off the set. I don't think we'll see him again except in our minds eye (and this blog of course).  But maybe.....

As I look at the pictures it seems the finale isn't that big a deal... but thinking about it and remembering what has transpired over the last 5 to 6 weeks with today being a major milestone of a very complex process that happens over this relatively short amount of time. When you think of all the events; nest building, mating, egg laying, hatching, feeding and the dynamic growth curve of the chicks and finally first flight, I think it's pretty awesome.  The nest building started on April, 8 and the first chick fledged today May, 16... a total of 38 days... just 38 days!

Granted there are a couple of chicks to go but it's going to be a repeat.

Our hero, chick #1, contemplating the big day of first flight.

A cute family photo. #1 on the left, #2 top right and little #3 growing as fast as he can.

Super Whoohoo!!!!