Pre-Ramble: I was all set to write a little Memorial Day blog about war heroes, and explore the sentiment around the military from the perspective of one of my daughter’s friends who will be headed off to West Point in the fall.  As I went to hang our stars and stripes from the hooks on the front porch for inspiration however, I realized that, patriotic or not, all that flag flapping would probably scare Mother Chipping Sparrow as she bided her ol’ time on the nest. (I’m sure she’s already annoyed with the paparazzi.)

As you can probably tell by the title and photo, when I looked out at the nest Sunday morning, the four little blue eggs had begun to hatch into baby Chipping Sparrows (the “Chiplets”) … little pink faces that only a mother could love.

As you can also probably tell from the photo, the strong winds that tore through the neighborhood earlier in the weekend knocked ALL of the needles off of the branches surrounding the nest. Suddenly, the prime, secluded nest location is stripped bare — like a bedroom with no drapes.

The Take-Away:  There is probably a profound parallel to be made between the hatching of the eggs and going off to a prestigious military academy, but I haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning to put that together.  Instead, I’ll just hope that the Chiplet’s favorite food is fresh mosquito larva and bid you to stay tuned…

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