| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher family |
| Mom, Dad and Five children |
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TUCKED AWAY IN THE FOREST BY MARY ALICE BOWLES Just off the beaten path in the darkness of the forest lived this wonderful family called blue- gray gnatcatchers. I was so infatuated by their home. I stood there spell-bound and I felt so wonderfully blessed to get a peek preview of this family. How could anything be so little and survive this cruel world? The forest was so deep, even the sun barely made it though the leaves. It was so quiet, except the total squawking of those little tiny birds. They definitely discovered we were the invaders, but they just kept on feeding their little ones! One spot of sun did make it through those woods and shined right over top of that nest. It looked as if God was saying, "here have some light for this day"! Their nest was at eye level, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, approximately 6 to 7 feet up the tree. It was placed in a fork formed by an upright branch and a horizontal or slanting one, the lower branch furnishing the foundation and the upright lending side support. Their nest was completely shaded by one single vine of Virginia creeper; It looked kind of like an umbrella or a roof of a house It almost took a magnifying glass to find this nest I honestly have never experienced anything like it, and the life inside that nest was indescribable. Five little heads kept bobbing up to eat and the Mommy and daddy flying from every direction to feed them, even bringing in a spider These were two of the best parents in the whole wide world, and of course there are plenty of those juicy flys in the forest, so a baby must never go hungry. |
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| MAY GOD BLESS YOU LIKE HE DID THESE BEAUTIFUL BIRDS |
| PHOTOS BY GEORGE W. BOWLES, SR. & MARY ALICE BOWLES |
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