umm...this nest is getting kinda tight here...

...and I'm ready to fly.

These are our baby phoebes I've been watching out the cabin window these last couple of weeks. They have been notoriously difficult to photograph, since the nest is in a very shaded area and my camera wants to flash when I don't. I let it flash this time.

I can't help but think ahead...teenagers. Well, the first is two years away from that, but already stretching his wings.

UPDATE: The young phoebes did leave the nest yesterday, successfully, although not quite in the way we'd envisioned. One parent phoebe ended up being killed by a cat. :( So the little phoebes were peeping for food, nobody was showing up at the nest, and The Hermit and the kids were worried that the little birds needed food. (I was at work) So The Hermit was going to give them some bread crumbs or something, and when he got near the nest he said they took off like a covey of quail, into the trees. There were five of them.

From what I read online about phoebes today, if one parent is around they will feed the fledged birds. I'm hoping that is the case. I also read that if these birds could fly so well, they were at least fifteen days old and ready to leave the nest. Anyway, I guess I can only wish them the best.