BIG Day Today!!!

Well, life with Sammy started off pretty much the same today as the previous mornings.  He was snuggled inside his nest in his cage when I lifted the towel off at 7:30am.  There wasn't any poop away from the nest, other than just over the edge of the nest as always, so I don't think he left his nest overnight.

He did a lot of stretches, flapped his wings, hopped around a little bit, scratched and stood tall. His first morning meal was as usual, me having to gently pry open his little beak and pop the food into his mouth.  After his first feeding, I decided to leave the towel on his cage open a bit, to let a little light in.  I was trying to simulate sunlight coming in through his nest hole in the wild.  He would also possibly be doing some "peeking" out his nest hole at this age.  I want to provide him with the closest to normal experiences as can be possible when you're a wee bluebird baby being raised by a human mom inside a house.

At his next two feedings, I was surprised to find him perching comfortably on his low maple branch perch at the other end of his cage!  The branch is about an inch off the floor of the cage and over a foot away from his nest.

Did he walk there?  Did he hop onto the perch?  Did he...gasp...oh my gosh...no way...fly?!?!

Whatever he did I'll never know, but it was an incredible sight to see him perching there so calmly and casually, like it was something he had been doing his whole entire short life.

In the early afternoon, he began chirping when I had him out to feed him, something he hadn't done before.  I gently rubbed the side of his beak, as I always do, and this time he FINALLY opened his mouth on his own for each morsel!!  An incredible breakthrough!  I hated having to make him open his mouth, so I was very happy to see him "ask" to be fed!

At 3pm, while he was out of his cage for a feeding, he briefly (like for a split-second) flapped his wings fast on my dresser and FLEW!!  He spread those gorgeous blue wings and flew strong and steady about 12 feet across the room, his landing only a bit awkward.  Then he flew about 4 more feet and landed on a windowsill.  Yay Sammy!!  He did it!!  He fledged!!  He could fly!!

I felt as proud as I did when each of my two sons took their first steps.  Yes, I am very, very attached to this sweet, beautiful bird.

I brought Sammy outside in his cage at 5:15pm and he seemed to enjoy the new sights and sounds. He did a fair amount of pleasant-sounding chirping, flew from perch to perch in his cage and to the bottom of his cage. Sammy did quite a lot of looking around outside his cage and he got quiet when I played the Eastern Bluebird song recording, although he didn't appear nervous or scared.  I gave him about half an hour of getting used to seeing and being "outside", then I moved him into our screened-in gazebo and brought him out of his cage.  My husband and I had placed some maple branches in the gazebo so he would have some safe, "normal" places to land and perch on.  Sammy and I stayed in there for about an hour and a half enjoying the fresh air.

He flew back and forth across the gazebo severak times, made some chirping sounds and was very alert and watchful of everything around him.  He was seeing and experiencing a whole new world for the first time.

He was quite interested in the goldfinches and purple finches that would fly past on their way to the seed feeders and watched them intently.  He was fed two of his meals "al fresco" in the gazebo, mouth wide open on his own for several of his portions.

After I brought him back inside, I put him back in his indoor cage and brought him out for feedings as usual, as well as some flight time.  He flutters his wings seemingly effortlessly, and the blue on them is brilliant. Hislandings were still a little shaky sometimes, and he would often land on the curtain rods and once on the top of a bedside lamp shade.

My husband, Frank, came in about 9:30pm, right after his last feeding and Sammy flew right to him and landed on his shoulder up against his neck.  Frank has been keeping his distance and not getting involved in the raising and caring of Sammy, as he felt he shouldn't, so it was surprising to see him fly straight to him, like they were old friends.

A beautiful flight to...Frank!