Sunny’s Family
Illustrations Coming Soon
When Sunny isn’t playing games on squirrels and other creatures, he is busy foraging for enough food to share with WhiteWing. Back and forth from bush to grassy flat and back home again.
Each time, carrying a juicy morsel for WhiteWing. He couldn’t help but sing now and then, he is so happy. Breee, breee, breee.
On the twelfth day, their waiting was over. Cra-ack. Craa-ack. Cra-acck. Crrr-ack. Peck by peck, the hatchings pecked out of their shells. They are tiny, wet, wobbly, bony, and hungry. “Peep peep peep peep. Food food food!”
WhiteWing nuzzles them and folds them under her wings while Sunny flies off to get breakfast for his family. Don’t even think McNuggets. Mockingbirds prefer bugs and seeds.
Sunny and WhiteWing take turns hunting for food and feeding the nestlings. Luckily the summer is a rainy one, so food is plentiful. Best of all, the stone bird bath has a little pool of water, perfect for bathing, also perfect for softening up a beakful of food for the youngins’.
The parents carry the food in their beaks, stop by the bath pool for a little dip, then bring the moistened take-out back to the nest for the peep-peep-peepers.
After a week anyone could see that the nestlings are well fed. They are putting on weight rapidly. They still look like their necks are too scrawny to hold up their big heads, but their downey new feathers give them a cuddly, oh-so-cute look.
Babies of any species are adorable. But Sunny and WhiteWing are convinced that Jumper, Big Boy, Rosey, and Moonglow are the cutest ever.
Sunny is so proud he steps up his singing in tempo and volume as the nestlings grow. Almost a month after Sunny and WhiteWing met, the fledglings are ready to leave the nest.
Flying is such a gift and they are naturals. On the ground, the young birds practice wing flashing. They raise their wings when they meet a new and strange object.
They approach the object slowly and haltingly. They raise the wings upwards, sometimes alternately and peer at the object in an archangel fashion.
They are careful to keep a look out for cats. Cats are sneaky. They can come out of nowhere and pounce before you can say, “Eeek!” Beware of cats.
Soon the youngsters learn all their lessons and they are ready to leave home. One by one they launch into the air to start their new lives.
Their parents have done their jobs and must get busy again. During the breeding period, Sunny and WhiteWing will create five broods. Their territory is plentiful with a small hackberry, an elm, and a stand of hawthorne bushes. The grass is short and sparse, so Sunny finds it easy to snag insects.
At the end of each day, Sunny and WhiteWing snuggle, wing to wing, and sing. Thrill, thrill thrill. They will remain mates until next season when the cycle begins again.