It’s been a good season for some of our local avian parents. We’ve recently seen two nests fledge on our property. There have been others, but two we’ve followed closely: Carolina Wrens and Eastern Phoebes. We don’t know where the two Carolina Wren chicks were raised – which house or tree. The parents are long-time residents that have long plucked bugs off our house and windows, and one night even burst out of the wreath on our front door and into our house. The two chicks showed up a couple weeks ago - soon after fledging. The parents roosted and fed their new fledglings several evenings in our hanging flower baskets, which was almost terminally cute. The Wren family has stayed around the house, and I just saw one parent and two fully grown young yesterday evening - they've learned to scold me and my dog in unison. The Eastern Phoebes nested on one of our nesting shelves, as they do every year. We watched their progress closely, as their nest was right under my home office window. Their first nest produced two fledglings, but the parents returned to re-use the same nest too quickly, so disaster must have struck. The second attempt produced 4 eggs, surprisingly no Cowbird egg, and all 4 hatched. We watched the parents work like crazy to keep them all fed, and all four fledged on the same day. Unlike the Wrens, the Phoebe family vanished after that first day. After a couple weeks, the male has returned to sing in the morning and sometimes roost overnight around our house, but Mom and the kids have not been seen since. I’m hopeful that at least some of the young Phoebes have made it to adulthood, and that Mom is still teaching the finer points of bug cuisine. And I hope the parents return to try again this season. Rick Kenneally Wilton, CT