Chirps and Cheeps

I enjoyed a real treat the other day when my daughter called to say a Philadelphia Vireo was nesting right outside her work window.  She works at Romanello's South in Hamburg, New York, right across from the Hamburg Casino.  It was an unusual spot, I thought, and when I looked up Philadelphia Vireos, I was surprised because it didn't appear that they stuck around our area to breed.  Well, this would have been a life list bird for me, so I grabbed my camera and went up there to check it out.

Sure enough, momma was sitting in her nest in a shrub - right next to and very visible from my daughter's office window.  It turned out to be  Yellow Warbler instead of the Philadelphia Vireo - and I can see how she mixed them up because the female does resemble the Vireo. It was still quite the treat; a close-up "bird's eye view", if you can pardon the pun, of Mother Nature at work.

Kate had been watching the pair build their nest, lay their eggs, and this morning, the chicks had hatched!  When the female left for more food for her hungry chicks, I had a chance to peer inside and see the very tiny little ones.

I didn't get very good pics of the chicks, but the daddy posed nicely for me!