I have 4 Sugar Babies that are the size/weight of a bowling ball with vines 10 to 15 feet long, putting on new melons and still growing more vine. They loved all the rain we have had here in Texas! The best watermelons we have grown was a volunteer from our compost pile that produced 11 melons that ranged from 25 lbs to 60 lbs (several that were 55#'s) and 100 square feet of vines! It was a very dry year...we were watering a new pear tree and the volunteer melon came up a the base of the small tree. Peggy

Congratulations on being able to witness the fledging. How awesome is that. In all my years of doing this, I've only got to witness the actual fledging once. So happy for you. Maybe you'll get to see the second one too.

I'm sharing this to lift the spirits of those who have tried to help and been met with sad results. I hope this gives hope to anyone who wants to try and save an abandon baby. Rescue centers try to tell that you have to be licensed/certified (and that you can't transport them over state lines...like the bird knows) and that they can't help or give advice and you're breaking the law. We are animal people with a small farm and have raised baby chics from eggs, so I felt confident we could do this and be successful. Not to mention I couldn't let a living thing perish under our very eyes. I had a nest with 2 eggs in a helmet in my garage and an active Mom who trusted us being in and out quite frequently and looking in on her. After hatching (7 days a go) only one hatchling remained and no sign of egg shells or Mom. After almost 24 hours of no Mom, we decided to intervene by feeding and keeping warm. We named her Stimpy the Wren. The hatchling can live for 24+ hours as it absorbs what is left of the egg inside (we learned this hatching chickens). To feed the bird, we soaked and mashed cat food (12 pieces) in sugar water (1tbsp water with a sprinkle os sugar), then added a pinch of mashed egg yolk to the mix. We take a pea size amount and warm it up (for 6-7 seconds in the micro). I made several tsp size batches and froze them for the days ahead. She eats a pea size amount every hour via tweezer from 8am- 10pm. She was eating 1 tsp over 2 days, now she eats 1 tsp a day. A week later her eyes are opening and today she made her first audible peep today to eat! Her feathers are coming in rather quickly, she has doubled in size, eyes are opening and she tries to hop around in circles in her nest. She poops once for every 2-3 feedings or so and we remove it with q-tips to keep her and the nest clean and free of bacteria. We are being careful not to imprint on her and vice versa as we want to return her to the wild. Things we are being mindful of: we don't handle her; she stays in her nest in a box on a heating pad with a small dish of water to create some humidity (**not for drinking, they cannot drink or be given water this young or they will drown...her water comes from the food we've prepared, water can be offered in a shallow dish once they are fledglings and able to dip their own beaks**); it is quiet and dark with little to no voices and we stopped parking in the garage on day one; it remains quiet and there is nothing loud to startle her; we keep all of our dogs/cats out of the space. We will have to give her a bigger area (store bought bird cage from what I've read) so she can begin to hop and flap about and incorporate bugs into her diet. Below is a useful website if anyone encounters an orphaned hatchling/nestling or needs more information: http://www.2ndchance.info/insecteater.htm. FYI: a fledgling is the last phase of growth and by then the bird is well on its way to flying and independence, best to let nature take its course at this point unless it is injured. I am hopeful that all I have read and tried thus far will aid this little one into a happy bird life and I hope to have been helpful to other readers, this process is trial by fire just like having a newborn baby!

LOL Kat. While reading your post my phone rang and it was the Zumba teacher calling to answer a couple questions I had about shoes and clothing. I told him that I've been warned by a friend to NOT wear old bowling shoes. He cracked up. I don't have any worn out shoes except perhaps my hiking shoes and they do not work well for Zumba. I wore them to my one and only Zumba class which was offered by the ranch conservancy where I hike. We danced and yelled at the top of our lungs in the middle of an old horse corral complete with tufts of dead grass, dirt clods and gopher holes. Not the best place to experience Zumba for the first time. :-) Charmaine (my sis) lives in Gig Harbor. Not sure where she teaches but I suspect it's Gig Harbor. Below is her Zumba profile and schedule at Form Fit 24-Hour Fitness. Gads, all her certifications make me ill. LOL Jodi- Here is a link that might be useful: Charmaine