First of all, I am so sad right along with you. I certainly can't answer your questions, BUT...you have no reason to feel guilty. Think about the many you have helped on this forum by sharing your experiences and knowledge, offering advice, cheering us on when nestings are successful and consoling those when things don't go right. Too, many blues and TRES are happily and safely flying about because of you. Remember when the cat killed my daddy blue? You were one of the first to chime in, helping me to understand it was not my fault...I kept thinking that if I had just called my vet perhaps a week earlier, daddy blue might still be here. Even under the best of circumstances, things can go wrong for whatever reasons.

OK Girl, keep your chin up...we're all here for you.

Donna

There is absolutely no way on earth that you could have known they were not being fed. We are all instructed to leave the box alone after day 15 so as not to cause them to prematurely fledge. The scenerio could have gone quite different had you opened the box. What if you had checked and they bolted out, unable to fly and died because of that. Hindsight won't work because you never know what would have happened if you had done things differently. Why the parents didn't feed them is a mystery. You should pat yourself on the back for the good job you did. Imagine how many fewer TRES would have made it without your help. Providing them with as safe a place as we can for them to nest in is the best that we can do. The rest is out of our hands.

Kendra said it best!

Lisa,
I am very sorry to hear of your loss.We all feel bad when something like this happens.Please don't blame yourself.None of us have a crystal ball.You did the right thing by not pening the nest box.These are unusual happenings.Like Kendra said,pat yourself on your back for all the babies that you have helped to successfully fledge.There is NO blame to take here.My explanation is that there must have been something wrong with these babies that the parents knew.Perhaps they could not have survied outside independently.
michelle

Oh Lisa, I am so sad 2!!! I'm sorry. DO NOT blame yourself. I sure don't know why the parent stopped feeding the babies. That is very strange. But think about all the TRES that r flying around cuz of u!!!

Karen

Hi Lisa, I'm sad with you, too. It is just awful to open a box and find a dead bird, baby or adult. There is probably no way of know why this happened. We all do the best we know how, and you are doing fine. Hope you are feeling better today. (((Hug)))

So sorry to hear this Lisa, been a bad year for TRES. Not sure why the parent wouldn't feed them but you don't know if anything you would of tried to do would have worked anyway. Had you opened the box and tried to intervene and they died then you would feel bad that you had something to do with them dying and wished you would have left them alone. You just never know what is the best thing to do. Hopefully the TRES have a better year next year.

Donna

Oh Lisa, I am so sorry. I know next to nothing about TRES since I don't have them in my area but they are so beautiful and I've enjoyed reading about them through so many of you who do get to host them. That behavior of leaving and not returning to feed was such a surprise to me, something I didn't know any species would do.

Of course this is NOT your fault and we all know that nature can be very harsh sometimes.

Thank you all....it will take some time for me to get over this. You are all right, one would assume that a parent would feed the babies well enough before fledging for them to make it through the process or surly see that they were failing and needed to be fed a few more times to make it up to the sky. I have been over and over this in my head, I have so many questions that I know nobody will have the answers to. The first being how does a Tres get hit by a car on a nearly no traffice rural road, then it all snowballs from there. I am sure everybody feels this way wether it be a HOSP a HOWR, a racoon, ants, snake, poisioning or cat, it HURTS to lose one of our birds and to know it suffered and to think there MAY have been something more you could have done. I guess I should consider myself very lucky to have this be my first loss in 5 years. Thank you all again, nobody but you guys would really understand this heartache.

A bright spot. The 6 Dee babies all let safley yesterday :)

Congrats Lisa...what wonderful news! Sure hope the parents will keep the babies close by!

Donna

Good news on the Dees, Lisa. Do you see your Dees after they fledge? Mine went awol and I haven't seen them since. I did hear one finally in the woods this morning though.

Donna

I'm so happy to hear the good news about the dees! :)

Kind of wierd but it makes me feel better. I did not burry the babies, I put them out where we feed the Vultures (hubby fishes often so there are lots of offerings, they know to come look)Ironic that they went to feed the hungry when they starved but they ,in a way, have made it to the skies.

Lisa:
I couldn't gather enough courage to open this post for a couple days, I can totally sympathize with you. When a fledgling was killed by my dogs 2 years ago I was besides myself, I was so sad that I was physically sick. I asked myself ¡°what if¡± questions to no end, and had trouble sleeping for days. We all know rationally that we have done all we can, but emotional it is hard to deal with. One just have to try! It is the Mother Nature, she is kind most times, but cruel sometimes.

When I opened the box and found an empty nest, my first feeling was a BIG relief, then came the joy. I keep telling myself that all the emotions, all the worries, all the doubts are just the part of the game. In the end, we are going to be rewarded knowing that there are more beautiful birds out there because that we cared and helped.