Yesterday I had a fledged Anna's in my rock garden and then it flew over to my bubbler for a drink. The one thing I noticed was it's wing beat and flying speed was much slower than the adults. I was able to walk right up to it without it showing the least bit of fright. It stayed for about twenty minutes flying from the flowers to the trees. I went on with my yard duties after about ten minutes of the up close and personal visit. At the end of it's stay I started to hear a frequent single chirp which attracted a couple of crows. After I scared the crows off it flew to a neighbors tree and continued the chirping. To my suprise dad showed up and sat on the branch above and this seemed to calm it down. Dad has been around all winter and has become very trusting of me to the point of feeding from my feeder while I am holding it. Dad stayed with the youngster for about a half hour and then they flew off. My feeling was that this was it first day on it's own and it got a little lonely for mom. Any comments would be appreciated. Early posts indicated that males are not involved with the raising of the young, but dad did seem to be protecting the youngster.



Toby Andrews



Bellevue