K.B. Fugitt

A couple of weeks ago my wife, Vicky, brought home four Fuchsia hanging baskets to hang around our property. Roughly a week ago as she was watering one a small bird flew out, startling her. What the heck was a bird doing in the hanging basket? Well, doing what birds do; nesting and sitting on eggs, four of them in this case. We know that because she took a peek and right in the middle of the basket were the eggs. So, that was probably just over a week ago and since then, we’ve seen the mother (or father) fly in and out of the hanging basket numerous times. They are Junco’s and a there has been a couple of moments when we’ve been sitting outside in the garden or standing outside somewhere,  one of the parents will investigate us and not land four feet away and just observe their human neighbours. The eggs have hatched and we’re not sure how many little ones there are. And, as much as I would like to take a picture we don’t want to disturb them unnecessarily and cause the parents undue stress. Yes, watering the Fuchsia is a bit of a challenge but Vicky does it very delicately by just lightly watering around the sides as the nest because as I mentioned, it is smack dab in the middle of the basket. Fingers crossed all four eggs hatched and that four little baby Juncos will survive. I sure would like to know why they chose a hanging basket to build a nest in. They must have felt it was a safe place to hatch their offspring. I wish them luck. If and when we find out more about this beautiful family I will let you know. Pretty exciting stuff.