Something amazing happened...

... on this May Day, right after I took the previous photos. Daniel was sitting on the back porch, when suddenly one of the wrens was hopping around him, very agitated and screeching. Daniel thought he'd better see what was going on.

When he got to the front porch, he saw that the baby wrens were leaving the nest and that our very lazy cat, Ramses, was outside and taking an definite interest. So, we got the cat inside (and were so happy that Mama wren went and got Daniel's attention) and spent the next good bit of time watching something wonderful!

As the babies left the nest, Mama wren guided them to shrubs and bushes with a worm in her beak as an incentive.

She brought them by the side of our house and straight through the fence into our backyard, which apparently they view as safe (at this point, we confined both Winslow and Ramses to the house).

There, she proceeded to show them how to move between the slats of the fence.

All tired out, the babies settled down under a few ivy leaves.

And Mama wren sat, preened,

and sang her heart out. I think she was calling for her mate, who appeared at some point and helped with the herding of the babies. They would each get a worm, put it in one of the babies beaks, pull it out again and hop away for the babies to follow. Fascinating to watch!

They are ADORABLE!! And as they were hopping around and trying to jump and fly up onto the fence, we counted them. We thought there were three, then we saw another and yet another.

FIVE babies and all of them cute as buttons!

You can click on any of the photos to see them larger.

We are smitten!

And all plans we might have had for today went straight out the window...

Happy May Day to all of us!!