Baby birdie

I took these two photos of a barn swallow chick on July 7, the first day we saw him out of the nest. It was, clearly, a little bit too early for his capabilities. 

Sitting on the gravel in front of the barn door. 

I herded him closer to the building so he wouldn't be quite so obvious to MiMau, should she pass by. 
She never seemed to notice him. 
Angus did, though, from inside the house. 

What a ruckus!

These next three were the next day. We were so glad to see that he'd made it through the night. He had overnighted in the barn. At about 9pm Husband had seen him in there, perched on a pile of tires.

"More breakfast!"

Mom and Pop were dropping by every fifteen seconds with food to stuff down his throat. They needed to get him grown and strong fast!

Mom and Pop Swallow, and the entire clan, were practically pulling my hair out strand by strand as I took these pictures. Very conscientious parents, except for that letting the baby out on his own thing.

And on Monday afternoon, the little baby was perched on his pile of tires inside the barn. Husband went toward him, and our baby birdie took off and flew in a circle three times and then out the barn door and up over the roof.
He must have surprised himself with such a feat!

The whole swallow squadron came out again and I'm sure knew exactly where he was . . . they were swooping way back in the field behind the barn. That must have been where the baby was. Of course we don't know now if he grew to dependable flying age successfully, but Husband says he saw three swallows flying together a couple of days later. 

Two of them had complete and pretty swallowtail feathers, and the one in the middle did not.