+ 1 - 4 | § ¶3 flew the cuckoo's nest

As Mike pointed out, I never got around to following up on my post about mama bird flying the coop. Turns out, she and hubby bird came back, rebuilt the nest and then hung out for a while. I kept my distance, and sure enough, mama started hanging out a lot. I did not want to mess with things, so I did not try to look in the nest, ot take pictures.
Much to my surprise, one morning a week or so later, I heard high pitched chirping at the back door. I saw mama arrive, and 3 tiny little beaks poked up out of the nest to get food from mama. I was so happy that I did not mess things up too bad.
Needless to say, this went on for about 2 to 3 weeks, and I really enjoyed getting a peek at the baby birds when I could see them.
One day, when I got home from work, there was no noise from out back. I took a look and could not see anything. I waited 2 more days, and then went out to look closely at the nest. It was quite empty. I waited 2 more days to be sure, and the babies never came back. I assume that they were ready to fly off and did not need the nest anymore. I saw no evidence that any of them died, so I can only assume that all 3 lived and flew off. Good for them.
I have left the old nest there in the hopes that the birds will not try and use it again next spring/summer, as it is quite messed up with lots of bird poop. Maybe if I leave it there, they will not use it again next year and I will be free once again to use my back porch. Only time will tell...