I am finally ready to write about what happened with the Woodlets. Not that there's a whole lot to say, and nothing bad happened apart from their coming out when we weren't there to see it, and now we will never know how many of them were in there, and I am heartbroken. But as Hugh said, we did our job of making sure they weren't eaten by cats for a month. It is true, and now they have done exactly what they were supposed to do: successfully leave the nest!
Our last official sighting was June 27th, Wednesday morning, when I got a few photos in gray morning light. I had to work that day (of course) and Wednesdays I see my mum in the evening, so get home late. Hugh was at home all day Wed. (with periodic head-sightings) but out of town Thursday. By the time I got home Thursday evening, they were gone, and the head we were now seeing sticking out of the hole belonged to Woodie, which meant H's Wed. sightings could have been Woodie, not Woodlets. So it happened either the 27th or the 28th: 31 or 32 days after the day I first heard them in the tree (May 28th). My, that's a long time. A long time to listen to Mr. Loud, too.
We miss them, and so do Woodie and Woodina, who hung around the tree for days; right through the weekend, in fact. Woodie frequently got right in the hole and sat there with his little head poking out (as mentioned above) looking rather forlorn, if you ask me. When not in the hole itself, he and Woodina would perch on the branch above, or fly back and forth between the nest tree and the hangout tree. Hugh thinks he has heard cries that might be the babies—higher and younger than the other woodpeckers—but we have not seen them since. Sigh.
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