Nature on our porch

Last night I was letting Beau out after a fun couple days of this:

Swim Lessons!

and this:

K-Prep end of year celebration at the Kids' Museum!

and this:

Fun with daddy! She so fast she's blurry.

and something startled me. Up in the corner of our "porch," well, stoop might be a better word, was something big and dark. Big if at first you thought it was an insect. After catching my breath and a closer inspection it appeared to be a little fledgling. Here is what I saw:

I made Emily get out of bed and come down and check it out. We decided (correctly after reading angry posts from birders about LEAVING IT ALONE!) to leave it alone. After much googling for images of fledglings, we concluded it was a Carolina Wren. Emily was worried it was dead so I stared at it for a while trying to see if it was breathing, to no avail.

When we got up this morning we were both relieved to see that the little fella was gone.

But, guess who's back tonight! It looks like our household just added one more creature. (Emily just asked if I thought we should get some worms for it. To which I replied with an eye roll.)