The Empty Nest

Some time ago, a pair of blue scissortails built a nest by our front door. Days passed as one by one they carefully gathered materials, and placing them just so, moved into their new abode under our front porch. The entire family became interested in the progress of this miracle of nature taking place before our eyes. We sent out progress reports, and when our adult children asked about "how the birds were doing", we would tell the latest news about momma bird doing this.., daddy bird doing that..., and all about whether or not there were eggs, etc etc.
Weeks passed, and one day the miracle happened. On this paticular evening we noticed both parent birds fly to the nest, then fly off quickly. "oh my god" my dear wife exclaimed, "they're feeding the little birdies". Sure enough when you looked closely you could see several little birdie beaks peaking over the side of the nest, and in birdie talk, cheeping, "mom, I'm hungry". When adult birds feed their young, they go out to a birdie restaurant, eat their fill, they come home, and puke up their dinner for the young to eat. Knowing this makes me very glad I am not a bird. This act of feeding the chirping little ones went on for several weeks, and to my amazement, the little ones grew steadily. We would watch, as the little ones would exercise their wings, preparing to fly, and all the while getting fed every evening from the parent birds.
One afternoon, our grandchildren were visiting, and we noticed only one bird in the nest. Another miracle, the young had flown, except for one. We saw what was apparently one of its siblings fly close to the nest, hover for a moment, then fly off. Whether it was encouragement, or "ha ha, look what I can do," I cannot say, but more than one sibilng was engaged in this little drama, and every time one of the sibings would fly and hover, the lone straggler would open its little beak, expecting to be fed, only to have its brother, or sister fly off. It only took a couple of hours of this torment, when the lone staggler flew off to find its destiny. After seeing the last bird fly, the other three siblings couldn't get back to the nest fast enough. There was mass confusion as the fourth bird realized it was being upstaged by the other three, and all the while momma bird, and daddy bird had flown the coup, and apparently had a place in a nearby tree that wasn't inhabited by four arguing babies. It was near dark when the arguement over the empty nest was settled, and all four baby birdies had gotten mad, and left.
So we are now the proud owners a slightly used Birdie condo, in good condition, in a good neighborhood, for rent or lease at a reduced rate. I must say I kind of feel sorry for the parent birds, watching their children grow, being proud of their accomplishments, planning their future, only to have them argue over ownership of the home, and make things so miserable that mom, and dad had no option but to move out. My only hope is that this doesn't happen to me.