Juvenile Mockingbirds

After the young mockingbirds are flying (which is 8-10 days after they leave the nest) they leave the individual bushes where they'd been hiding out, fed first by their mother and then - after she puts the new nest their father built to use - by him, and gathered in the Japanese maple. They look calm here, but they squabbled a lot - jumping on each other, even. This was my last day, so I don't know how long they stayed their or if they got along any better after a while. There were three of them - I'm not sure you can see the third in the one photo. The rest of the pictures show the one youngster in his near-constant preening. Clearly, growing those grown-up feathers is itchy work.