Mrs Dudley and Family

For the last several weeks we have been honored to have the Dudley Family as guests. Mrs Dudley began construction of her nest on our garage light several weeks ago (seems like all summer actually) and apparently decided it was the best place to start her family. Although whatever she did in her construction efforts led to our garage lights not working it was, nonetheless, really interesting to watch. Bob and I named her "Mrs Dudley" somewhere around Day 3 or Day 4 and the name stuck. We were amazed how she just sat there in that tiny little space day in and day out. In fact, we never saw her nest empty. Later we discovered that Mr Dudley was filling in for her every day during set periods. We would speak to her every time we got in or out of the car and she would just gaze at us without a sound. She never took to flying away when we were around. We have had some horrific thunderstorms this summer and each time I would look out the window and see her sitting there right in the middle of it. Over the summer she became a fixture for us---we expected to see her whenever we left or came home. One day we noticed the babies. They looked just like her only smaller! Even then, not a sound came from that nest. We watched them grow and took pictures periodically. Yesterday I opened the kitchen curtain expecting to see them and they were gone. All that remains is the sticks and debre and of course the garage light that won't work now. As Bob heads out to fix the light and clean up the sticks it ocurs to both of us that we miss them being there. I hope that next year they decide that our garage light is the perfect place to raise their family once more. Until then, we'll be leaving the light on waiting!!!