Birds and Bees...mostly the darn birds

On Father's Day while Mike was out golfing, the kids and I were in the backyard. We've been monitoring the bird's nest that has been under our deck all spring. I think the first occupants of the nest had four baby birds. Jake and Maddie watched this everyday. Well, they moved out and some new birds (or a very busy couple of same birds) moved in. We had five new robin's eggs in it after only a couple weeks. The kids love these - Mike? Not so fond. Mostly because these tenants leave "white puddles" all over the patio.

Anyway - I had my camera and thought I'd get a picture of the eggs so Maddie & Jake could see what they look like up close versus just through the cracks of the deck. There was a big surprise for all of us though! I took the camera down to show them the pictures and was shocked when I saw four brand-new babies in the picture. I mean - BRAND NEW. They didn't even have all their feathers yet - it was really cool. So, of course I annoyed momma bird and took way more pictures. After several shots I finally got a good one to show to everyone:

Now, after all this excitement we were inside and we were watching those Sunday shows - all the animal shows are on t.v. on Sunday afternoons. So, we watched a couple. Show #3 is what about did me in. It was about birds. Good so far. Then it was about mating birds and I got a little skeptical, but thought, "surely they won't show/talk about anything knowing this show has kids watching it." Then it showed two vultures - not particularly attractive birds - but one hopped up on the other. On top of the other. In my naivety I thought again, "Surely they won't show this for more than a couple seconds..." About 30 seconds to a minute later the birds finished. But not before Maddie said, "Um...what are they doing?" And because this was NOT the moment that I wanted to explain everything I said, "Wow...I have no idea."

Can I live in denial or what?