My swallow babies are getting ready to leave

I took these pictures two nights ago. I just get the biggest kick out of watching the pair of swallows that come back to my birdhouse every year. George and Gracie clean it out, rebuild the nest, have their babies, feed them constantly and one year we were lucky enough to watch George and Gracie teaching them to catch bugs mid-air. In the first picture, the babies are just looking out the hole; not too sure if I can be trusted so close.


Now, it seems they're not so fearful as curious.


I know it's hard to see their features, but they look like little Orcas. Of course, they don't have the beautiful dark blue coloring of their parents yet, but they are so cute.

One of them fell out of the bird house yesterday and still couldn't fly. There are so many wild cats around here, that I just couldn't leave him to that fate. I got a pair of gloves that had been laying around outside and picked him up and put him back in the house. I sat out on the porch to watch and make sure George and Gracie weren't going to be upset that I had touched them. They seemed fine with it and all is back to normal.