It all started on a VERY windy day in mid-May. Jason saw a momma robin scoping out a nest location right outside our kitchen window on top of the motion light. For two days she unsuccessfully tried to build a nest - the wind blew everything down and left a large collection of twigs on our patio.
We were thrilled to see that a robin wanted to nest there - almost any other bird would not have been welcome (too messy!). So, Jason went out and carefully attached a piece of chicken wire to the top of the light so that the nest twigs had a place to hang onto. Within 48 hours the pair had completed a nest right outside our window. We were worried that going in and out of the back door would spook her off the nest, so we trained the kids to be very quiet and not scare the momma away (turns out, she was very hard to spook).
She was finally sitting on eggs - we didn't know how many. And over Memorial Day weekend while we were gone - the babies arrived! We couldn't see them, but we saw momma bringing worms, so we knew they were up there! Finally Jason snuck-up to the nest on a ladder and took a picture - there were 3! Every time the mom or dad robin came with a worm, the kids would get excited and watch the babies stretch their necks and chirp for food - very exciting times around here! And finally yesterday, the first baby flew out of the nest. The other two left this morning. We haven't seen any of them since, but we're hoping they're running/hopping fast to keep away from the neighbors cats! Robins can have up to three clutches in a year, so maybe we'll have some more baby robins before the summer is over!
Sitting on the Eggs
Sitting on the Eggs
New Arrivals
Feeding Time (the male and female took turns bringing food about every 3-5 minutes!)
Almost ready to leave the nest!
Last One: This one sat on the edge of the nest all morning today and kept stretching and fluffing its feathers like it was ready to go. Finally the female came to feed it and must have given it a nudge because it finally lept out!
Hopping Around: It finally made it into the boxwood shrub - not sure if it's still in there...
1 comment:
Very cool. How exciting for the kids. The only thing building nests at our house are wasps. Wes and J thought the pictures of the birds were neat and wanted some baby birds of their own.
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