Robins!

Yesterday I was working in the herb bed, adding new soil and pulling up starts, when I noticed a robin hanging out around one of our pine trees. The robin had a long grass in its mouth and on a hunch, I turned to look at our front porch. There was a nest in progress on the top tier of a plant stand Dad got me a couple years ago.

This is especially heartening because of our robin experience last year.
Last year around this time, I was loading up recycling on my Friday off. It was a gray but warmish March day, when spring was still a promise rather than here in full force like this year. I noticed this robin, peeking up at me over the front of our walk way with several long grasses in its mouth. How neat, I thought, he's building a nest somewhere. Little did I know. When I got home hours later from errands, a nest was fully formed on one of our bird feeders, stored on the top tier of the plant stand. This was our first nest at the house.

I paid close attention to progress. So much so, that I could tell if the robin was sitting on her nest on a sunny evening as soon as I pulled into the driveway. When the eggs hatched in late April, I spent a whole day in the herb garden planting and potting. It wasn't long before I noticed little scratchy sounds. When I looked about I realized that the robin, her beak full of worms, was hopping/running all around me, trying to get to the nest unnoticed yet unwilling to turn her back on me to feed her young. She would peer at me from around the cone flowers, dance around the salvia, and skitter behind a pot.

I loved working with an ear cocked, listening to this quiet yet profound sound of the mama robin literally two, three, four feet away. Sometimes I wouldn't realize how close I was to her and be surprised by her within arm's length.

She refused to go on the porch though and feed her young while I was in the bed, so I began to work my gardening around her, spacing out my trips to the potting boxes or garage for supplies so every ten minutes or so, she got a window to feed them. I would have loved to watch her feed them, but I honestly believe she couldn't override her instincts to not turn her back on me.

I got annoyed, wishing she would get that I wasn't going to hurt her nest but you know, I can't talk Robin, so I just made sure to go get something or do something else every ten or fifteen minutes.

It only takes a robin like, five seconds to find a worm though, so, I had an afternoon filled with hearing a robin rattle around the garden. I'm looking forward to this again this year.

When Andrew and I got back from a vacation, the chicks had went from feathered fluff balls to fledglings, each day, one left the nest to join Papa Robin under one of our pine trees. Until I came home one night to the last one in the nest. The urge to get a picture was too much, but I scared the fledge and he jumped down from the plant stand, chirping his indignation as he raced across the front porch and took a kamikaze dive off the other end, racing for all he was worth towards the pine trees where I saw an adult robin waiting.

In less than a week, the robin was on another set of eggs. I was thrilled. Between these and Mom and Dad's nests, there was going to be a ton of robins hatched out that I could track that year. Then. Disaster struck.

On May 23rd of last year, tornado strength winds pushed through the neighborhood, I remember coming home, and seeing mama robin on top of her nest. As I looked at the debris around me and though of our roof I wondered...did she sit on the nest the whole time the storm raged past, and if so, what must that have been like through her eyes. Over the next two weeks as the bulk of the remodeling and re-roofing were done, I realized with a sinking heart that the eggs were not likely to hatch as there was just too much activity for her to sit on them. Having me putter about the herb garden was one thing, but the numerous trucks, noises, and crew heck, just the sound of roofing, kept her away, and in some ways, this seemed to magnify the sadness of the whole storm event for me.

After a three weeks, I tossed the eggs, I checked and they were already light as air from everything inside them evaporating...and I tossed the nest. I really wish I hadn't because robins can easily clutch three times in a summer. It wasn't long before I noticed robins hopping around with long grasses in their mouths. I'm not sure if this pair was a different pair or the same pair who had had enough of the front porch, but, now they were building a nest on our meter box on the south end of the house. I worried the eggs wouldn't hatch, that the metal would just fry them in the hotter hours, and Andrew worried it was a fire hazard. Well, there was no fire, and the eggs didn't hatch. I tried not to be too depressed.

And here we are in a new year and the robins are back on the front porch. Let's hope nothing disrupts them this year and I'm telling you, I'm leaving the nest up until labor day. Are they the same pair? Could be. Is it just a great spot for robins to nest...you bet. You can look for robin shelf plans on the internet or order a robin shelf from a place like Amazon, who knows maybe Wild Bird too.

I'm interested to see if any robins reuse nesting spots at Mom and Dad's house. They had a robin's nest in a set of antlers Dad had on the hunting cabin, and an old bird feeder Mom had at the pond. When the antler nest fledged, Dad took it away to power wash the cabin and as soon as he finished the wash, a new nest was built. Each site of Mom and Dad's fledged twice, with out one, a total of 14 robins hatched out to take their chances in the great wild yonder. I have no idea how many would survive statistically, let's say one...that's probably generous.

Below are pictures of the front porch nest and the chicks/fledglings,the antler and bird feeder nests. I will keep photo documenting the new construction of the nest and add it later.

Nests are one of those things, that once you start looking for them, you see them everywhere. Yesterday at Lowe's I saw a sparrow fly into the nursery as I was at the register. With a grass in it's mouth I watched it hop from perch to perch until it swooped up to an eve and I saw it arrange it nest. One of the best things about fall for me, is seeing all the birds and squirrels' nests in the trees once the leaves have dropped off. When I post next, I will post some links to some of my favorite live bird cams...