Robin pictorial

Forgive me for being a bit obsessed about the robins outside the kitchen. It's not that often that we have nature so close by happening on a daily basis. And they rate they're growing never ceases to amaze me. I thought S was growing up fast!


Hard to see, but here they are with no feathers but all beak, waiting for someone to come feed them.



Now they've added a few feathers and they're all beak. The one on the right I call the alpha baby (though you don't see it here), because it usually stretches its neck the furthest. That's one hungry bird!


My best shot so far. You can see the beginnings of feathers, and the fact that their eyes aren't open yet.


More beaks, and their eyes are open. One was staring in my direction this morning, after momma robin took off. She was hanging out with them early in the AM before she went hunting.

We have good hunting grounds here. Our awesome landscaper gave us topsoil teeming with worms, so these birds will be well fed.

Robin update

The 3rd robin egg wasn't a dud, and there are now 3 scrawny baby robins in the nest in the back yard. I checked them out today and they were all about the open mouths as soon as they heard the slightest noise. I ventured out to take a couple of pictures, and 2 momma robins (or maybe mom and dad? I don't know if the coloring is different) tried out some divebombing routines. I'll post pictures soon.

J is already dreading mowing the back yard. It should be an adventure.

Wild kingdom

We had a nice evening yesterday, so I put S in the Moby and we took a stroll of the grounds ;) As we wandered into the backyard, a bird flew out of an area near our back "deck" (all 3' x 4' of it) and into a nearby tree. It was a robin:



On the "deck", we have this decorative bird feeder. I'm not sure if it was meant to really be used as a bird feeder, or was just supposed to be a piece of rustic decor. In any case, we put it on the deck railing a while back and it's just been there. It sits right next to our (now rusted out) grill. To be quite frank, I'm amazed it has stayed put given some of the storms we've had up here. I noticed recently it looked like there was a nest in it, but I thought that might be part of the rustic charm.

As soon as I saw Momma Robin, however, I got an idea. I went up to the feeder, and lo and behold, there was this:



A robin's egg (in robin's egg blue, no less) and 2 VERY newly hatched robins in a nice little nest. And a mad momma robin still up in the tree.

I'm hoping at least one survives, and that the unhatched egg isn't a dud but just a late bloomer. Momma Robin was on her nest this morning, so all is well so far. I'll try and keep you posted as they grow.