Robins update

Here are my final shots of the robin babies. I took these on Monday. The next time I looked in the nest (Wed., I think), they were gone. Two weeks. Kids sure grow up fast nowadays, don't they?

The green growing things were all gone, but it looks like mama robin added some grass clippings to the edge of the nest.

There were still three of them, although you can only see two beaks. The color is also off, but I didn't hang around long enough to do camera adjustments. I didn't want to scare them out of the nest prematurely.

Their mama's been working hard taking care of her young'uns. Here she's looking a bit frazzled and grumpy, certainly in need of a spa treatment, and deserving one, too, no doubt!

Not looking any better here. Maybe a towel would help?

I think she hears her hungry babies calling... again. Guess it's time to get back to work, whether she feels refreshed or not.

Okay... I really have no idea if this is the mama of those babies or not, but it made for a good story. ;)

Baby robins update

Remember the tiny baby robins I showed you here? I checked on them yesterday to see how they were doing. As I walked out there, I met Mama kitty walking away from the trees. I thought "Uh oh!", because she's a great hunter, and I've known her to get into bird nests before.

Next I saw this tom cat in the grass right next to the tree with the nest. "Uh oh!" some more. This was not looking good.

Well, Mama and the tom must've been up to something else, because the robin babies were just fine! The third egg had hatched out also, and the babies were making good progress. Look how much they've grown in just 6 days... notice the wing feathers coming out:

I wonder where the mama robin got her nest-building mud from. It was apparently from a weedy spot, and with all the wet weather we've had, the weeds have sprouted from the nest! Funny!

I didn't disturb the babies to try and get an open-beak shot.  I didn't want to give the cats any clues that they were there!

Yesterday's sightings

I took my camera outside yesterday when I went to meet Courtney at the bus. Below is what I saw. The lilacs are just beginning to bloom. And smell wonderful!

Last week on the way to meeting Courtney at the bus, I discovered this robin's nest, but I didn't have the camera along, and I never got around to going back out there with it. It had 3 eggs in it.

Yesterday I peeked in again, and two of the eggs had just hatched. These little birdies were still pretty weak, but one had its head up with mouth open wide right after Mama hopped off the nest. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera focused, it wouldn't do it again. So new and fragile.

Then Courtney arrived and immediately decided to pick Grandma a bouquet of dandelions. Notice that she's still using the backpack I made her a couple of years ago. She usually has it loaded with a LOT of stuff, and it has really held up well! The only place showing any wear at all is the corners of the blue outside pocket, and it's minimal. Tough fabric! And it was well worth my time making it.

She found one of very few (so far) dandelion puffs and tried blowing the seeds off as she made a wish. Everything is so soggy from all the wet weather we've had, though, that they didn't blow very well. I'm afraid she's not going to get her wish for a "Kit" American Girl doll (not sure if she wants her own Kit, or mine!).

As we got back to the house, we discovered all these mushrooms (toadstools?) at the base of our hackberry tree.

Quite a crop here. I don't think I'll be harvesting any, though. ;)

That's all the pics I took yesterday. We did visit the kittens, who are just getting cuter every day, but we didn't take time for a photo shoot. Maybe next time!

Nature's struggles, Part 4

What? "Part 4", you say? Like, "Whatever happened to parts 2 and 3?" No, you didn't miss them. I just haven't gotten around to writing them up and posting them yet. Summer busy-ness plus loss of blogging interest has made me a bit lax in getting the posts out. I will get to them eventually, 'cause they're interesting.

But back to Part 4. The photo below just shows one of nature's tragedies that can happen in the wink of an eye... or the blow of the wind. We did have wind last night, plus 1.6" of rain. This robin's nest and its occupants just couldn't survive it. Sad.

Other than a few twigs off the trees, we had no damage that I know of. Our neighbors up the road, however, weren't so lucky. They lost their fairly new heifer shed. Again. This was the second time since it was originally built! I haven't heard how the heifers fared yet*. (*Later ... heifers are okay.)

Another sign of spring

While I was out mowing on Wednesday, I scared a couple of birds off their nests. The next morning I went out with the camera... and scared them off again.

Here's a robin's nest:

And a blackbird's nest:

Perfect, aren't they? But goodness... 5 eggs! Do blackbirds usually lay that many (Dale?)? It's gonna be a lot of work when those little beaks appear wanting food!

I hope the parents can keep those eggs warm! High temp is only supposed to be in the mid-40's today, and tonight there's that 's' word in the forecast. Ack! No accumulation, though... hopefully. And for tomorrow night there's a chance of patchy frost. Someone had better go out and put blankets on the corn that's peeking out of the ground!

Robin update

I took these pics this morning.

I was surprised to see there were still 4 babies, since one looked so little and wimpy last week. I think that's the one hanging over the edge, as it doesn't seem as feathered out as the rest, and it still looks kinda wimpy. But at least it's still hanging in there!

Yep, there really are 4... count the beaks! Hard to see the one on the far right.

Kind of a full house, huh? Probably my last photo, too, as they'll soon be out of there, and I don't want to scare them off before they're ready. Maybe if I'm lucky I can still get a pic of one from a distance when they're out and about.

Robin nest update

Wednesday, 2 days old:

This little one was really hungry!

This morning, 5 days old:

If you look closely at the 2 outside ones, you can

see dirt at the edges of their beaks. They must've

just had a good breakfast of worms! :-)

I fear the little one at the very front of the nest

isn't going to make it, though. It looks a lot

less developed than the others.

Speaking of hatching...

I decided to check the robin's nest yesterday, a couple days early, just to make sure all was well, and that I didn't miss anything. Good thing I did... 2 of the eggs had hatched already! Mama Robin must've begun sitting on the nest as soon as she laid the first or second egg.

Not too cute at this stage, huh? ;-)

I didn't peek in the nest this morning. Since it was only 42° outside (aargh!), I didn't want to scare Mama Robin away from keeping her babies warm.

I found a web site with very interesting information about robins and their nesting instincts. Lots of stuff I didn't know. It's worth a read... check it out here.

Robin's egg blue x 4

I found this nest in an evergreen tree in our back yard. Of course Mama Robin wasn't too happy with me when I took this photo, but I was quick, so as to not disturb her for very long. The last egg was laid Friday morning, the 16th, so in 12-14 days from then, there should be babies. I will keep you posted!