(Mommy Robin sitting in her beautiful nest. I love that she has a piece of paper built into the side that flaps in the wind.)
We have had an exciting couple of weeks.
Outside our kitchen window we can see into our neighbors apple tree. Two weeks ago we noticed a robin building a nest. It was fascinating to watch her bring strings, sticks, paper and things up to her nest. She would put it where s
he wanted it and then she would spread out her wings and jump up and down to pack it all in. She was very busy. While she worked the Daddy robin would either sit on the fence or somewhere in the tree and keep watch. We got online and looked up what to watch for so that we don't miss the babies arrival.
We are pretty sure that she laid her eggs yesterday. All of the signs point to YES. Here are the signs.
*The Mommy and Daddy robin were getting a little "crazy" yesterday morning. If that was what I think it was then she would have started laying her eggs around noon and 1 egg every hour till she had laid a clutch of 3-5 eggs.
*The Mommy will sit on the nest 50 minute of every hour. while the Daddy feeds her and keeps watch for danger. I have only seen her out of her nest once since yesterday and the Daddy is usually sitting in the tree near by.
*Once the eggs are laid they do not sing any more so as not to draw attention to their nest.
We are very excited. The baby robins should hatch in about 2 weeks. Then they will leave the nest 2 weeks later and 2 weeks after that they will do it all over again. So we get to watch it all twice.
(The Daddy Robin guarding his tree)
Some other interesting things that we learned about the robins.
*After the babies hatch the parents take the egg shells and fly them off away from the nest so that they don't leave any proof of the babies being there.
*When the babies are about 2 weeks old they leave the nest and the Daddy watches out for them while the Mommy get ready to lay more eggs. After the second clutch is old enough then the Mommy and Daddy take care of them together until they can be totally on their own.
We are so blessed to have this little miracle going on right outside our window. I love it.
2 comments:
wow, that is so cool, and good idea to read about it to know what is going on. We had a nest last year that was fun to watch, but a week or so after the birds hatched i went outside and saw the nest was gone and I found it on the ground with feathers all around it. I think a cat may have gotten to it.
YES, you will see the BLUE egg shells somewhere in the yard after the eggs hatch!!! It is so fun...And your little BOY is sooo cute...Red REID Hair and CURLY Carter Hair!!!! from Anita Carter
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