robin

Bird Watching

After a few years without one, we have been blessed again this year with a robin’s nest in our cherry tree. The first thing I do each morning is peek out the window, and see how our expectant tenant is doing. And usually, I see her sitting on how ever many eggs she’s incubating…she rarely leaves her post.

This morning, however, I was surprised to see the robin perched on the edge of the nest, looking into it. With as confused a face as a bird can have. It would look closer every now and again, or tilt its head to the side like it was puzzled. And I was confused, and somewhat worried that something had happened to the eggs, and the bird was trying to figure it out.

Because I was concerned, I kept watching. And this went on for quite some time, with the bird never relinquishing its position perched on the side of the nest, but still looking as baffled as a robin can look.

And then, suddenly, another robin flew into the tree, and promptly arranged herself on the eggs. And as soon as that happened, the other bird flew off.

It dawned on me that I had been watching the father at the nest. And, as Turkey pointed out, like most new fathers, he couldn’t help but look confused.

It was a funny thing to realize after the fact that he had clearly been put on guard duty, and took his job quite literally, never once sitting on the eggs like the female would, but rather dutifully watching over them. And it was just as funny to watch the female come back, and not even check the nest out before she got back to her job of keeping her eggs warm.

It never ceases to amaze me how you can see God’s design for creation at work, if you just take the time to look around!

A Surprise Visitor

When Turkey looked out the back window at lunchtime one day this week, he was greeted by this surprise visitor:

I’m going to assume that this is one of “our” baby birds…otherwise, it’s not a very good story! Anyway, Baby Robin let us get quite close to her, and I got a few good pictures. I found her spotted breast to be quite amusing–it gives her quite a tiger-y look–not what you expect from a tiny robin!

It was fun to see one of the babies almost two weeks after she left the nest–we had all been wondering just where they went, but at least now we know it wasn’t too far!

And Then There Were Four

We’re up to four eggs in the robin’s nest now.

From what little research I’ve done, this seems to be a very average number of eggs, as most robins lay between three and five at a time.

Now we just have to wait and see if four is it, or if this robin is an overachiever, and decides to go for the above-average five!

The Third Egg

Apparently there is a lot about birds I don’t know.

Yesterday afternoon, the nest in our tree contained two robin’s eggs. And they’d been there since at least Friday morning. This morning, I discovered that there are now three eggs in the nest.

It’s not the number of eggs that surprises me…I was actually a little surprised that there were “only” two in the first place. I was expecting there to be three or four. What I did find surprising was the fact that so much time could pass in the egg-laying process. I had always assumed that all of the eggs would be laid in a short period of time…within one day, I guess. So now I’m left wondering if this is it this time, or if we might find a fourth egg in a couple of days!

Our Robin

Our robin actually let me get close enough to take a picture of her yesterday afternoon. To be honest, I think it was nap time–while she did keep a close eye on me, she seemed too tired to bother to fly away. Hopefully I’ll get a similar close-up once the eggs hatch!