I like birds, birds of prey are my favorites but here around the house, I have Chickadees, Hummers, Grosbeaks and lots of Robins. On occasion I see Eagles or Hawks flying around but here in the forest, that is unusual.
On May 24th I noticed some debris on the patio floor. I'm pretty anal about cleaning so this was somewhat new. I found the culprit, it was a bird that had started building a nest, most likely the day before, in one of my back patio light fixtures.
By the next day it looked finished to me and in the meantime, I found out it was a Robin's nest. I looked up a few facts about the bird. Male and female both make hundreds of trips in a day to carry supplies for the nest, but the female does the building.
Two days later, on the 27th of May (my phone tells me exactly when a photo was taken) the first egg was laid. Most birds lay their eggs in the morning, the Robin is the exception to this rule. It is thought that by laying in the afternoon the Robin has time to eat breakfast... you know the old saying "early bird gets the worm"?
She will generally lay 4 to 6 eggs but only one per day, in the afternoon. She laid the second egg on the 28th of May.
On the 29th of May came the third egg. I didn't shoo her from the nest to take the photos...she won't sit on them to hatch until all are laid, this way the first one won't hatch and become so much bigger its siblings.
May 30th, the fourth and final egg was laid. At this time she started incubating them and I left her alone and only went out to check on the progress when she left the nest to eat.
Ten days later on June 10th, two young Robin's had hatched.
The next day, one more hatched.
By the 13 of June, all the eggs had successfully hatched. It would be disingenuous of me to say they were cute!
Four days later they are already showing signs of developing feathers.
On the 22nd of June, just 12 days after the first two hatched, they are feathered enough that the mother does not have to sit on them to keep the little ones warm.
During this last 12 days, I saw both parents make hundreds of trips to the nest with worms and whatever, hanging from their beaks.
This reminds me of the 1200 sq ft house I grew up in...pretty crowded in there.
The next morning, June 24 I thought all were laying on each other but after looking closely I see that there are now only two birds in the nest.
Later on the 24th of June, I go to shoot an afternoon picture and surprisingly find no babies in the nest. Those last two from the morning jumped down out of the nest to start their own lives. They won't fly for another 8 to 10 days, they need to build up the wing muscles first. Luck for me the Robins rarely use the same nest twice, but they will start another within days...and more babies. It'll be nice to have my patio back.
As evening came around I spied one of the new babies sitting in a bush on my patio, just feet away from the nest. Some kids have a tough time leaving home.
Even with the inconvenience of not being able to use the patio, I found considerable pleasure in learning about the life cycle of this amazing bird.
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