Monday, September 5, 2011

Summer is for the Birds!

Not really!  But kind of?  Lots of hatching going on this summer!  We had a Robin's next in the hedge in the pool area.  Our first nest since we've moved in that we've noticed anyway!  And I must've scared the  Mama bird to bits when I trimmed the hedge one day without knowing the next was there!  I trimmed to within 3" of the nest!  Whoops!

The kids and I loved peeking into the nest to see the progress. Lifting them up one by one to see our feathered friends.. fighting over who got to see first.

Our first family had an only child... I guess I'd never seen a newly hatched bird before, I thought there was something wrong with it since it barely had any feathers!  We had a cold snap while it was still young and I must have a mothering instinct because for a bit I thought the parents had abandoned it because we hadn't seen them around, I wondered how we would raise it!  thankfully they were still there.

Of the four baby birds we watched this summer this is the only piece of evidence other than the nest.  I wonder what they do with the hatched eggs?

Our next family had three babies!  We wondered if it was the same parents or a new family that took over the nest!  It was interesting, the Mom and Dad bird always stood watch when they weren't in the nest.  But they always let us peek into the nest without putting up much of a squawk.  One time I peeked in when Mama or Papa was in there too.. it scared me.. A LOT!  They have very angry eyes!

Two hatched!  I just love how they use every ounce of energy to lift their beaks for their food... I felt a teensy bit bad that I kept trying to get them to come up together so I could get them both asking for food.. but I bet their Mama secretly thanked me becaue I bet they slept well that night :)

And then there was three.. the other two wouldn't wake up for me to get them all begging.

We watched them closely as they grew.. kinda dinosaurish I'm glad human babies don't look this scary as they grow!



Looking much more like birds these days, and almost ready for their first flight!  We missed them when they were gone. 

We had one more laying of three eggs, but I fear a chipmunk must have gotten them because they disappeared after a few days..  I am hoping the parents moved them, I'm not sure they can do that.. but I'd like to think they can!

1 comment:

Kelly said...

I'd like to think the mama birds took the eggs away too but Brendan crushed that dream and told me that was impossible.

Such cute pics- I'm glad you didn't cut their nest down! :)