Second Brood in Nest

by Jenny Weaver
(Bainbridge Island, Washington)

Robin Feeding Young

After listening to a robin bang into my bedroom window for a month, my family was delighted when she finally made a nest in the rhododendron only four feet from the window. With a mirror we saw her three eggs, and loved every minute of watching her and her mate tend the babies.

All three little robins made it out of the nest right on schedule. There was a crow that was watching the nest and tried to attack the fledglings as they left the nest, but the parents were very brave and successful at keeping it away, as far as I could tell. I have three small children who loved those robins.

It has only been two and a half weeks since the three baby robins left the nest, and the mother robin is back on the original nest! While she was off today for a few hours, I peeked into the nest with my handheld mirror, and there are two new eggs. I had not thought that she would use the same nest. She did add some new dried grass, but otherwise the nest is exactly the same one she used for her first brood.

My kids shrieked with delight when I told them, although my husband groaned . . . he had been ready for the babies to leave the nest so we could have our bedroom window open again!