Exciting Robin - watching this year!

by Stephanie
(Hammonton, NJ)

Our 4 year old was the first to notice the perfectly shaped birds nest atop a fake wreath that we had left hanging on the shed door this year.

Sure enough, it sat directly atop the wreath, out of our and especially her eyeshot. "I want to see inside!" "Please!!"-- over and over, until finally one day I pulled the heavy metal chair over and stood on it to have a look.

Sure enough, there were several beautiful blue eggs in there; and thus began our spring adventure.

We started noticing mama flying back and forth repeatedly, but mostly sitting in the nest. One day my husband saw one bird on top of the other- in the nest!

This was all new to me; I thought we had some unusual freaks of nature setting up housekeeping on our property!

My research of robin nesting behavior revealed quite the opposite- this is what robins do!
It seemed such an extended time that this went on and we were afraid the eggs hadn't survived.

The nest was protected by a roof overhead, but still, the BBQ grill was just a few feet away! Had we 'smoked' the eggs ??

One day very recently we noticed something new-tiny little pointed beaks, wide open and waiting for food, poked out of the nest!

The baby birds had arrived! Each of us sneakily took peaks in the nest to see the babies, including my daughter, whom I had to lift and hold above the nest to see it.

Amazing things going on in there, we couldn't even tell how many were squeezed into that little nest.

The one thing we knew now was that the mother and father both were caring for those fledglings- and they did not care for us humans hanging around.

They squawked and squeaked wildly anytime we came near the nest. My hubby even got dive-bombed once. He decided to move his grill after that...

Now, each day we see the babies growing bigger and taller, mouths still open wide (unless sleeping, which they appear to do all together!) Sure they will be venturing out soon!