Nesting robins

Of all the birds we have around here, I love robins the most.

Despite their penchant for my strawberries, I’m ridiculously fond of these sassy little thrushes.

I watched a juvenile robin in our corral early yesterday morning, just at sunrise.

Needless to say, I was pretty durned tickled to find a nest in a bush right outside the garden fence.

I found it a couple weeks ago when I was weeding in a bed too close to the bush, and the parent birds scolded me.

Alert to such a happy possibility of a nest, I went searching in the only logical spot and found it.

On May 24, it had three eggs in the stunning “robin’s-egg blue” color.

Shortly thereafter, it had four. I took three separate photos on three separate days, so four seems to be their full brood number.

May 31:

June 1:

June 4:

I try not to disturb the mama bird too often, but fortunately she seems to realize I mean her no harm since she doesn’t hesitate to settle herself on the nest in my presence.

The father bird, however, stays nobly protective of his mate’s nest, and keeps a suspicious eye on me in the garden.

Yesterday morning I heard the raucous calls of magpies, which are common around here. Magpies eat eggs — and baby birds. A couple years ago they decimated the nest of a pair of bluebirds we had nesting in the garden, to my dismay.

I was worried they might have found the robin’s nest, so I hurried over to check. Thankfully the nest was undisturbed, and I was delighted to see one baby already hatched.

I feel very protective about this nest, and hope the robins can successfully raise their brood.