Bye, Bye, Birdie!

Since the middle of June I've been watching a robin's nest built in the purple smoke bush right outside my office window. What a fun experience!

Seemed like the nest appeared overnight. Initially there were three eggs in the nest. (Not my photo. Seems as though I forgot to take one of the eggs.) We also had a nest in the crabapple tree in the back yard but it was too high to see much more than a robin sitting on the nest.

Then after a few days, there were only two eggs. Can't imagine what happened. Perhaps a larger bird swooped down and took it???

Momma bird did a good job of sitting on the nest. She would fly away when I approached to check things out, but quickly returned when I was no longer a threat.

So we had two birdies hatch. Actually they are rather ugly - no feathers, just skin and then a gray fuzz.

Then, sadly, just one little birdie remained. I never saw any remains on the ground. Hope it wasn't taken by one of those aggressive grackles. Once I put just safflower seeds in the finch feeders the grackles disappeared!

So I checked my little birdie every day, watching the fuzz change to feathers. The last photo I took was on July 7. He seemed to me to be ready to soon leave the nest.

Momma bird wasn't happy to have me around at this point. She flew to the roof and really told me off!

So today, I did my morning check - an EMPTY nest. BUT as I write this, I look out my window and what do I see but little birdie return to the nest! Apparently out on an adventure to try his new wings! So I go out to try to catch another photo and he flies off, momma and daddy not happy with me, so I go back inside. Best leave this little family alone now.

I've read that baby robins often don't live their first year. Too many life lessons to learn! I've also read that robins usually lay a clutch of eggs at least twice a year, so I wonder if we'll have more. Hope so!

And speaking of little birds, my friend Mary Ellen has published her first children's book, "Flitty, Twitty, and Itty Bitty". It's a precious book that tells how God cares for little birds, and even more how He cares for us. It's available at amazon.com.