5.29.2007

Birdsong

After a few sorrowful finds of broken eggshells and fallen birds we scooped up in spoons to return to their too-high homes, it's now the season for chirps in surround-sound. The baby starlings in our bedroom wall are growing bigger and louder by the day, and those in the porch roof are doing the same. Tommy hit the jackpot, though, when he found baby robins in plain view, and he immediately wired the news to us all. Their nest was balanced on a stack of sawhorses in the shed.

The day he found them, I took these pictures.




And here's the watchful parent bird, who flew into the shed with this meal soon after.




Two days later, they'd elected a sentinel to scare those stupid, nosy humans away.



He eyed me over before deciding that I wasn't worth his time.





And then those greedy, little plumplings got their last home-cooked meal.



Two hours later, I came to take the clothes off the line, and they'd all flown the nest.

And as long as I'm posting lots of bird pictures, here's one on a roof. (Not one of those newly independent robins, though.)


6 comments :

heidiann(e) said...

i love these shots. i've been documenting and watching a nest of juncos at work, but they just grew up too fast...

Griffen said...

I love the greys and browns of that first nest of newborns. What a lovely picture, and find.

Rebecca said...

We have been daily visiting a next of American robins that have perched themselves atop of our airconditioner. It is about 25 feet up which WOULD have been a problem if it weren't right next to a 25 foot up little deck off of the kitchen.

The babies are still in the VERY ugly stage-just a few days ago hatching from their eggs. My camera STINKS at taking their picture (I have tried, oh about 100 times) because they are in the shade and my camera STINKS in anything other than direct light. Hopefully I can catch them by the time I get my new camera.

Ps. I liked the first one best-they are SO crammed in there it is funny!

Abigail said...

New camera, ho!

(And I'm greedy for pictures of robins and juncos alike. Share!)

Abigail said...

That first picture is especially funny because they were fledgelings nearly ready to fly the nest, and yet they looked so cozy huddled together that I could imagine them as mooching teenagers, unwilling to leave the easy comfort of home.

I participated in a sad rescue of a skin-covered baby a few weeks ago that had fallen from the porch rafters. I don't know what became of it, but the next day, my mom showed me a book she had about raising baby birds from birth (if the mother is dead or rejects the fallen baby). I felt kind of sick that the book came one day too late, because I don't know if the baby made it to its nest or not and would have gladly tried to raise it.

This novel comes to a close...

Rebecca said...

I about freaked out when I discovered a dead bird just a few feet from the nest. I about beat our dog to death (just in case it was her)

I was right about to get on the internet to raise those babies myself when I saw the mother come to her nest. Instantly i was happy again.

But then, Matt, BEING Matt, said

"You selfish and cruel girl. That could have been the mother to some other POOR baby orphans who are cold and hungry lying their nests right now; all alone, waiting in vain for their Mama to return." Blah Blah Blah

Nice guy, eh?

Let's hope your baby just waddled off into the nest and happily lived there until the day of departure.

:-)