Robins Nesting - up close and personal – “Bob, Bob, Bobbin' at our front door” in Carp Ontario

A frightened bird flew off our front porch when I opened the front door to retrieve the newspaper. OK, I jumped too! It was 11:00 pm. Imagine my surprise when I looked up and noticed a birds net carefully tucked on top of one of the porch posts.

My raised voice, “Well we got visitors. We got Robins!”, brought my wife to join me at the front door.

“This nest wasn't here this morning. They must have worked all day to build it. Boy they're fast”, I exclaimed.

“Well I guess we are going to be surrogate grandparents”, my wife laughed. “We've been chosen to witness a beautiful part of nature – the nesting and raising of Robins. Odd, they would be nesting this late into the summer. It's July 3rd already.”

So we settled in for a period of time, but we didn't know how long they were going to stay. We were always a curious couple and I knew that we would want to capture the entire Robin Nesting process. An avid photographer, I set up the camera props to ensure the best 'nest' visual, yet non-intrusive, vantage point. The front door to our house now became a “no entry” zone. A four foot step ladder was positioned inside the front door and my Canon D60 Digital SLR was mounted on a Slik mono-pod, adjusted so when it rested on the top step of the ladder, the camera was at the perfect height pointed through the transom window directly across from the Robin's Nest - a mutually comfortable 6-8 feet of distance between us.

The nesting mother and protective father robins grew accustomed to seeing my face (but mostly the camera lens) early each morning and then a few times throughout the day. We were going to see a lot of each other over the next month. We were the best hosts to our bird visitors. Every night around 9 pm, the front door light would be turned off earlier than usual, so as to give mother robin the comfort of darkness in which to sleep, protect and incubate her eggs. As she settled into the nest, she would point herself in the direction of our transom window peering at us in our living room.

The entire egg 'laying-incubating and hatching' process occurred over a two week period – from early July to the third week in that month. The photo images captured mother robin's diligence and gentleness. How she moved the eggs (number unknown at this point) with her beak and the hours she spent incubating them. We spent many quality moments just looking at each other – up there through the transom – Robin in her nest, me on my ladder.

We knew something exciting was happening! Mother robin was spending more time sitting on the edge of the nest reaching into its depth with her beak while retrieving what looked like pieces of egg shell, which she would eat. This, in fact, was one of my major observations about nesting robins – they eat everything in the nest that is debris, and I mean everything! When you are peering through a camera lens, you see every detail. This biological waste reclamation by the parents is an environmentally friendly aspect of robins. They exemplify 'recycle-reuse'. And this has all been captured in 6.2 mega-pixel digital images! You bet!

The robin parents began a tag-team of alternating trips returning with worms for the ravenous robin chicks. And look we could count the tiny skyward pointing, bright-orange-colored beaks. There were three! Three robin chicks had hatched and now were competing for as much food as the parents could drop down their little throats. No robin parent 'pre-chewed' the food. Whole worms where dropped into those three chick gullets. Bring it on!

Over the next two weeks that we captured the obvious and amazing day-to-day growth changes in each of the three robin chicks. The parent robins continued the parade of worms. They plucked away the baby fuzz and ate this plus any dropping that the three chicks produced. The area around the nest, namely our front porch floor and chairs, remained surprisingly “bird dropping” free for this month long miracle. They were truly a ' recycle-reuse' creature. And it makes sense. The robin chicks just swallowed any food that was dropped into their always wide open beaks. Completely digesting this food would be difficult for these infant birds. Naturally when it came out the other end, either robin parent would just grab and eat it. Hey there is still some nutrition left in that stuff!

The chicks matured and started perching on the edge of the nest. Each one now seemed focused on preening, constantly pecking at their feathers in, under, over and around their wings. Each chick now took personal responsibility for removing the remaining baby fuzz and preparing their wings and bodies for that inaugural flight.

We watched, and digitally captured, near falls out of the nest, some typical 'child-bird' pushing and shoving, and frustration that generally accompanies bird nest overcrowding. And then on August 7th around 9:30 in the morning we looked up through the transom and there was only one bird left in the nest. His other two siblings had already flown the coup. And then number three flew off! Oh, maybe more like fluttered and flapped to the floor of our front porch. But once he got his 'land-legs' he then flew into the front garden. No doubt, to hunt for food.

So we rushed outside to grab a few more pictures of the robins now free from the confines of the nest. And then they were gone. We left the nest undisturbed for a another week, thinking they might return. But they never returned to the nest. Not the babies. Not the parents. They were off being robins! And it all happened in just over 4 weeks.

But they did leave us a little gift for being gracious hosts. Remember I commented on how clean the area remained from bird droppings. Well I guess the terror of that first free-fall from the nest, that first 'leap of faith', just before those wings grab air.... well, er who wouldn't poop themselves! Oh well, time to engage the pressure washer.

I waited another week before removing the empty nest. It sure is quiet around here. We miss the grandkids.

All of this Robin Drama is captured on hundreds of digital images. Some of these can be viewed on Flickr.

Robins Nesting - up close and personal – “Bob, Bob, Bobbin' at our front door” in Carp Ontario