Friday 27 June 2008 - Robins Nest in the Craziest Places

It wouldn't look like a safe place for a nest to me, but I'm a human, so what do I know.  It isn't like we have lots of trees out here and I suppose an ATV engine is safer than a lot of places. 

We have had one pair of robins that always comes and makes a nest in the residential doorway of the mission radio station.  Every year I take the nest down when they have abandoned it, and every year I promise myself that NEXT year I will get out there and remove everything they could possibly nest on till after the nest building season has passed... and then every year the robins still beat me to it and I post a "Robins' Nest - Please Use Other Door" sign.

 This year we added to the drama because a 4-wheeler that we need to have hauled off was adopted by a new pair of robins.  Now we're just hoping the babies are big enough to be in the brush before we leave because we need to put the wheels back on and repair it.  The timing should be okay, but it has added some drama to the whole spring nesting period. 

Brad, of course, is thrilled.  He loves birds anyway, and in a short time he has gotten to see close up these tiny wet balls turn into something that resembles a bird by more than the beak.  We've watched the parents change from feeding them little green things (worms or catterpillars of some sort?) to something brown, and the parents have become less concerned about us coming and going from the door, and less concerned about our van, which parks quite close to them.  The one thing they still seem less than thrilled about is the whole idea of bicycles - they must seem less predictable.