SPRING!

[MonkeyPie]

OMG, the cute! They are so stinkin'' cute I nearly cried lol. I love this post, Losty, I can hardly wait to see them all hatched!

ETA: The one with the flash and their mouths open all wide made me think of my newborn. He makes the same face when you touch his mouth and he''s hungry - we always call it his little birdy face!

 

[LostSapphire]

FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

 

[Gailey]

You have four babies this morning Losty! Well done!

You know there''s a reason Mum keeps coming back to your house every year to raise her babies. She must feel pretty safe around you.

Have a good day

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/4/2010 6:23:00 AM
Author: LostSapphire
FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

So, I think I''m losing my mind. This is what I have tonight. Looks to me like THREE + 2 eggs.

Must have been one of them sleeping ontop of an egg this morning!

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

And this one''s for Gailey. I climbed around the other side of the juniper (you owe me for this pic!). I thought it would be nice to see the front end of the mourning doves! These look about a week ahead of the robins, they have quite a few feathers.

LS

 

[Gailey]

Date: 5/4/2010 6:25:55 PM
Author: LostSapphire

Date: 5/4/2010 6:23:00 AM
Author: LostSapphire
FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

So, I think I''m losing my mind. This is what I have tonight. Looks to me like THREE + 2 eggs.

Must have been one of them sleeping ontop of an egg this morning!

LS

Lets hope there are more in the morning. I wonder if the eggs don''t hatch does Mum or Dad pitch out the eggs at some point.

 

[Gailey]

Date: 5/4/2010 6:27:34 PM
Author: LostSapphire
And this one''s for Gailey. I climbed around the other side of the juniper (you owe me for this pic!). I thought it would be nice to see the front end of the mourning doves! These look about a week ahead of the robins, they have quite a few feathers.

LS

Well done Losty. I can just picture you crawling around in the undergrowth! Surely these two nests can''t be in the same tree can they?

It''s a darling picture!

Keep em coming!

 

[gardengloves]

such great photos. Keep em coming. I have a pair of morning doves, no idea where the nest is, mom and dad come together to the feeder. Is this a robin's nest or morning doves?

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/4/2010 11:00:15 PM
Author: gardengloves
such great photos. Keep em coming. I have a pair of morning doves, no idea where the nest is, mom and dad come together to the feeder. Is this a robin''s nest or morning doves?

2 separate nests in 2 separate bushes: Robins (the "tiffany blue" eggs) and Mourning Doves which seem to be about a week ahead of the others.

The mourning dove nests are really weirdly insignificant. Hardly any straw around them, a bit of mud in the bottom. I don''t know how the fledglings stay on that little perch.

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/4/2010 9:20:48 PM
Author: Gailey

Date: 5/4/2010 6:25:55 PM
Author: LostSapphire

Date: 5/4/2010 6:23:00 AM
Author: LostSapphire
FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

So, I think I''m losing my mind. This is what I have tonight. Looks to me like THREE + 2 eggs.

Must have been one of them sleeping ontop of an egg this morning!

LS

Lets hope there are more in the morning. I wonder if the eggs don''t hatch does Mum or Dad pitch out the eggs at some point.

It was weird. Usually once they start hatching, the egg-laying sequence stops. I can''t imagine she laid another egg since this morning, plus, something (ie: a grackle or starling) scarfed one of the little ones...I have to think it''s a case of the fledgling laying on top of the 4th egg.

We often find empty robins eggs on the yard, they get taken quite frequently by other birds. So I''m hoping that all 5 of these will make it to fledgling status.

Will check again in the morning.

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/4/2010 9:22:05 PM
Author: Gailey

Date: 5/4/2010 6:27:34 PM
Author: LostSapphire
And this one's for Gailey. I climbed around the other side of the juniper (you owe me for this pic!). I thought it would be nice to see the front end of the mourning doves! These look about a week ahead of the robins, they have quite a few feathers.

LS

Well done Losty. I can just picture you crawling around in the undergrowth! Surely these two nests can't be in the same tree can they?

It's a darling picture!

Keep em coming!

Just so's you know, I had to hike myself around onto an embankment, then try to get a photo of the mourning doves with very little to hang on to...so it's a bit fuzzy as I had to reach in to the bush and zoom in...hoping for something...

And you are correct, the nests are in 2 separate bushes (both Fairview Junipers).

LS

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 5/4/2010 6:25:55 PM
Author: LostSapphire

Date: 5/4/2010 6:23:00 AM

Author: LostSapphire
FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

So, I think I''m losing my mind. This is what I have tonight. Looks to me like THREE + 2 eggs.

Must have been one of them sleeping ontop of an egg this morning!

LS

I think I can see in the first picture where one of them has a fluffy head on top of one of the eggs - you can sort of see the edge of the egg under his big ole noggin top middle of the pile

 

[Gailey]

Morning Losty

What news! It''s 6:45am and snowing here, I need a SPRING!! update!

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/5/2010 2:04:49 AM
Author: MonkeyPie

Date: 5/4/2010 6:25:55 PM
Author: LostSapphire

Date: 5/4/2010 6:23:00 AM

Author: LostSapphire
FOUR sleeping fluffballs. I''ll take another pic tonight when I get home. Hopefully they''ll be awake.

LS

So, I think I''m losing my mind. This is what I have tonight. Looks to me like THREE + 2 eggs.

Must have been one of them sleeping ontop of an egg this morning!

LS

I think I can see in the first picture where one of them has a fluffy head on top of one of the eggs - you can sort of see the edge of the egg under his big ole noggin top middle of the pile

MP, you''re right. This morning, I see 3 chicklets and 1 egg, and a little bit of the other egg underneath the chicks.

Hopefully by tonight we''ll see some more.

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

Happy Thursday everyone.

Here''s an interesting pic. They''re sleeping (4 of the 5 have now definitely hatched). But in this photo, you can see the start of feathers (as opposed to the fluff). Very neat.

None woke up when I went out to the nest today. Will take another one tonight and they''ll likely be wide awake.

LS

 

[Gailey]

Will you just look at these little guys! I think you need to give them names now Losty!

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/6/2010 9:24:26 AM
Author: Gailey
Will you just look at these little guys! I think you need to give them names now Losty!

Bird1
Bird2
Bird3
Bird4

and I hope to name the 5th one, Bird5

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

OH NO OH NO OH NO

So, there were still only 3 hatched.

But, there's been a raid...

This is what's in the nest now...I see a few feathers in the adjacent branches. I would doubt very much that the remaining 2 eggs will hatch, I think they should have by now.

oh dear. That's Mother Nature I guess. We live in a rural area and there are a lot of hawks and predatory birds around..

LS

 

[Gailey]

Oh Losty, what a shame. The same thing happens here on the lake. One minute we have 6-7 goslings from the same pair of Canada Geese that return every year and gradually the numbers drop. The ducks seem to fare a little better.

I''m so disappointed and heartsick for you because you were so diligent in following your robin family. Where I live it is not unusual for the robins to raise two litters (is that what a nestful of babies is called?). I wonder if your pair will try again? Has Mum or Dad been back to the nest since you got home?

Chin up chick. XX

 

[yssie]

 

[Indylady]

 

[LostSapphire]

That's Mother Nature I guess!

I'll monitor the last 2 eggs for another day or so, then clear them out. The robins will often lay 2 or 3 clutches each spring. Often re-using the same nest. In fact we have a nest at the back of the house that's been used for 3 years now. It's way high up though, so I can't see in to it. But it's a Robin flying in and out of it.

LS

 

[LostSapphire]

Tonight the nest is empty.

LS

 

[charbie]

This is the first time I''ve opened this thread, and getting to the end of it made me so sad!! Poor babies!
Do you have any bird houses? When I was younger, we had one in our backyard on a hook, and each year had birdies. We would peak in, and no bad guys could get to them in there...so no trauma to a little kid like me watching the bird babies.

And MP. My nickname to this day by my parents is "bird baby." One of their coworkers said I looked like a little bird and it just stuck, I had this little pointy nose and would open and close my mouth like a little baby bird when I was hungry.

 

[Gailey]

Note to self: buy Losty a birdbox for her birthday.

Hugs to you, Losty the robin mama

XX

 

[risingsun]

Thanks for the pics, Losty. One summer we had a pair of hawks in our yard. They built a nest high up in one of the evergreen trees. Four fledglings survived and stayed with us all summer. We watched as they learned how to fly. It was a wonderful experience. I must say, however, that the songbird population plummeted that summer

 

[LostSapphire]

Date: 5/9/2010 7:45:15 PM
Author: risingsun
Thanks for the pics, Losty. One summer we had a pair of hawks in our yard. They built a nest high up in one of the evergreen trees. Four fledglings survived and stayed with us all summer. We watched as they learned how to fly. It was a wonderful experience. I must say, however, that the songbird population plummeted that summer

You''re right, Marian.

We have a very vigorous population of hawks here. They pretty much stay away from the house though....there are too many mice and rodents (VOLES, Gailey!) in the fields around here to bother coming in so close.

Something got at them, that''s for sure! I went out today to have a look around the nesting area. Not a feather, nor, any broken eggs under the bush. So I''d venture to say something smaller than a hawk got at them. Although, we do see the occasional Merlin Hawk (they are quite small), so who knows.

Mr. Lost tells me the bluebird boxes down by the river are looking active. And, he says there''s another robin''s nest at the other side of the house where I could see it. Will have a look tomorrow.

The mourning doves continue to nest in their precarious perch. How 2 of them stay in that little nest is beyond me. And mum is quite big, she is still sitting on them too!

Fascinating watching, Mother Nature!

LS

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Oh no!

Poor babies. Amazing photos though.