May 07 2015
This spring I had almost a ring side seat to watch a pair of Robins build their nest and hatch out 4 eggs.
I sat on my smoking deck most days and watched the busy pair for a month. The nest was under the eave on my neighbors shed; about 50 feet away.
When they had the nest built and there was always one in the nest I knew there were eggs to hatch. Sometime near the end of April I could see there were babies being fed by both birds. On the 29th I decided to get my camera and try to get close enough for some pics. Whenever I got close enough they would stop feeding and just sit there. I settled for a couple shots of one setting on the nest.
By May 4th I could see the birds getting larger and standing with open beaks waiting to be fed. Tues. the 5th they were standing on the edge of the nest and sometimes flapping their wings. I decided to try for some pics again. I have an Olympus E620 camera with a telephoto lens that goes to 600mm equivalent; I need good sunlight for close ups and the nest was always in the shade.
I did get some decent pics and was surprised to see there were 4 babies. They were pretty active all day. Yesterday when I went out in the morning it looked like two had already left the nest. The male and female continued to feed the two but not as often. By the end of the day they were all out of the nest.
Hope they all made it; they are pretty vulnerable until they can fly well. When I was mowing one was sitting on the fence below the nest and then flew into the neighbor’s flour bed. It was fun watching them.
Smokin Don