The story of robins nesting on our porch.
Robins!
They
do it silently, stealthily, and very, very fast. Before you even know
what's going on, they have the mud base laid down and they're lining
that perfectly symmetrical bowl with soft grasses.
Robins. The fastest nest-builders in the West. Well, the Midwest. I was so lucky this past spring--they nested with me!! Here is the spot they picked in my yard.
As
you can see, it's not really in my yard--it's on my porch, in one of my
hanging baskets otherwise filled with purple wave petunias, which I
sense are not going to get the best of the deal. Can you see Mama
Robin staring at me suspiciously? A second later, she flew away. I'll
have to be careful not to bother her too much.
Days 1 & 2
Next day, I found one gorgeous blue egg. The day after, there were two. They looked like this.
Day 3
The mother bird must form one egg a day within her body (perhaps at night? I
should look this up), and lay it in the morning, because this morning, I
found three! Where does the blue color come from? I wonder how many
more eggs will appear? Stay tuned . . .
Day 4
Only
three eggs again this morning. Robins lay anywhere from two to four
eggs, I learned. Looks like this might be a three-egg-nest. Mama
left for a while this morning--maybe she is hungry. I will try to get a
picture of her. By the way, two great books about eggs and nests are: Hummingbird Nest by Kristine O'Connell George, and An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston.
Here is a photo of the hanging basket from the front (hard to see the nest, isn't it?), including the bench from which I take pictures.