Bye Bye Birdy

I hope that everyone is enjoying this Sunday afternoon.  It's a beautiful, sunny day here.

I just wanted to give a final update about my robin family.  A couple of weeks ago we had a tremendous thunder storm, complete with golfball-sized hail.  During the storm, I was worried about my birds, but trusted that their natural instincts would take care of them.  The next morning, when I went outside, I was very sad to see that their nest had broken apart and some of it was on the ground.

I saw three of the babies in the tree - two were standing on the remains of the nest and one was standing on the branch below.  There was no trace of the fourth baby in the tree or on the ground.  Since I was running late, I didn't have time to take a picture of them before I left.

I was very concerned about the fourth baby bird, so I came home during lunch to investigate further.  At this time, there were only two babies in the tree.  The one that was on the lower branch was gone.  Papa kept flying around and chirping at me as I looked all around the tree trying to find the other baby birds.  No luck.

When I returned home at the end of the day, there was only one baby left in the tree.  I thoroughly searched the tree and surrounding areas and found no evidence that the other babies were harmed, so at this point I assumed that Papa and Mama must have been helping to evacuate their babies, one by one, to a safer location.  Not wanting to miss my opportunity, I took some pictures of the last baby.

Isn't he a cutie?  Such pretty coloring.

While I'm relieved that the babies appear to have been moved to a safe location, I am sad that they are no longer in my tree.

And now my tree and I are empty nesters.

I hope that my robin family is thriving and that the babies are doing well.  I am also hoping that Papa and Mama will consider nesting in my tree next year, and that they haven't been scared off by the crazy camera lady!

Cheers!
Jenn