FLEDGE DAY! ROBINS ON THEIR WAY

Fledge Day has arrived!  May 20, 2018

Today is the nestlings' 15th day in the nest (robins usually fledge between 12-14 days), but yesterday, day 14, was really cold, 37˚ in the morning and never got above 59 - with rain. Smart to stay put. In general, these nestlings have not seemed as restless as last year's brood. 

Mama Robin with all four nestlings - fledge is tomorrow!

Although, there was some jostling in the overcrowded nest on pre-fledge day!

The blurry one (it was wiggling and I was using a handheld iPhone over my head!) with the wavy gape was the first to go.

Fledgling #1 left the nest at 6:34 AM: Like last year's birds, it was yelling all the way! (“Mom. Dad, I’m flying!!”) 

It was a very sudden departure, none of the wing flapping that we saw last year. Fledgling #1 was sitting outside of the nest, while the other three were hunkered down with their beaks on the edge of the nest (“No way I'm going!“).

Wavy-beak outside of the nest, sitting very quietly just before he flew

 Last year's first to fledge had quite a bit of bravado about it and then when it flew, it glided to the ground.  This one seemed more confident and collected, and when it took off, it was flying, not gliding!  It went straight out under the porch roof and then up to a branch on the hemlock, but it didn’t land (perhaps thinking, “Yikes! I don’t know how land!“).  Instead of landing, it glide it down into the rhododendrons, with an adult following close behind.

No adults are feeding the remaining three birds and they currently show no sign or interest in leaving.  It has been 45 minutes since #1 left and we haven't seen the parents at the nest at all.

#2 starts to get ready to go:

#2 getting ready!

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6:23AM, #2 leaves the nest and fledges :

Mama came and fed the other two, not feeding the one on the right (below), who was about to leave the nest.  

Right after mama flew off the nest, #2 followed her.  

This one flew over Linda’s car and to a branch in a pine tree! Mama came and joined the fledgling on the branch, encouraging it to fly down to the ground. Both adult and fledgling hopped around the ground, with the adult leading the fledgling somewhere to safety. 

The other two nestlings, having been fed and their fecal sacks taken, hunkered back down into the nest.

 

As of 10AM, they remaining two were content to stay put although one was showing some interest in departure. 

 

 

 The other nestling is the lump of feathers in the nest (right)!  For a long time, I thought the one standing was the last bird in the nest!

It is now 11:45AM and there are still two birds in the nest.  More later...

OF NESTS, HERONS AND COWBIRDS

There is a lot of life around here this spring!  We are usually gone for these weeks and we and miss it, but this year we feel like we are right in the middle of everything!  

FOUR great-blue herons flew overhead this morning as I was walking the dog.
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Yesterday afternoon on our walk, I had just crossed the brook on Moore Road and there was this VERY CLOSE, and VERY LOUD, shrieking "GRAAACK", right over my shoulder!  I am not particularly jumpy, but I jumped at this!  My first thought was, "Fisher in the tree?"  But it was a great-blue heron chasing a red-tailed hawk!!!  I wonder if there are nests back in those wetlands and the hawk was after the heron nestlings!  Gotta check it out. 
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The house wrens are very busy moving more twigs into the nest box.  I was puzzled because it also seemed that there was a fledgling around, asking for food (smaller than the adults, some fuzzy down-like feathers, inside of mouth still a bit red).  I did some research and read that house wrens frequently have more than one clutch and sometimes while dad house wren is feeding the fledglings, mom runs off with another male!  Then dad finds another mate and they refurbish the nest.  I guess this could be the scenario... they haven't confided in me.

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 AND, on Sunday we spotted a grey catbird nest in the Rhododendron bush right under our window - perfect viewing place!  Very hidden - can you find the nest in the bush below??

(It is right smack in the middle of the bush, 

just below and left of the yellow leaf.)

Monday morning we spotted one, gorgeous blue egg!  

Tuesday morning, I checked as soon as it was light enough so that I could see into the nest and there were two eggs, but one was blueish-white with brown spots!  A brown-headed cowbird egg.  We have seen a lot of cowbird activity around here this fall.

I checked again around 6:30 and there was another blue egg - you can see that it is still damp from just being laid!  The nest is very deep and it is hard to see any eggs that are close to the edge - I believe the other blue one is just out of sight, perhaps behind that leaf.

Grey Cat-bird egg (left) and Brown-headed Cowbird egg

The catbirds are among the birds who can tell when there is an egg that isn't their own and by later in the morning, the cowbird egg was no longer visible.   Most likely mama catbird rolled it out of the nest.  We couldn't find it on the ground, but on the other hand, the way the ticks are this year, we were NOT interested in crawling around under the bush! 

This morning (Wednesday), by 7:30 there were three blue eggs and no sign of the cowbird egg.  

For those of you who don't know, brown-headed cowbirds always drop their eggs in other bird's nests (possibly up to 30 from one female in a season).  The cowbird usually hatches before the host bird's eggs and is often bigger than the host bird nestlings, so it claims more food.  Often the host bird's nestlings don't thrive. 

But this mama catbird is quite happy on her nest!

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Our robins are getting ready to fledge - should be this weekend!

 Otherwise, not much going on around here... 

MORE ROBINS IN THE NEST

Mama Robin incubating four eggs

We left the robins' nest (see last post) on the porch light over the winter - partially laziness and partially curiosity.  On April 18th (2018), we noticed that the robins were refurbishing the nest!  Cool!  They didn't rebuild, they just brought in some new grass for the nest cup (as you will see, this turned out to be a problem...)

I am not keeping as much detail as last year, but there are definitely some interesting happenings in year two with the same Mama bird.
Below is the journal I've been keeping on my phone.  (Closeup pictures are fuzzy because they are taken with iPhone in rather low light - don't want to use flash in their eyes).

ROBINS' NEST - APRIL 2018

April 18

Robins renovating the old nest on the porch.

April 21

We didn’t see an egg in the morning, but mama Robin was on the nest most of the day. The next morning we did see an egg, so we are assuming it was laid on the 21st. 

April 22

Two eggs today, but not early this morning. We are thinking she is laying more mid morning. It has been cold for the last several days and low 40s at night.

April 23

Only two eggs in the morning, but when I looked at two this afternoon, there were three beautiful eggs. I haven’t seen mamma on the nest much today though, but she is there now, 7:29PM

Ap 24

We now have four eggs in the nest, as of afternoon of the 24th (above). We are waiting with bated breath to see if a fifth will be laid this afternoon, or if there will be just four. The nest was awfully full with four last year, but she could lay up to seven.
Ap 25
The nest keeps sliding around and almost falling off the light.  I put a piece of rubber drawer liner under it, but the mud they put there last year to anchor the nest to the light has dried up and is acting like little ball bearings under the nest and rubber piece.  The nest was really hanging off precariously yesterday.  Today I took a wet paper towel, lifted the nest and wiped off most of the loose dirt.  Leaving it wet (hoping it would make a sticky mud again), I put the nest back.  We'll see.

Ap 27

No more eggs have been laid, so four is it. Mama sits on the nest and is mostly not bothered by us. If startled, she flies off, but mostly she’s content to stay there even when we are on the porch. It must be the same bird as last year or it would be more shy of us. The first egg could hatch as early as Thursday next week, May 3. According to the book, it takes 12 to 14 days.

May 3:

No hatching yet; this is the first day that the eggs could have started hatching. Mama is very attentive and doesn’t mind us being around.

May 4

No hatching as of 7:15 in the morning. 

Still four eggs, no hatching yet. 6:45 PM.  But good news - the nest isn't sliding!

May 5

This morning (day 14 after the first egg was laid), 7:20 AM, two eggs have hatched, one looks like it is just hatched! Papa Robin came and delivered worm to mama which she then fed to the hatchling. 

NOTICE in the picture - the top nestling has some downy feathers (hatched a few hours before).
The bottom one has just hatched! It is still between the egg shells and the parent bird usually
removes the egg shells immediately.  Also, the just hatched bird still has pieces of egg shell on its rear.

May 6

Three eggs have hatched this morning. It’s a dark drizzly morning, so difficult to get a clear picture.
May7

As of last night, all four eggs had hatched. One nestling was cheeping and gaping.

May 8

Mama is dutifully keeping the nestlings warm on this cold morning (41.5°). Papa brought some food, and mama flew off; I saw two beaks peeking up over the edge of the nest as papa was feeding them.

They are starting to look like little birds. Look at those little wings!  Eyes are still closed (the big black things above the beaks are their eyes.

 

May 9

Parents back and forth with food!

 

 

May 10

This morning there is a little beak sticking up over the edge of the nest, chin resting on the nest. Amazing that these little blobs with a tiny bit of down will be flying in a bit over a week.

May 12 

Yikes!  there are feathers on these birds!  Starting to look like robins, well... if you have a good imagination. Eyes are open now, too.

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So, some time in about a week, we should have a fledging!  Hmmm... seems like last year fledge day was also on a Saturday when we were at yoga class!  Harumph!  Maybe they will hold off one day.
Also, good news - the nest no longer slides at all!  It has been stable even with both parents landing on it and pushing off from it!  Yay!  It is always a tough call as to whether or not to mess with nature.  Mostly I err on the side of not doing anything, but am glad I did this time!