Friday, May 31, 2013

Leaving the Nest

We found a Robin nest in a tree behind our house a few weeks ago.  Cari and I watched them on a regular basis and finally two babies were hatched.  The mamma bird fed her babies continuously every day but if we were outside trying to watch she wouldn't approach the nest.   For that reason we mostly just watched from in the house.
Then one day Cari came out to the car as I got home from work and she told me the babies had feathers and were sitting up in the nest.  We walked back for a closer look.  I got out my cell phone to take a picture and took another step toward the tree.

That's when it happened.  One of the babies jumped out of the nest and onto a tree branch.  I didn't move.  The bird then jumped from the nest and flew across the yard.  He didn't appear to be a very strong flier.  Most likely that was the first flight of his life.
 Then the other baby jumped out of the nest and attempted to fly but only glided down to the ground.  It ran and hid under one of our storage buildings.
UGH!!  I felt horrible.  I freaked those babies out to the point they jumped out of the nest and now what?  How will they eat?  How will they stay warm?

We did some reading on the internet and found that as long as they are feathered (they both were), they should be fine.  The mother will continue to feed them where they are and in a few days they may attempt to fly back to the nest.  We decided to let them be.

Two days later there were two adult Robins flying around the yard carrying food to various locations in our yard.  It seems that everyone is going to survive the trauma that I caused.

Maybe next year the Robins won't build in the yard of a curious home owner.

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