Mrs. Robinson

At the end of last month Jill discovered a robin nest in the ancient pump house.

Having left the windows open to air the shack out a robin determined that a most excellent spot for a home was to build a nest in a basket on a shelf in a building.  

A house, in a house, in a house.

Brilliant.

Monitoring the three eggs laid in the nest there are three babies now that are close to fledging.

It will be interesting to see if mama chooses to raise a second brood in this location......

Opportunist

Leave the windows on the old pump house open to air it out at your own peril.

Because mama robin is going to build her nest in a basket on a shelf.

It's a house, in a house, in a house.

Smart bird the American Robin is....... 

Variety

From the trail camera trap line I bring you a stringer of various critters who have had their images curated over the past month.

Key takeaways?  

Snow on the ground until just recently.

Plenty of variety.

Coyote

Check out the spurs on this gobbler

Striped skunk

Robin

Cranes

Possum

Deer

Crow

Chickadee

And a teeny, tiny Boreal or Saw Whet owl 

Porch Setting

Following our daily walk the girls got their daily bath and underbody flush.  

And the sun came out!


Porch setting and bird watching with the Dowager Retriever.

Spotted were:  goldfinch, chickadee, robin, redwing black bird, brown creeper, hairy, downy and red bellied woodpecker.

Harbinger of Spring

click on images for a closer look

 

Say hello to Turdus migratorius – the American Robin.  And state bird of our fair state (and Michigan and Connecticut too).   This songbird is known as a harbinger of spring and they've arrived for the breeding season and are showing-up on the trail cameras.  

They're active during daylight hours hopping around the grass in search of grubs and earthworms.  Males chirp a song that sounds sort of like:  cheerily cheerup.   American robins are one of the first birds to lay eggs in the spring with a clutch of three to five bright blue eggs at a time.  This bird is capable of rearing three broods in a single nesting season however less than half of all nests successfully produce young.  Only twenty-five percent of fledglings survive to November and only half of any given population survives to the following year.

A migrating member of the thrush family - its name is a consequence of the European robin and its reddish breast even though the two species are not closely related. 

If the conditions are favorable some American Robins spend the entirety of winter in their breeding range – something not observed here.  In the fall this bird is known to gorge on fruit.  If they get into a batch of rotting honeysuckle berries they sometimes become tipsy.

Bird In the Barn

Is better than one in the bush?  Or the hand?  Or are there more possibilities?      

In any event I have posted any number of times about our state bird - the American robin. They're common to our yard and fun to observe.    

 
Robins have nested on the transom above our doors.  They have nested in the gnarly rose bush adjacent to the garage.  And they have nested in the trees in and around the yard and the woods. 

Yet the most successful of locations has been on top-of the header beneath the lean-to roof of the barn.    

It is a near -perfect location.  It's a sheltered and safe place for sure – protected from both the elements and predators.       
 
 
 
 
Mama robin has raised a second brood already and they are very close to fledging.

Trail Camera Tales - Redux

Earlier this month I published a series of photos chronicling the critters that stopped by to visit a pile of chicken parts that were leftover from making soup.  The final post was published on Sunday, April 15th. 

I returned to that camera today to swap-out the SD card and see what has transpired over the last three weeks or so.

Looks like it was continuing to get visitors - including crows, a gobbler, a deer, robin and a raccoon.

Nest

During the nesting season it is a rare find to come across one of these.  So clever are the birds that make them to raise a brood of youngsters to become fledglings.  

Now that the leaves have fallen they've revealed themselves and are still in rather good shape.  A testimony to their meticulous construction.  

American Robin nest...

 click for a closer look

A Bird in the Bush

Just about the time we were getting used to the notion of being empty nesters Jill discovered another American Robin nest in the river birch adjacent to the trailhead in the back yard.

It looks like I spoke too soon and was premature in my assessment.  

Grandparenting another clutch of baby robins is apparently back on the agenda...

. click on the eggs for a better look

Empty Nesters

If you've been following this blog no doubt you've been reading about and following the nesting robins in the giant rose bush growing against the garage.  My pal Braumeister refers to it as:  the rose bush that ate Cincinatti.  That's probably because it has a tendency to grab you with a thorny branch trying to sneak past on the walkway.  But I digress.  

Baby robins are ready to leave the nest when they are about 13 days old - which is the age of the pair of birds in the nest in the rose bush.  They fledged yesterday and we initially thought it was because we disturbed them.  

click on images to enlarge

And we returned them to the nest only to learn they jumped right out and hid among the flowers bordering the picket fence.  Baby robins can't fly well when they leave the nest and they have to build up their flight muscles and feathers to master the art of flight.  So, they’ll be vulnerable to predators for another week and a half or so.  I guess we’re empty nesters

now...

A Bird in the Bush

Is actually two in the hand.

The baby robins that I posted about earlier this week appear to be fine.  In-fact, thriving.

I checked-in on them a few moments ago and while I haven't seen an adult flying to or from - the predator kill we found in the yard at the beginning of this week might not have been a parent.  Or perhaps it's a surviving member of the mating pair tackling the duties of raising the young'uns.  I managed to snake an arm through all of the thorns on the rose bush and snap a picture.

 click on image for a better view

They're bigger - amazing the size they put-on over four days.  Whew!

A Bird in the Bush

The robin nest that I posted last week featured two blue eggs.  I checked it yesterday and sure enough - they hatched.  And it is remarkable the size the little chicks have put-on in about a week - give or take.

click on image for a better view

On Sunday I knew momma was attending to her family when she darted from the nest as I walked past.  I didn't see her yesterday at all.  Which doesn't necessarily mean she's not around - only that I hadn't seen her.

I did find this in the yard - evidence of a robin nailed by a raptor...

Ugh.

A Bird in the Bush

...Is better than one in the hand.  Or is it the other way around?

In any event I have posted several times about our state bird the American robin. They're common to our yard and fun to observe.
 
Once again a pair of persistent robins have been attempting to nest on the transom above our doors.  And following  several successful attempts to dissuade them from doing so they settled upon constructing their nest in a perfect location.  The giant rose bush on the south side of the garage.  I blogged about this a year ago - almost to the day.  My pal Julie from Lake Ledge Naturalist tells me they're highly likely to be the same nesting pair.  And sure enough - it began with the battle for the transoms and ultimately led to that thorny tangle of a rose bush. Deja vu all over again.
 
That dang rose bush is a sheltered and safe place for sure as the thorns certainly dissuaded me when I attempted to reach through and snap a picture.  And once again I snapped that picture 

Ouch!   New nest built atop last-year's nest.

And before too long the little peeps will be hatching sometime soon.  We're going to be grandparents again.

Stay tuned....

The Robin Expert

click on the nest to enlarge

Took this pic this afternoon.  These nestlings are getting huge - looks like they're about to fledge.

Laura Erickson - The Robin Expert - has this to say:

After a brood of young robins fledge (leave the nest), the mother starts building a new nest and laying new eggs even as she still spends most of the time each day attending to those fledglings. The father spends all day with the fledglings and leads them to a roost at nighttime, where they join with other fathers and fledglings. 

When the mother finishes laying a new clutch (which takes usually four to six days after her new nest is built), she starts incubating and leaves the fledglings to their father’s care. When the new eggs hatch, the father leaves the fledglings on their own and returns to feeding the new nestlings. Those fledglings hang out with the other fledglings from their nighttime roost, finding fruit trees and worms and being sociable, and every night the fathers join them in the roost. 

As the last broods are done being raised, the mothers join these flocks. So by the summer’s end, robin flocks contain birds of all ages that start to wander, looking for new feeding areas that provide some worms and fruit. The young birds hang out with these restless flocks, moving from place to place in search of food, mostly headed in a southerly direction. They don’t have to know where to go on their own because of their need to associate with other robins.

You can learn more from Laura at her American Robin website here.

Birds in the Bush

On Monday I posted an update on the robin hatchlings inhabiting the rose bush alongside of the garage.

They're growing quickly...

click on image to enlarge

Birds in the Bush

Last Thursday I posted a picture and background on the American robins nesting in the rose bush alongside of the garage.

The blessed event has occurred and the eggs that have so carefully been incubated have hatched and the nest is now occupied by some fuzzy nestlings that are growing by the day.

Mom and dad have been shuttling grubs, insects and worms during the daylight hours to feed the hungry brood.

Since we are grandparents - again - there is nothing to lose in sharing with you that I sat on the driveway with a whiskey and a cigar. 

 

A Bird in the Bush

Is better than one in the hand.  Or is it the other way around?

In any event I have posted several times about our state bird - the American robin. They're common to our yard and fun to observe.

A pair of robins have been attempting to nest on the transom above our doors.  And following  several successful attempts to dissuade them from doing so they settled upon constructing their nest in a perfect location.  The giant rose bush on the south side of the garage.

It's a sheltered and safe place for sure as the thorns certain dissuaded me when I attempted to reach through and snap a picture.

click on image to enlarge

The little peeps should be hatching sometime soon.  We're going to be grandparents again.

Stay tuned... 

State Bird

 click on the bird to enlarge

Meet Turdus migratorius - the American robin - a bird familiar to anyone from Wisconsin probably because most of us know it is the Wisconsin state bird.  I would also add that it is a particularly cool Latin classification. 

Females are characterized by a grey head and a dull red breast while males sport a a darker head and a darker, rusty red breast.

A territorial bird they raise a stink whenever I approach the granary.  Every year a robin builds a nest in the rafters of the lean-to over the deck.  Like the bird in the picture above you'll often spy them walking erect in the lawn foraging for something to eat.

State Bird

Meet Turdus migratorius - the American robin - and Wisconsin's state bird.

click on image to enlarge

Everyone knows this bird by sight and this time of year they are singing-up a storm late into the evening.  The nearly solid black head and dark red breast of the bird on the right identifies it as a male of the species.

Picture taken with a trail camera positioned just above the turf.  A bird's eye view...