We’ve had the interesting opportunity of being able to observe a robin’s nest right outside Ava’s bedroom window this year! We first noticed it as the babies were starting to hatch and we were only able to tell there were babies in it because we would see their little beaks peek out when the mama robin came back with food. They’re a bit bigger now and we can see them even when the mama isn’t there feeding them. This picture was taken when they were littler, so you might not be able to see them, but I’m going to get a better picture this week.

Yesterday, I was talking to Chad while he was working on the porch-we’re-finishing-off-to-be-a-playroom when I noticed something moving in the grass. It was a baby bird!! We probably shouldn’t have done what we did next, but we used a piece of wood to get it on a paper plate (being extremely careful not to touch it) and Chad climbed up on the roof to put it back in its nest. We knew the mama bird was watching us from the garage roof the entire time, so we were a little afraid she’d abandon the babies.

The kids and I spent the next hour or so glued to Ava’s window watching to be sure the babies would be OK. The mama robin kept flying over, looking at the babies and then flying away. I was really nervous, but then she finally started bringing them food again and she was sitting on them all day today (it was raining and really damp….luckily we have a basement dehumidifier), so she must have decided it was OK to still take care of them.

From everything I’ve heard and learned about baby robins, I think they’ll be learning to fly within the next week or two. They already flap their wings around in the nest all the time (which I’m assuming is how the one fell out) and the mama is feeding them whole pieces of food instead of the pre-digested stuff. I hope Ava doesn’t take it too hard when they don’t live in the nest anymore…she’s already really attached to them and calls them “my baby birdies”.