Robin nestlings

Two robins have made the rather questionable choice of building their nest in the magnolia tree right next to the front door of the house. It's about 6 feet off the ground and you can look right into it from the front steps. The only good thing about this site is that there is a thorny wild rose climbing the magnolia, and that might possibly deter a cat. I doubt it, but it's possible.

Yesterday, Seema and Vinay and Ani's aunt came for a brief visit. I got up at 5 am, because Ned had gotten outside and I was worried that he might kill the birds. They were making quite a racket as soon as the sun came up. I went outside and looked for Ned, to no avail, and when I looked in the nest, I only saw 2 chicks. There were originally 4 eggs, so two were missing. Ned showed up a little while later, but the robins kept up their racket all day.

When Seema's family arrived, about 2 pm, Vinay said that there was a robin chick on the front curb. We debated for a while whether we should leave it there for the parents to tend, but felt there was far too much traffic (people and dogs) for the chick to survive. So I picked up the chick and put it back in the nest, and the robin settled right now and quit their distress calls. I wasn't sure if the parents would feed the chick since I had handled it, so I fed it some worm-sized slices of turkey which it quickly gobbled up.

Later on, Mom and Dad Robin returned and brought some sustenance for the chicks, so I beleive all is well in Robin Land.