Baby Robins, Day 14

Well, sorry I kind of fell off the face of the blogging world this week!! Things got busy and I never had a chance to wrap up the robin story.

Last Friday was Day 14 and all four babies were still in the nest. I love how two of them were looking up at me in this picture!

I got to see the mother feeding them again, but didn't get a good picture of that. But I was happy to at least get a few pictures where all four babies were fairly visible.

By Saturday morning when I went outside to check on them, the nest was empty! They must have flown away early. I thought I could hear one of them chirping from a tree nearby for a while, but he must have been well hidden in the branches because I never saw him.

So ends the robin family saga for this summer . . . unless they raise a second family in the same nest later on. Thanks for following along with me!

Baby Robins, Day 13

There was lots of feather-fluffing and preening going on in the nest today! Also, still lots of eating, of course. :)

I love how they still have those little bits of "baby hair"sticking out the sides of their heads. They've been doing lots of flapping and stretching their wings . . . I wouldn't be surprised if they start taking off tomorrow. But maybe we will get to enjoy their presence for a few more days.

Baby Robins, Day 12

Sorry I ended up missing several days of baby robin development . . . our weather here has been so rainy and gloomy that I had a hard time taking any decent pictures since Sunday! I tried several times, but in order to take these photos I have to do it without a flash . . . and the ones with poor lighting were all coming out way too blurry. Even today I had a hard time getting any really good ones, but that is partly because the babies are all filling up the nest so much that I have a difficult time getting them all in one photo. This is the best I got:If you look closely, you can see at least a little bit of each bird, but the ones near the bottom of the photo are "washed out" and hard to see. They are getting really noisy now. We can hear them from inside the house, when the screen door is open. Every time they get fed, they get very excited. :) I expect they will start taking off anytime from now until Sunday . . . their tail feathers don't look quite ready yet, but I don't think it will be long. The nest is definitely getting crowded at this point!

Sam said he just wishes he could hold one of them. I have to admit, so do I! They are so cute and soft looking. I'm very grateful we got this up-close look at another robin family this summer. Maybe they will raise another family here later, too . . . the more the merrier! :)

Baby Robins, Day 9

Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures of the babies yesterday, since it was raining pretty hard all day long and I didn't want to get the camera wet. (Sometimes a waterproof camera would be nice! :)) Anyway, I got out there this morning and here is what I found:

Lots more feathers now, and their eyes are open!! They're getting so cute! If you get a chance, look back to Day 1 and see how much they've changed since then . . . they're certainly filling out the nest a lot more now!

Baby Robins, Day 7

I was able to get a few more with the mama robin in them today . . . not as good as the one from a few days ago, but I was pleased that she stayed still long enough for me to snap a few shots!

The babies are starting to get more gray and their eyes are peeking through those little slits more (although you can't tell that in this picture). I'm pretty sure the one in the middle (2nd from the left) is the youngest of the four--in case anyone is curious. :)
I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with a monthly goals post and maybe another book review . . . stay tuned! :)

Baby Robins, Day 6

Their feathers are showing up even more today, and getting longer. There are now little slits in their eyelids which can open a teeny bit. Their bodies are starting to catch up with their heads and beaks now, too. :) And they were so funny today when I was taking pictures--nearly every time the shutter snapped, these two would do this:
These were definitely "hungry beaks," not yawning ones! :) Looking forward to seeing what changes tomorrow brings . . .

Baby Robins, Day 5

The babies are filling up the nest a little more today, and I also see some tiny feathers starting to form on their wings. Very cool! Eyes are still closed, but looking a little less "alien-like." :)

I'm pretty sure the one on the right side of this photo, who is kinda lying on top of the others, was the last one hatched, as he looks a little less "advanced" than the other three.

They are still sleeping a lot! I think I saw one of them yawning a couple of times today. Or at least that's what it looked like. :)
We spend quite a bit of time doing this, off and on, each day. To be completely honest, I think I spend more time doing this than the kids! :) (And as a side note--this is Josiah. Can you believe how big my "baby" is getting these days?!!)
Looking forward to seeing what new changes tomorrow brings in the nest!

Baby Robins, Day 4

Not a whole lot new to report on the babies today--I didn't spend a whole lot of time outside watching them because it was raining for a good part of the day. The gloomy weather also made for poorer photos, and I apologize for how blurry this one turned out! Hopefully tomorrow will be a somewhat brighter day.

They haven't changed that much, but I think that there is a little more fluff on them, and they are a little bigger. Looking forward to when their eyes open in the next few days (at least if I remember right, it should be soon)! Hopefully tomorrow's post might be a little more interesting. :)

Baby Robins, Day 3

Today I actually remembered to put the card in the camera before I took pictures. :) I think this one is funny with all those fuzzy rumps, big heads and scrawny necks!The babies are starting to get a little more fluff and I can tell they've grown some since Day 1.

The newest one still looks a little bit smaller than the others, but not that much. I wonder if he will fly a day later since he hatched a day later? We will see. I think the babies were hot because they had their mouths open a lot today (not just when they were stretching up in search of food). At one point this morning, I got to see both the mama and papa robin feeding the babies at the same time. That was pretty cool! I also got this picture of the mama getting ready to feed the babies--I really love this one. This was taken through the space between the deck boards just like all the others, but the camera focused amazingly well on her, and I love how the babies are out of focus below. Just a really fun picture. :)

The forecast for tomorrow is thunderstorms. Hopefully I can still get a chance to take a few pictures anyway!

Baby Robins, Day 2

Okay, so I was sure I took some photos of the baby robins earlier today. Positive, in fact!! But they didn't show up when I loaded some other photos that I took after lunch, so I must have forgotten to put the camera card in when I took them. Oops! Anyway, they haven't changed much since yesterday, but the 4th baby did hatch overnight or early this morning! Yay! I promise I will do my very best to get a picture of them tomorrow before they grow too much more. Since I know from experience that they do change very quickly!!

Baby Robins, Day 1

Look who hatched out today!!!

When I first looked in the nest this morning, 2 of them had hatched and the third was almost out of its shell. By the time I got back outside with the camera, around 5 min. later, it was out and the shell was gone! So far the fourth egg hasn't hatched--not sure if it may still, or if it's a "dud?" I guess we will see. It'll be interesting to see what happens to it if it doesn't hatch. Will they kick it out of the nest when the babies start taking up a bunch of room, or will it just get pushed around like it did today? The kids and I have already had lots of fun watching these little guys, but it'll get even more fun as they grow more and get more active. :) So exciting!!

In other news . . . sorry for the bloggy silence this week! I had goals all ready to post, but time got away from me. I have lots of things to talk about, but just didn't have a chance this week to do so. We are done with all of our school stuff now, so hopefully I can blog a bit more faithfully over the summer. And of course I'll be posting for the next couple of weeks at least, about the birdies! :) Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with another post or two. Hope you all are having a good weekend so far!

Robin Family 2012

Yesterday we discovered that we have another set of robins nesting under our deck!!! Some of you probably remember how I documented the first robin family's journey 2 summers ago. Nobody used this nest last summer, but we were delighted that it's being used again now. :) And FOUR eggs this time!! It'll be interesting to see how four babies fit into this nest . . . it seemed tight enough with three, last time around! I wonder if the robin parents enlarged it a bit before laying the eggs? :)

And, at the risk of boring everyone, I will be documenting this family's journey too. ;) We'll be checking on the eggs every day, and I'll begin the series when they hatch! I would really love it if we actually got to see some of them hatch this time, as we missed that part last time around.