A Nest of Robins

     
    I found the nest of robin's eggs in the lilac bush in my front yard, just off to the side of my house. This picture was easy to take! It was a bit dark inside of the bush, so the lens is wide open, and the depth of field is quite narrow.
 
    Mother was very patient. She sat on that nest for weeks! I'm pretty sure she spent more time sitting on those eggs than she did looking for food. I wonder where she sat, and what she thought, while I was looking at her nest?      
 
     
    Mother was very, VERY patient; both with her eggs, and with ME! I took this picture with the camera on a tripod using a 20' long squeeze-bulb type cable release. Oh yeah, I had to be patient too, you don't think mama came right back after I set up all that junk, do you?
 
    The chicks hatched one day when I wasn't looking. From then on it was easy to get a chance to take their picture. Mama was out hunting much more often.      
 
     
    All three of them hatched. But they weren't very good at posing for pictures at first. I think they are only about a week old here. Kinda wobbly, aren't they. Yes Thumper, they are!
 
    Mother fed them every day... ALL day; and they grew pretty fast. About two weeks old here. You could hear them crying for food, until you got up close, then they instinctively kept quite.      
 
     
    They probably ate their own weight in food every day. I wonder how mother kept the nest clean?!! You could almost see the difference in their size from one day to the next!
 
    They got this big in just over two weeks. By the third week, they were gone. Three more robins out there to fly south in the fall. Did you ever wonder, why don't they just STAY south??      
 



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10/30/98