Robins

Mr. & Mrs. Robin decided to build a nest in a crab-apple shrub right next to an outdoor faucet that I use to water my backyard.  Mrs. Robin went ahead and laid eggs, and I was concerned because there was no way I could avoid going by that shrub quite often, and the Robin family might then abandon the nest.  This picture above I took on May 11 with an iPhone.

But the Robins persisted.  There would be a fluttering in the bush, and a robin would fly out sometimes when I passed by, and that is how I knew that they hadn't given up.

The eggs had hatched by May 26, there were at least 2 babies in the nest that I could make out from a distance, by their upturned beaks. The web says the eggs take 12 to 14 days to hatch, so they likely hatched during around the Memorial Day weekend.

The web says that the baby birds stay in the nest 9-16 days.  After which they leave the nest, not yet ready to fly.  They live on the ground hiding in the bushes, still taken care of by their parents for another couple of weeks.  So one evening when it appeared no one was around, I checked, and the nest was empty.  I thought that I would learn nothing further about this family.

Until this morning, when I was changing out the hummingbird feeder, and right there was this little fellow. It stood still as a rock, petrified I thought, but fifteen minutes later when I checked again, it had gone.