The babies on May 24th

Continual development. It's making me cross eyed trying to see the totality of what's going on. Impossible. Eyes open. Increase in size. Beginning of feathers. Insatiable appetite.

Start of personality. No way to determine which baby is first hatch or runt. They're squeezed into this little nest mostly hidden from view. Smart planning on part of parents
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Nest watching, the reality. Three days later

The nest. Visibility through a slit. Now the babies' eyes are open. The waiting mouths are always open.

Love the faces. I couldn't get standard images of this nesting behavior, but oh, the faces were a laugh.

In the park Papa robin has a safe space to raise two kids. One day the termites hatched. Easy pickin's. Fast food.

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For the love of robins, Intro

At this time of year I expect to see young robins. The young have such strong personalities. Necessary in order to survive.

Muddy parent needs a bath. She's been shaping her nest using her chest.

Every year we have West End Avenue robin nests. Some are up too high for easy viewing. Some have been very low, totally visible, in danger of human intrusion by people who don't know how to behave near a nest and don't want to be guided. They feel it's their God-given right to intrude and distress the robin family.  On May 19th I spotted this nest, low, within touching distance, a bad location as far as  safety, but its one saving grace was the degree of cover. The nest was in a holly tree totally surrounded by leaves, the only "opening" on reverse side not accessible by humans. This was the first nest where I could only see small portions, hardly ever the three babies, never the babies in relation to the parents, never feeding, ... the peek-through-a-tiny-gap nest.  I was not going to trim leaves away, because this nest needed privacy. If I was getting some pictures and saw a human coming along the path I turned away and pointed camera elsewhere.  The lens was the equivalent of 672mm so there was no need to stand close.   This begins the documentation of the little well-hidden nest, three kids.  May 19th, eyes not yet open. I'll post in order that images were taken. I felt it was dangerous to announce that there was an active nest. The last thing this accessible nest needed was human interference.

 

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Hot day

The female common yellow throat  at the cotoneaster shrub

White crowned sparrow. Fascinated by its feet. Deformity?

and in front of our house, West End Avenue,.. came for some cool water.

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More variety

The black throated blue male at cotoneaster shrub

ballet time

The female oriole also at cotoneaster

Female oriole at another location

The chestnut sided warbler at Tanner's

Bathing magnolia warbler at Tanner's

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