8.15.2022

Fledged!

"What one person calls miracle, I call Nature."

― Abhijit Naskar
Yes ― that's a napkin holder. I got home from work this evening to find the empty nest. I could hear their calls so I knew the fledged robins weren't very far away.

First, a little backstory ...

A couple of months ago the robins attempted to build a nest on my patio door ledge, but it wasn't wide enough to support it and kept falling apart. This flimsy construction effort went on for a few weeks and it was kind of annoying cleaning up after them. I felt like I could to do something to give them a hand, so I put up a hanging basket I wasn't using along with some of the nesting material that had fallen. Both adults spent some time checking out, but snubbed it ― not good enough! But maybe they caught on. They doubled their nest construction efforts in one of my other hanging baskets that held a Black and Blue Salvia. Undoubtedly a great location, but this wasn't working out so well because I needed to water the plant. The nest was nearing completion, but it was getting rather waterlogged (my fault). Still considering a solution for them, I put up the folding napkin holder on the ledge and taped it to the wall. I carefully removed the nest from the salvia basket to the makeshift platform where it eventually dried out. The robins immediately favored this solution and completed building the nest as you see it above. Eggs were laid within a few days.

Back to today ...

I decided to seek out the fledged robins with my digiscoping rig ... 
Adorable little things, aren't they?
The eggs ...
Just a few days ago ...
My gorgeous second-floor patio where I install my annual hummingbird garden. Is it any wonder why a pair of American Robins would want to nest here?
All images © 2022 Mike McDowell