Local Wild Life – Ell Family

July 18, 2019

The Robins Return!

The robins have again decided that our back porch light would make a great location for a nest.

And so the laying began though, unlike last year, we ended up with only two eggs in the nest.

It was only a few days until we got some activity in the nest. Unfortunately only one of the eggs actually hatched. While its unfortunate that the other egg didn’t hatch, it did make for a very fast growing and plump little robin for the one that survived.

On one of the last days before it fledged, the baby robin mistook the camera for mom bringing food and nearly jumped out of the nest trying to get at it!

You can say right down the throat 🙂

Here is a picture from the last day before fledging where he is much more relaxed. Definitely plump and fills most of the nest. Hard to believe that there were 4 of them in the nest last year!

Since fledging, we’re pretty sure we’ve seen the little one around the yard starting life as an adult, another small but successful brood.

July 4, 2018

The robins have fledged!

Well I guess that my estimates on when the robins hatched were a bit off. The girls and I went for a bike ride this evening and by the time we got back, three of the four were gone!

Only one lonely Robin left in the nest.

I’m sure our last avian guest will be hitting the road in the next day as well. Ralphie will be relieved as he shouldn’t have the parents attacking him any more.

Overall I feel like these Robins are a lot better prepared for moving on compared to the last batch. We’ll keep our eyes peeled to see if we can find them around the neighborhood.

July 3, 2018

Ralphie and the Robin

For those following the growth of the baby robins in the nest above our back door, you’ll be familiar with the fact that mama and papa robin have been tormenting Ralphie any time that he is outside. We’ve actually caught a number of the interactions on film and I made little gifs out of some of the attacks.

Not doing any damage, of course, but Ralphie just can’t figure out what has these birds so upset all the time. The babies should fledge in another week so things will go back to normal soon.

July 3, 2018

Daily Robin Update

Well, the robins continue to grow and mom and dad robin continue to dive-bomb Ralphie.

Given their size, I have to think we are not too far off from fledging but seems we may still have a few days to go. The reading I’ve done says it takes about 13 days for robins to fledge and I think they hatched around 8 days ago or so. We’ll start watching for them to take the leap in towards the end of the week.

July 2, 2018

Looking more like robins every day

Just a quick update picture of the robins, who are truly starting to look like robins now. Its amazing how quickly their plumage is coming in.

I know that I say this in every post but I’m amazed that they still fit in the nest. Mom and dad must be doing a good job of keeping the worms coming 🙂

June 30, 2018

Daily Robin update

Here are some quick update pictures of the robins – they were peeking out of the top of the nest at me when I went out today.

It’s hard to believe how fast they are growing, both in size and in the way their plumage is starting to fill out. The battle for space in the nest is going to be heating up over the next few days I suspect.

June 29, 2018

Robins are growing

Just an update on the robins. I snapped a quick picture of the nest to see how they are doing. All four still there and, to my eye, threatening to outgrow the nest in short order!

June 27, 2018

Robins Nest

In what is becoming an annual event, robins have set up a nursery in a nest over our back door light.

I’ve been following the development of the family since it started – chronologically shown below. Note that the eggs showed up one at a time a day apart each though I didn’t catch a photo of them until mamma robin had already laid two.

Not sure if the last photo is a function of perspective or if there really was that much disparity in egg size. Seems the largest egg is almost twice the size of the smaller one – if accurate, it is more variation than I would have expected.

After that, things got quiet and I even started to suspect that the eggs might not be viable as it seems the mother wasn’t around brooding them. To be sure, I stuck the camera up top once more to find that all four had hatched.

They’re not very loud right now but based on past years, I’m assuming that we’ll be hearing the constant cheeping starting soon.

Meanwhile, mother robin is on the prowl and dive bombs Ralphie any time he is in the back yard. I’ll try and catch a video of it – kinda funny as he can’t seem to figure out why she is so upset.

Last years fledging was not very successful and I’m not sure any of the young survived so I’m hoping we have better luck this time around. Fingers crossed…