The baby birds are fat and literally started falling out of their nest because there just wasn't room for them all. Here's a picture from the beginning of the week, right after big brother hopped out. Big brother did have to hop/fly back up to the nest temporarily after a cat discovered them. I have no idea how he pulled that off. (I observed them for quite some time, off and on, and they just seem like sitting ducks, or well, sitting robins, believe me. Chirping and not really moving even when toy trucks come to within a few inches--accidentally, of course.) I chased the cat off, like a true Darwinist would not do (the nature filmers don't try to scare the lion as it closes in on the antelope, though maybe self-preservation is a factor there). I kept waiting to find his little mangle
d body somewhere. I even had a dream of finding him dead. That's when I think the stay-at-home mom realizes her world has shrunken in a truly alarming way, when she is worried enough about a baby robin that she has nightmares about its death. Then the next day his sister (let's just keep all the genders involved) flew the nest. We were down to Junior. Junior didn't seem really motivated to go anywhere. He stayed up there by himself quite a while. At least another day. Then he made the big leap but hung out right below the nest on the porch for a good 12 hours. He left a lot of nasty poop all over the porch. He had a bike parked right near him by an unobservant visitor. He almost got hit by a toy truck (that in fairness was poorly aimed by the mother cleaning up and not by the toddlers playing with it). The funniest part was his really loud mother squawking at him from a nearby tree, all day, trying to motivate him to leave. I guess there are similarities between all species.
The baby birds are fat and literally started falling out of their nest because there just wasn't room for them all. Here's a picture from the beginning of the week, right after big brother hopped out. Big brother did have to hop/fly back up to the nest temporarily after a cat discovered them. I have no idea how he pulled that off. (I observed them for quite some time, off and on, and they just seem like sitting ducks, or well, sitting robins, believe me. Chirping and not really moving even when toy trucks come to within a few inches--accidentally, of course.) I chased the cat off, like a true Darwinist would not do (the nature filmers don't try to scare the lion as it closes in on the antelope, though maybe self-preservation is a factor there). I kept waiting to find his little mangle
d body somewhere. I even had a dream of finding him dead. That's when I think the stay-at-home mom realizes her world has shrunken in a truly alarming way, when she is worried enough about a baby robin that she has nightmares about its death. Then the next day his sister (let's just keep all the genders involved) flew the nest. We were down to Junior. Junior didn't seem really motivated to go anywhere. He stayed up there by himself quite a while. At least another day. Then he made the big leap but hung out right below the nest on the porch for a good 12 hours. He left a lot of nasty poop all over the porch. He had a bike parked right near him by an unobservant visitor. He almost got hit by a toy truck (that in fairness was poorly aimed by the mother cleaning up and not by the toddlers playing with it). The funniest part was his really loud mother squawking at him from a nearby tree, all day, trying to motivate him to leave. I guess there are similarities between all species.
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