About an hour after I published the last robin post, John told me that he saw a third baby bird in the nest. Sure enough, the next day I was able to photograph three babies in the nest. Considering 40% of nests produce no viable chicks, we already felt like the robins won the lottery.
Friday afternoon, I noticed what I thought was another beak peaking out over the nest. Mama Bird also was carrying chunks of bird shell out of the nest during her clean-up time. Robins keep a very clean nest, BTW.
I told no one of my discovery. Saturday, John said he saw a fourth chick. On Sunday, we all saw the fourth chick, much smaller than the others. The eggs hatch at different times, but it was a surprise to see another chick almost a week after the first one hatched.
Speaking of the first chick, it is getting very large and having a hard time getting comfortable in the crowded nest. It was flapping its wings this morning. Wings with tiny very widely spaced feathers. It’s not flight time yet, buster. Just chill.
It’s been so much fun watching this evolution from a mess of long grass dumped on the deck to the bumps of four little heads just visible over the top of the nest. We have our own reality nature show on the deck. That’s hard to beat.
And now some very short chick video, so you can say “aw, aren’t they ugly-cute”