About ten days ago we were eating dinner outdoors on our patio. An old plum tree shades the patio, and in that plum tree, directly above the table, I saw a robin sitting on a nest. It was so low you could reach out and touch it.
The robin was completely at ease with the cacophony of our dinner party. Over the following few days, I enjoyed her presence in the morning as I drank my tea and read the paper just a few feet beneath her. Occasionally she would leave the nest, and then I had an opportunity to check its contents. I taped a mirror onto a bamboo plant stake, and by lifting it into the tree I could look in the mirror and see three robin’s blue eggs nestled together in the woven structure.
Last Friday the eggs hatched. The parents now made trips to feed the youngsters, and there were moments when the nest was unattended. I got on a stepladder and clamped a tripod head to a branch, under the protestations of the male robin. I left that alone for a day, and then put a camera up. There was a zone system in effect: I could sit at the table, no problem. I could stand beneath the nest without protest, but if I stood on the stepladder and reached in the tree, that was too far. The female scolded me softly, but the male, he swooped and yelled and raised holy hell. The moment I backed off, everything was fine. The camera they could have cared less about, even though I had a fisheye lens on it and it was a foot away from the nest. The female nestled back down, and I could sit at the table, remote release in hand, and fire away without her flinching. The male was more suspicious of me, and didn’t like it if the camera went off when he fed the kids.
I would sometimes change the camera position to vary the shot. This incensed the male robin, and if he saw me (and he always did, even if I didn’t see him), he’d swoop and yell until I backed away. If I sat at the table he would cease his protest but he’d perch above me, and wouldn’t let me out of his sight. I definitely had a minder now. Under this tight scrutinty the female would settle back on her brood without a peep.
The nestlings are halfway to fledging now. I took the camera down after a day, but I thought of setting up my big tripod as an alternative structure, as it would reach as high as the limb. But as the kids have grown, so has the protective zone. Now I cannot step out of the back door to dump the garbage without coming under a withering attack. Tonight a hummingbird joined the fray (they’re recuiting reinforcements) and I had three birds protesting my presence on what is evidently now their property.
By the calendar the kids should fledge next Wednesday. This means, of course, that there will now be a mobile hot zone. We won’t be able to walk anywhere in our yard. It is a good thing we will be going on vacation about then.
In '97 I moved out to Mountain View CA with my girlfriend and pet dog, a boxer named Jadzia. Outside the apartment was a robins' nest which somehow tipped over one day, sending all the nestlings to the ground. They were dead by the time I noticed them.
Jadzia found them first and was running up and down the driveway carrying one of them in her mouth. The parents completely blamed her for the incident and they spent a lot of days dive-bombing her whenever she was outside the house.
It was sad to see the nestlings dead, but watching a 50-pound dog being chased around by a couple of birds was pretty funny.
Posted by: Greg White | July 06, 2006 at 02:42 PM