Robbie the Robin

A few weeks ago we noticed that two robins were scoping out the rhododendron outside our breakfast nook.  A few days after that we observed that they were bringing sticks, moss and small grasses to the tree to build a nest.  We were so obsessed with watching this process that by the time they were finished with the nest, we were sure we'd scared them off.  But about a week later, as Molly and I were having lunch, we saw the mother robin fly back to the nest, and she seemed to be making herself very comfortable.

After watching her in there for a couple days, we started getting curious whether she was laying eggs in there.  The next time she flew away, I got my phone camera in close enough to take a picture, and here is what we saw.

We immediately did some research and learned that it takes an entire day for a robin to lay an egg, so that's what she'd been spending so much time in her nest doing!  We also learned that robins typically lay four eggs.  So the next day when she flew away to get food, I got my camera back in there, and we found this!

Sure enough, a fourth egg!  That was April 28.  More research told us that once the fourth egg is laid, it takes about 14-16 days for them to hatch.  This robin, which Molly has named Robbie, has now been sitting on her eggs for about 13 days.

Yesterday we noticed she was spending a lot of time standing on the edge of her nest, and we were convinced we heard some cheeping!

But when we put the camera back in there, there were still four uncracked eggs.  Who knows what she was doing.

 

You might notice that from the first pic of three eggs to this pic, one of the eggs looks different.  One started out looking speckled, and now they're all just blue.  That's because the mother robin rotates her eggs several times a day to keep them evenly warmed and to make sure the babies don't stick to the inside of the shell.

Here are a couple more pics of her nest and her in it.

 

I will update this when the robins hatch!