Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones -- the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
Good evening, Kibitzers! Before Hurricane Sandy, we had two very large evergreen trees in our front yard, which provided excellent nesting places for the local robins. Because the trees were so old and their lower branches saggy and relatively sparse, we could often see the nests and keep tabs on the baby robins. The mother robin didn't seem to mind, as long as we didn't get too close.
When the trees came down, my dad felt sorry for the robins, and also for us because we'd miss seeing the nests. So he built a nesting box and attached it to the house on the front porch (which, despite the bench you'll see below, is not really a place we hang out). I was dubious, but the robins seemed to feel it would be okay to nest there. They are seldom disturbed, except by UPS deliveries which are never for them.
You'll be cheered to know that American Robins are common birds with a "conservation status" of "least concern". They're found in most of the US year-round, although they are seen less in winter because they spend more time in trees. They're the largest North American thrush, as you can hear if you listen to them sing. That Cornell site I've linked says their roosts can include a quarter-million birds; it's been a long time since I've been around that many robins, but when I was a little girl in the 50s, before the land behind my grandma's house was developed, there must have been easily that many robins there, and they'd all sing in the dark at 4 am. That many versions of that song, all sung together, is eerie and beautiful. It scared 4-year-old me before I knew what it was. It sounded a little like the weird theremin music in an old science fiction movie, but much bigger and more... something. I wish I could hear it again.
Anyway, apparently robins can produce up to three broods a year, so maybe I'll have a chance to get some better pictures than these rather dingy and blurry ones. If the eggs hatch, the little ones won't be able to split when I come out with a camera, unlike their mom! Meanwhile, there are a couple more photos below the orange worm.
Contrast my blurry image with this lovely robin's egg photo from Wikimedia Commons. Hey, I had difficult conditions! ;)
Any nesting going on where you are?
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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