Little Robin Redbreast

Little Robin Redbreast guarding her babies

Maria and Ruben joined us for one final dinner the end of May before they left for Seattle and the Hawk Surimi, a commercial fishing boat which is both their workplace and home for half of each year. They brought us a beautiful fuchsia in a hanging basket as a goodbye gift and we immediately hung the plant from an empty hook on our front deck, visible from inside the house and just a few feet from where we sit to enjoy our view of the front yard. Actually, it’s mostly Verne who sits on the front deck. I’ve often accused him of sitting there so much that the wildlife considers him a fixture and ignore his presence. Within a week we noticed a pair of Robins making frequent trips to the plant. Working together they built a nest over two days. Uncertain as to whether or not we should water the plant and chance frightening the birds, we decided they chose the spot because of its privacy from all the foliage and opted to carefully water it without directly wetting their nest.

Over the next few weeks we saw less of the male bird while the female was almost always present sitting on her four eggs. We were so concerned about upsetting the birds we didn’t take our first look until we heard the little newborn cheepers. At that point Verne set up a stepstool for our viewing and I began photographing the babies. For the next ten days the babies were rarely alone as the parent birds took turns foraging for worms and feeding the little  ones. According to my readings, the parents make as many as a hundred trips a day to feed the young. Verne and I started each day checking on the family and spent hours sitting on the deck watching.

Then one day we left our posts for several hours and drove to Sacramento for an appointment and shopping. We returned mid-afternoon just in time to witness a hawk swoop down to the nest and take one of the baby robins. We ran to check on the others to find an empty nest – all four babies gone. Our sadness was made worse as we heard the parent birds chattering (crying) to each other from separate trees next to the deck. This dialog went on for 15 to 20 minutes. They continued to check the nest through the following day, Hoping for a miracle as we were.

Mother Nature can be a bitch! I’m quoting, but it does sum up my feelings. It was a beautiful, but sad experience. Here are a few of the pictures I took over the 3-1/2 weeks we shared our fuchsia with the Robin family.

Baby robins a few days old

Baby robins 10 days old (last time we saw them)