And then were robins ...

Look!! I made a movie!!!

2008-06-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

No wait, this is about the birdies.

Well well well.

2008-06-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

The last picture I captured with the webcam:

The last picture I took with TechnoBoy's camera, now that he and the good camera are back from TechnoWeenie Mecca:

Just after I shot that last photo, something startled Mama and she flew off the nest, and then, suddenly, so did all three babies. I climbed out the window I was taking pictures through (the screen was already off, the window is even with our deck) and ran around the back yard taking pictures of babies and cheering wildly for them as they flew, in short stints, to the forest behind the green belt behind our house. Their exodus from the nest was captured on the webcam, but as that video is currently several hours long, I'm not posting it until I have figured out how to edit a video :)

Here's the last I saw of the babies. Just after I took this picture, he clucked at me and ran off to hide under the long grass you see just behind him.

His father was delighted that I was there to chronicle this important event in his life:

Later this evening, I walked out past the fence to see if I could see any wee birdlets, and was delighted to be dive bombed by irate robins. I couldn't find any of the fledglings (did I mention it's a forest?) but I knew if the adults were trying to get rid of me, they were tucked safely away quite nearby.

Video coming when I figure out how to shorten it :) On the video, you will see how very ready to fly they were - several times it looked to me like they were ready to take off.

It's been a fascinating few weeks, hasn't it?

Day 13.

2008-06-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

I need to change some information I gave the other day - they DO make sounds when the parents come. At first, they were so small that the sound was too quiet for me to hear even with the window open - now it's so loud that I can hear it even with the window shut. Even when the food has disappeared into their wide-open mouths, they will continue, just in case there's more coming. The Papa tends to bring larger beakfulls, and sometimes drop things into the nest that he then digs out, so there is sometimes more coming. It's not a cheeping, really, it's a hard sound to describe. Once they've been fed, they will sometimes just chirp a few times, but the chittering sound they make when a parent flies in with food is a more continuous sound. I managed to record it with the hand-held video camera the other day - hopefully TechnoBoy can help me figure out how to post that here someday soon.

Too cute not to share:

Twelve Days Old

2008-06-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

"They grow up so fast," A sighed, checking the webcam this morning.

It is getting increasingly difficult to see all three at once without observing for a while. I don't know if it's always the same bird on the bottom of the pile, but if it is, I'd say it will get to spend some time alone in the nest after the first two have left, doing all the flapping and stretching it hasn't had space for until now.

This picture was snapped after the bird on the top had been standing on the other's head for at least a minute - the bottom bird finally wrenched his head out and bit the other one squarely on the chin.

Another one, just a few seconds before that:

And a few videos. These wee birdies are going to be out of webcam range in just a day or two, so I'm posting several.

And as I'm sitting here, watching Blogger try to post a video, the mama just flew in with a huge beakful of ...nesting material? which she is now busy stomping down into the nest, as the babies squeak at her in protest. How curious!

Placeholder

2008-06-10T07:12:00.001-07:00

No time for snapshots right now, but yes, darien, there are still three babies, and it's Tuesday morning. It looks to me like they could leave the nest right now, but the parents are still bringing food, so I may have a chance for a few more pictures yet :)

I know you're all curious ...

2008-06-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

...but it's getting really hard to get a picture that shows all three of them, especially when there's activity, and there's getting to be more and more of it. Sometimes they'll stand up and flap their wings like crazy when the parent is there. The parent takes about 3 smacks of a baby wing before it takes off, apparently agreeing my "you don't have to go to every fight you're invited to" mantra.

some of the noon activity. I get so engrossed watching them that I forgot to hit "stop recording" until they've been doing nothing for awhile.

Ten days old, three mouths to feed

2008-06-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

They're starting to stretch and flap their wings a lot, which often causes someone to end up sitting on someone else's head. They also peck little bits of whatever off each other's heads, which looks exactly like bickering siblings, especially when it happens after a prolonged period of preening/flapping - the preener/flapper will sit down and the bird next to it will reach over and peck its' head. They will sometimes preen each other - I think this is accidental, and it's more of an "oh look, a feather! must preen!" reaction than it is community behaviour.

This video is several minutes of preening and heavy breathing in an attempt to video a wingflapping episode. And right on cue, there's some wingflapping and chin scratching as I type! Give the birdie a worm for being so cooperative!

And an up-to-date family portrait ...

Sunday morning

2008-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Okay I confess. After all the speeches I gave the children about the food chain and letting nature take its' course, yesterday, as I was lying in the bathtub, I may have said something along the lines of "Um, God? I know they're just robins and the baby crows have to eat too, but it sure would be nice if this experience lasted a bit longer."

And 24 hours later, there are still three. So, thanks God, for another day of baby robin watching.

This video is from this morning - I always mean to stop videoing before the fecal sac emerges but I always forget. As you can see, there seems to be a lot of jostling for space going on.

Saturday 7:00 pm headcount

2008-06-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of crow-chasing activity today, with several robin pairs banding together to run the crow out of town. B says they "must be part of the robin army." :)

This video is from just a few minutes ago - still 3 babies. We were out from around 2 until about 7 pm, and I had braced myself for the possibility of returning home to an empty nest, giving the children speeches about the way God has designed the food chain to work, etc, and asking them to prepare themselves for the worst.

Still, I kinda felt like cheering at those three little beaks :)

And darien, this pic is just for you, because I know you can't see the videos on your computer (poor girl drives a MAC) at home ...the parent bird is very blurry but you can clearly count the baby beaks :)

10:00 am feeding

2008-06-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yes but there's a nest just next door with no camera on it...

2008-06-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

From the Crow's Point of View
During spring and summer, crows raise three or four babies. These babies need a lot of protein while they're growing. To get this protein, crows pay a lot of attention to robins and blackbirds. Adult songbirds can defend themselves against crows. Songbirds are usually faster fliers so have no trouble escaping crows. But nestling songbirds--and their eggs--are completely helpless. Tiny birds like hummers, warblers, and sparrows often build their nests on branches too skinny for a crow's big feet to grasp. But larger species, like robins and blackbirds, make a sturdy nest that is easy for crows to perch on while pulling out the babies. Baby robins and blackbirds are a very important food source for nestling crows.

(from http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/rwbb/Redwing_NeighborhoodWatch.html )

I'm glad we don't have a webcam on a crow's nest!!!

Sigh.

2008-06-07T08:07:00.001-07:00

This morning when I got up, the nest looked like this:

I ran downstairs and out the door that we try not to open, and there was one tiny baby bird, hiding under my barbecue. I couldn't decide whether to put him back in the nest or not, and went inside and asked Google-the-birder what I should do. Fledging is still 4 or 5 days away - unlikely that the parents had booted it out, especially as there were no less than FOUR robins diving at me and piping! I guess they can call in reinforcements when it gets bad?

I started combing through the streaming video archives from last night and found it - a great big ugly crow showed up at 6 this morning, when there were three babies in the nest. All the camera shows is black feathers but it is clear that the robins ran it off, but by the time it left, there were only two babies in the nest. Google-the-scientist tells me that you can indeed touch baby birds because birds don't have a sense of smell, and as long as the baby you return to the nest is warm, the parents will still feed it.

So that's what we did. You'll notice the baby doesn't move one single muscle after it gets returned to the nest. It took him (?) at least half an hour, but he is feeding with the rest of them now, and has settled right in. A was careful to make sure he was warm before he went back. I'm still looking through last night's archives to see if I can figure out where the fourth baby went.

Edited to add: Oh dear. I wish I hadn't done that. Three hours after the last video started, a big old crow came and found our nest and plucked a baby out of it. It took mere seconds for the crow to land, grab a bird, and leave. They really are obscenely large, next to these wee nestlings. There was no fight - the parents must have been off looking for food at the time.

Okay one last video

2008-06-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is just three and a half minutes of Robin Afternoon. There are flurries of activity, followed by Nestling Napping :)

Video Time!

2008-06-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

I can't pick so I'm just going to add videos until Blogger tells me to stop. These were all shot yesterday afternoon, except the last one, which I caught this morning. As I type, there is a feeding/preening/waste elimination fest going on out there, and I'm capturing some of that, too, which I'll post later tonight.

Afternoon Preen'n'Clean

So this little one would preen and rest and preen and rest and preen and rest so I tried to catch that, and so I got the preen and the rest ...and that was it :)

Feeding. I love how the babies sort of fold in on themselves after they've either been fed or come to realize no food is forthcoming. Also notice Papa's muddy beak - it's been raining off and on for days - great for worm hunting, but the parents look a little bedraggled from time to time.

Friday morning

2008-06-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

Lots of preening going on, lots of eating. Fecal sacs are huge, sometimes, and the parents carry them off and probably drop them on my lawn, now that I think about it.

First pic: Waiting for breakfast.

Second pic:

Breakfast!! Notice how their bellies are almost feathered over, and they are speckled. Also, they are very big! the feeding bird bangs his head on the overhang by now.

For those of you following along at home:

2008-06-05T14:52:00.002-07:00

Thursday afternoon head count (I didn't know robins could count!)

three short videos

2008-06-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

There's a chance I won't be at home much tonight (hockey! soccer! jr high band potluck!) so here are a few very short ones I shot this morning. They may or may not be in this order:

1) seeking food that is not there

2) free for fall at the moving buffet

3) the wee one on the far left preening. Preening! It's just so ...bird-like. Who knew?

Seeking food:

Not so very babyish any more:

Eleven seconds of preening - not the best or clearest but it's what I've been able to capture so far, not having the luxury of spending hours sitting at the computer waiting for the magic moment:

The 13 lb dog is in the backyard ...

2008-06-05T07:08:00.001-07:00

So Mama has turned herself into a giant menacing ...puffball.

Answers for Nicolaus

2008-06-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I started reading Electric Boogaloo and I keep reading it because the way Tiffany writes about her kids makes it clear that she is totally in love with them and yet she is never maudlin. She writes well and her kids are fascinating little people, and I left a comment there the other day with a link to this blog in it, because her son finds the world a marvelous place full of fantastic secrets that yay! he gets to learn about! and I thought he would like it.

And then he totally made my day by leaving me a comment.

And he had a few questions.

1. Do the babies know that anyone is filming them? I think probably so! They're peeking out and looking all around.

I think that they think the camera is part of the house, but every time I zoom in or change the focus or change the angle, the mama gives it a very stern look as if to say "You stay away from my babies, whatever you are!"

2. Do they sound like beepbeep beep??

They don't make any sound at all. Today I left the window open that is very close to their nest, but I didn't hear any sounds at all, even though the parents were feeding them all evening. I think that if they were noisy, they would be easier for predators to find.

If you want to hear what adult robins sound like, this is a good link:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/Vocalizations.html

The warning sounds the adults make when we get too close are like the "peep and tut" and "whinny" sound on that website.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Wednesday evening

2008-06-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

No video because I didn't get to it until it was quite dark out, but here's a great shot of the four of them. After work today, when I came home, they were all draped over the sides of the nest like so many dishrags laid out to dry in the sun - I think they were just hot. I opened the door to the deck to take a picture of the cute wee heads hanging over and two adult robins started chirping and flying straight at me, and the babies all tucked their heads back in.

Wednesday Morning Video

2008-06-04T11:03:00.001-07:00

Couple of things to watch for:

- they're carrying more waste away

- there is a small war over a worm between two nestlings

- eventually one gets it, but not all the way in, so the mama picks at it until it disappears

- open eyes

- wings! feathers!

And there was evening, and there was morning, and there was the sixth day

2008-06-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

They all just tried to get something to eat from this parent, who hadn't brought them anything. This is the look that followed.

So we initially had the webcam much closer to the nest - looks like it's a good thing we moved it! This isn't zoomed out as far as it can go, but it's close.

Tuesday Videos

2008-06-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's very endearing to scroll down and view the very first video of the babies - they have grown an amazing amount in a VERY short time.

Today's first instructional video shows a very relaxed nest cleaning. Often the nest cleaning will have the babies flailing around with their mouths wide open - this one was very sedate.

The second video is just a mass of panting babies - I've been watching this for five days now. This is what it looks like after they've eaten - they all collapse onto each other and breathe what looks like it must be their dying breaths, until the next food comes, and they all rise with their mouths wide open.

And here is picture of the four of them, napping at papa's feet.

Afternoon Videos - June 2

2008-06-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

Lots going on in the feeding department right now - it's an overcast day, not too hot, and the ground is moist. I've noticed that the parents are bringing different things for the babies to eat now - some berries, a caterpillar - whereas before now, I'd only seen them bring worms.

The first video is the papa, the second video is the mama. The second video goes on a bit long, as the mama sticks around and plucks tiny insects or imaginary bits of fluff off the babies (much like human mamas do with their newborns!) but I let it go a bit longer because that's part of this whole fascinating experience as well.

In both of the videos, I think, you can see that their wings are starting to develop. Occasionally I see tiny birdie claws, too, but I don't think that's obvious on any of these videos.

The male has a darker head, and he is banded - that's how I tell them apart. The head colour is quite obvious once you know what you're looking for.

Papa Feeding:

Mama feeding:

Monday Morning

2008-06-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Got up too late to get a video clip for the blog this morning - hopefully before supper tonight.

Head count - 4 babies, 2 adults. The adults are much more protective of their nest now that the eggs have hatched. TechnoBoy had to adjust the camera Saturday and the male came close enough that TB felt wings brush his head.

Today's observed robin behaviour: there is frequent nest cleaning. I will be very interested to see what, if anything, is left in the nest when the babies are gone.

Here she is cleaning. Now that the babies are getting bigger, the cleaning can be rather disruptive for them, but mostly that makes them ask for food.

And then she sat down. Check out the right hand side of the pic - I think it's safe to say she doesn't have 360 degree vision!

Apparently spiders are on the menu

2008-06-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Head count: still 4! You can see that their eyes are starting to open - their earholes are forming, too, but this picture doesn't show that very well.

After they eat, they collapse into a panting heap and look for all the world like they are dying, until the next food shows up. Here is one such heap. You can see earholes more clearly in this shot, on the two that are furthest to the right.

Day Three and Still Four

2008-05-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

The male (see the dark head?) waiting for the female to return with breakfast. This morning's video. I was lying in bed this morning thinking really, what else is there to video for this blog? They're babies, they eat, the parents eat. Well, at least people can see how they're getting bigger. And then there was this morning, and The Battle. (note the parental abuse. Hair pulling, even!)(also please note that if the video window is black on your screen, it still plays if you click on it - at least it does on mine.)

Also of possible interest - this is a two minute video, and I missed several seconds of the battle taking pictures of it. I'm pretty sure it's Teenie who finally got the worm. As I was typing up this post, the male came back with another folded up worm and dropped it straight into Jacques' mouth, but Jacques dropped it and so Gilles or Frank got it. Based on the small size of the fecal sac that Gilles immediately produced, I'd say Gilles was due for food, although that may just be me trying to see equity and fairness in the cruel cruel world :)

Last thing I have to say about fecal sacs, I promise - they eliminate immediately after they've eaten. I find that ...say it with me ...fascinating. Also convenient, and wow, do I wish *I* worked like that.

You see why this has its own blog ...

2008-05-30T21:11:00.001-07:00

I can't stop spouting nature facts at people. People at work are starting to get very. very. busy. when they see me coming.

So the fecal sac consumption thing in the last post? did you notice how the baby bird actually wiggles his backside up in the air so that the fecal sac is easy to find? I find that fascinating.

Okay, I find it all fascinating. According to a research paper I found online, the babies have a hierarchical (sp?) place in the nest, and from hours of observing our nest, I think it's definitely true that the last hatched, the smallest one, is almost always on the right hand side of the screen. Apparently one of the birds makes sure that the largest/strongest gets fed, and the other one makes sure the runt gets fed, until someone decides the runt is a liability and pushes it out of the nest. Nothing of the sort has happened here yet, but A and I were pretty sure the runt wasn't getting fed today at all, and finally A stood up and announced she was going out digging worms. As she had somewhere else to be less than ten minutes from the time she decided this, she didn't go do it, but Teenie got fed several times tonight while I was watching. We are working on convincing the children that it is a good idea to let nature take its course, but we have yet to be successful.

I spent most of the evening "watching TV" with B, while TechnoBoy and A were out, and mostly that meant I had the webcam up on the laptop and I watched birds and listened to the TV.

This next pic is my favourite of the day.

Darien-the-commenter would like me to tell you that the big one out front is Jacques (and look how his (?) eye is starting to open!) and the other three are Gilles (get it? Jack and Jill? She's studying French right now ...) and Frank. The mother is Lucy (or Winnifred, if you're John-from-darien's-French-class) and the father is Guido.

The only reason I have stopped watching is that it is now dark outside.

Videos

2008-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I'm just going to post 2 short videos, both from feeding sessions. One of them may contain some fecal sac consumption :) and the other one is the best video, so far, of all four of them begging for food at the same time. A says it's like they're calling "Moooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!"

There may or may not be a video in this post ...

2008-05-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

All 4 are still alive. Earlier this morning I managed to shoot a video of all four of them trying to eat, but I can't figure out how to get that off the software and onto this page, so I used a different application to video them a bit later. By then, 2 of the 4 were sleeping, tummies stuffed, so this is what I got:

Which brings us to yesterday!

2008-05-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

I peeked at the cam first thing in the morning. The "eggs" were pink, and wiggly. Well, three of them. If you know what you're looking at, there are three bare heads visible here.

By evening, all the eggs were hatched, and the feeding began. I could watch this all night. I almost did. Both parents are involved in the feeding - the male has a much darker head. The eggshells were apparently eaten for their mineral content, as are the "fecal sacs", which I have just been calling "poop". Apparently much of what is passed at this point is undigested food, and it is one way the parents get nourishment in between foraging for the young. Here are some shots I took last night with the webcam - excuse the focus problems, I'm not the camera buff, I'm the LOOK! Nature! Right THERE! buff. Well we all are, and the webcam is autofocus, so if it chooses to focus on one twig at the back of the nest, I don't know how to argue with it.

Above: one baby, looking like an alien.

Above: the hungriest one, on this trip

Above: the two hungriest ones, on this trip

It's just so fascinating. They raise those heads on their wet noodle necks and collapse all over each other and then, after the eating of the poop and the fussing about, the mama sits on them. Sometimes she stands up and stares at them, which cracks me right up. It's like she's acting on instinct most of the time, but every once in a while, a few more brain cells fire up and she just has to stare at them in wonder. Sometimes she leaves them for as long as 15 minutes, which makes me want to go hang up a sign saying "No hawks allowed!"

That's what happens when the papa comes while the mama is still there. Or when the mama decides she's had enough of that clicking sound coming from that black and silver thing.

the next 12 days

2008-05-29T12:10:00.001-07:00

Looked a lot like this:

With some of this thrown in:

Google-the-scientist tells me that she does this to keep them evenly warming, and also to keep the developing embryo from sticking to the egg. Google also told me about the brood patch, which some birds develop during nesting season, in which they end up with a bare patch on their stomach that is hidden by feathers when flying, but can be bared so that the warm bare skin can be in direct contact with the eggs. In the above picture, you can see some of her feathers sticking out past her wing - I assume these are the feathers she can move aside in order to bare her brood patch.

Where's the papa, you ask?

Beaking us off every time we try to use our own deck.

He was never very far away, and he was the most vocal if she was startled off her nest. The dog got to the point where she would hear him beaking off and start barking at him from inside the house. She's used to him now, though, or maybe he's used to her.

Let the egg-laying begin

2008-05-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

We noticed the first eggs on May 15. By the end of the next day, the nest looked like this:

Where it began ...

2008-05-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sometime halfway through May, let's say the 14th, I realized there had been a lot of birdie flying back and forth across the window that overlooks our deck.

I took a peek and sure enough, there was much industrious nest building going on.

"Cool", said A. "Let's put up a webcam."

I mentionned the nest to TechnoBoy.

"Cool!!" he said.

"A wants a webcam."

And so she got one.