I first noticed a pair of robins had nested in our garden about 10 days ago and it's been an exciting week. The nest is in the trunk of an old plum tree, I had no idea how rotten this tree was until I investigated and tried to find the nest. It was only a couple of feet off the ground, tucked well into the tree trunk, fairly well protected from the weather and away from the prying eyes of jackdaws, rooks and magpies. The adults must have been sitting on eggs for a couple of weeks but I didn't notice anything until they started feeding their young - four little bundles of loveliness!
3 days old - 8/4/16
5 days old - 10/4/16
8 days old - 13/4/16
The adults are fairly comfortable with us in the garden as we feed the birds so they weren't too stressed when I quickly took photos every few days. As the babies got bigger the parents started to take them suet pellets, a nice easy meal for the parents to find!
10 days old - 15/4/16
This was a very wet day, it rained practically all day but the little birds stayed dryish. Their last long fluffy head bits look a bit soggy in this picture and I reckon they look a bit fed up but the nest looks snug and dry! (incidentally I was shocked by how tiny the nest is, these photos make it look quite a size but it was very small, considering there were 4 babies growing fast.
I really think this one was fed up with the rain!
11 days old - 16/4/16
There is a wing in this one so some flapping and wing stretching was happening and I wondered if they would soon be leaving. The parents were still busy feeding in the nest into the evening and this morning I got up to this......
.... an empty nest. Good news - day 13, all 4 babies successfully fledged before 8am. The amazing little parents have been busy all day feeding the babies close to our garden. I haven't seen the babies but I am hoping I might in the next few days, and I will of course be keeping an eye out for them.
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