Our Big Backyard

Last fall, I didn't do much with the hanging basket outside our kitchen door next to the hummingbird feeder and instead let the flowers (mini wave petunias) shrivel and dry over the winter. Lazy, I know.



Last Sunday when our hummingbirds returned and I refilled the feeder for the first time (I've had to make more nectar 3 times already!), I took the hanging basket down and moved the feeder over so DS could see it from his chair at the kitchen table.

Several hours later, I was talking to DH through the screen door as he was working on the fence (a post to come on that project soon) and happened to look down. In my dried out basket of flowers was a robin's nest with four eggs in it! Uh-oh! I knew that if the mama bird sensed humans had been disturbing her nest, those eggs would be abandoned. DH and I both agreed, though, that we had better move the feeder back to its old spot and rehang the flower basket. Hoping for the best, we did so.

Fortunately, our tampering didn't deter the mama robin because the next day (Memorial Day) she was perched in her nest and has barely moved from that spot. She blends in with the dried leaves and flowers, that it's almost impossible to see her. She isn't even perturbed by our frequent use of that door! She hasn't come after us-- though the hummingbirds like to divebomb us!

(See her tail feathers in the middle of the picture?)

(Her head is just visible in this shot.)

DS has been thrilled watching the hummingbirds feed and buzz about all day, but he can't quite distinguish the robin in her nest. Maybe we'll get to see the babies, though!