Life On a Fence Post

When we were building our house 23 years ago, I always imagined a backyard filled with flowers and wildlife.  I wanted plenty of trees and bushes to attract birds and flowers to entice the bees to come visit.  We've worked hard making our backyard into a personal oasis for us, our Scotties, and all the wildlife that can be found in a busy suburban neighborhood.  We've seen so many birds and rabbits born here and on another note, we've seen so many die as well.  Our trees have been nursery for countless generations of robins, cardinals, wrens, song birds, starlings, and a few doves.  Each bird has a favorite spot to raise their families.  The cardinals love the sticky busy outside my studio window.  The starlings love the pine trees in the back.  The robins have taken over the lilac bushes and the apple trees.  I've seen the wrens in our snowball bush, and catch the doves flying too and fro from the bushes out back.  I've taken a few pictures of some of the birds, but they've been all out of reach or else the parent birds make sure no one could even get near. But this year was a first for us.  One robin couple build their nest on the fence post near our back gate.  I was able to take pictures every single day using my iPhone.  It was a wonderful event for me as I got to see them from egg to baby bird to juvenile taking their first flight.  From the very first day of their hatching May 19th until the day they flew away we had a heat wave here in Ohio.  It was so hot that I thought for many days that the baby birds would die.  But the parent bird would sit on the next flapping wings to keep them cool.  Last Saturday, we watched from our front windows as both parents coaxed each baby bird out of the nest onto the grass.  They all hopped around flapping their wings and taking awkward first flights.  Finally we watched as all four flew away.  I still see them in the backyard since then.  We were almost in tears watching our baby robins.  I was so worried about them and was relieved to see all four survive and leave the nest.

Below are the pictures I took each day.  Please follow me in the Life On a Fence Post. 

First day:only three eggs hatched this day

even on the first day they were ready to be fed

Second day all four babies had hatched

I was afraid that the last baby was too weak to eat

The started to develop ears.  It was so hot I worried about them

I thought for sure the heat would kill them.  I crushed strawberries for the parent birds for more nutrition for them

I was thrilled to see their eyes opened and feathers developing

One of the hottest days.  I put out more crushed berries on the fence post for the parents

Cooler, but I was still worried.  All four had more energy and more feathers developing

What a growth spurt in one day. 

Empty Nest