I'm not obsessed with robins*, but...

photo taken yesterday, 'hot' robin chicks ready to leave the nest....

This has been a special year already.

We've been living in our house in Wantage for 5 years now, and this is the first year that we've had robins nesting. Yes, robins plural, as today we watched the second nest fly the coop.

The robin chicks from the first nest I reported on 'disappeared', and although we'd been incredibly privileged to have made the observations, I was a little deflated not to know the end of the story.  What actually happens on this momentous day in the life of a robin?

Well.  From observations made this morning, I can tell you what did happen.

The second nest was in the box of dog towels on the other shelves I use in an attempt to keep the back passage tidy.  (When I say attempt I should say attempt and fail to keep tidy, but hey-ho, there's no harm in trying...).

Anyway, the second nest had 6 chicks, and they've been very amusing looking like some kind of fluff-ball of squashed little frog-buddhas. Take a look:

baby photo! couple of weeks ago, eyes not really open.. mouth cavernous.

starting to feel the squeeze! yes, there are 6 of us...

So, another hot day today.  I'd noticed them looking quite disgruntled yesterday in the heat, and wondered when they'd be leaving the nest. Turns out today was the day.

I was looking for my gardening gloves (shelf above dog towels) at around 10am today.  I wanted to get some weeding done before the sun took hold again in this mini-heatwave, and I noticed there were only 2 chicks left in the nest.... so I got my camera and this is what happened.

should I stay, or should I go now?

the parent bird calls quite persistently, tch tch tch or tut tut tut. The robin chick makes its first flight, and fly they do. But not far.  The bird we watched only flew down and then seemed exhausted and a bit dazed and confused.  So took time out to recover. The parent bird keeps up its calling, but the baby is taking this new world in.  So far all it's seen has been the wall opposite the nest.  Now, there's overhanging buddleia from next door, our bicycles hanging from their racks, the lawnmower, the black and decker workbench(!), various plant pots of assorted sizes, gravel, old leaves, paving slabs, a kettle style bbq, some logs for the woodburner awaiting splitting, (and those heads which peer in to look at us seem to have rather large appendages below them...).

After what seems an age, the robin chick, in fits and starts eventually makes its way to the parent bird, up on the ledge of the wall, and then into the buddleia.  Except for the last one. He made it our kitchen doorstep, and then flew into the house, landing near to Roly (the dalmation)'s bed.  We grabbed dog by the collar, let the little thing recover a moment, and then he went out by the front door!

thank goodness for zoom! he's on the lawnmower handle.

This final incident of the robin in the house happened after lunch at around 2pm, so it's taken 4 hours or so to get all 6 chicks safely out, and launched into the great wide world.  So that's how they did it.  Here's final photo of the chap who visited the inside of the house:

'nuff said.

Night night! Kat  :)

*all right, I may be a little obsessed...