The Robins: They've Hatched!

Oh my gosh... I am so far behind on my blogging. We get SO BUSY this time of year that it seems like I never have any spare time on my hands. It seems as if we work from sun up until sun down and any spare moment I have I spend sleeping.

I hope I haven't left anyone "hanging" about the robin eggs??

... as in this post, The Robins, that I wrote eons ago. Remember?

Well, I have been checking on the nest and the eggs hatched, but the morning that I checked and had saw that they had hatched, there were only two babies in the nest. I have no idea what happened to the other two. Oh well, God only gives you what you can handle, I guess He wanted this robin couple to raise two, not four.

These pictures were taken on June 12th, the first day that I had noticed that they had hatched. I don't know if this was the actual first date they hatched, but it has to be pretty close.

Sleeping... shhhh

When I moved my camera close to the nest, they would
put their weak little heads up and open their mouths!

So ugly, cute, fragile and fascinating!
Check out the size of their eyes and mouths!!


I checked on the little ones a couple of days ago while Nick and Sarah were here visiting. I wanted to share this little glimpse into nature with Sarah. When we peeked into the nest, I could not believe how big they had gotten, but then again, I guess they were probably a week old when we sneaked our peek. I will try to get a picture of them today. You won't believe how many downy feathers they have now. They don't look quite so naked.

Well, gotta run. It's been nice chatting, hopefully we can do it again sometime soon!

Two Things You Might Like to Know About Dan the Man

Thing Number One:

One sure way to get him out of bed early in the morning is to say... "The cows are out." He jumps out of bed like someone has just yelled "FIRE!"

LOL, I'm still laughing every time I think about it because it sure was funny watching him fly out of bed this morning at 5:30 when one of the cows was on the other side of the road when I looked outside!



Thing Number Two:

At 12:22 pm on June 1, 2011, Dan the Man officially retired his long johns for the season. Note the time, because he was actually going to wear them all day, but decided at noon, that he didn't need them. Summer must be here folks!

PS, To my man Dan: I love you honey!

Lark Buntings

We seem to have an unusual number of Lark Buntings here at the ranch this year. Don't I sound so smart knowing the names of some of the birds that live around here? Well, don't let the fact that I know the name of one species fool you, I am no bird expert! The only reason I know they are lurk buntings is because one of my friends on Facebook made a comment about having some at their place and posted a link about lark buntings.

I read about them and found out that they lay "4 or 5 light blue eggs in a loose grass nest placed in a scrape with rim flush with the ground; often protected by weedy patch." So every time I check on the cows in the pasture, I have been keeping my eye open for a nest. Thus far, no luck at finding one.

The birds like to hangout with the chickens that are out on pasture. The males sit on the electric netting and sing to me when I am feeding and watering the chickens. I don't know why I've never really noticed them before this year. I am sure they have been here every year we have lived here. But I think one of the main reasons we are seeing so many this year is because we torn out the field where they are hanging out a couple of years ago, it was in alfalfa, and planted pasture grasses out there. And with all the rain we have received this year, the grass is really coming on this year. Must be perfect conditions for them.

Here you can see a couple of the chicken shelters out on pasture and the cows grazing along side them. This is where I have seen several of the lark bunting. You can also see the electrified netting that the birds like to sit on and sing to me.




Danny checking the cows on the other side of the poultry fencing. If you enlarge the picture (just click on it) you can see Dan the Man on the 4wheeler in the left hand corner of the picture among the cows.

In these last two pictures if you look down the fence-line, you can see another
bird sitting on the fence, but he is out of focus.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not I find any nests.
That is all.

The Robins

The other morning Dan the Man asked me if I had noticed the nest that some birds were building on top of the fence charger in the calf shed. I hadn't, but having a fond attraction to nests and birds, I wandered over to take a look. I asked Dan the Man what kind of bird was building the nest, but he said he had no idea. Personally, I just don't think that men are as observant as women.

I say this because I knew before I even got to the nest that it was being built by robins. On my way to the shed I noticed a couple of robins flying in there. When I got there, sure enough, there was a nest right on top of the electric fence charger. Wow, look at all that fly poop on there. Someone should clean that thing. I'll tell the maid to get right on that.







I'm slightly surprised that Mrs. Robin would choose such a place for her nest. Granted it is protected from the weather and up high away from predators, but an electric fence charger makes a ticking sound constantly while it is plugged in. Just like a clock, and loud... TICK... TICK... TICK... I think that might drive me nuts or perhaps it is kind-of calming once you get use to it?

I was curious if there were any eggs in it yet, so I climbed on some show panels that were leaning against the wall for a better look. Upon peering in, I saw no eggs. Hummm, I'll have to keep on eye on it. Sounds like a good subject for a blog post, I thought to myself.

A few days later was when Nathan came to help us for the day. As I was showing him around the place, I decided to let him in on my secret and took him over to the nest. We looked again, and still no eggs.

Then on Monday, when I was out and about taking pictures I looked again and there are now four beautiful blue eggs in it.




Mr. and Mrs. Robin kept a close eye on me as I was eyeballing their children. I told them I promised not to touch if they would share their babies with me and my blog readers. I told them not everyone gets to see a robin's nest full of eggs. And if they would be so kind, I would like to document the hatching of the eggs and share it on my blog. The didn't dive-bomb me, so I think they have agreed to let me take pictures every once in a while.

Mr. Robin keeping me in his sight.

Still watching...

I also found a swallow's nest, but I'm not sure I can get such great pictures of it because it is built so close to the ceiling of this shed, but I will keep my eye on this one as well.

And so begins the documentation of "The Robins."