The bird sanctuary we took our baby birds to posted photos of them, plus a PSA, on Facebook. NOW they post it! Our little two are in the photo. One is in the far corner. The other is the wee one on the left. You can see the size differences.
Here is our baby bird #1. This doesn't look capable of surviving outside the nest. Just sayin'. JB found one dead on the ground in town, during his morning walk in town. It looked as young as this. Definitely a hatchling.
This is bird #1, day 1. Next, bird #2, day 2. We kept #2 overnight.
Their PSA.
I went out into the front yard to fetch trailcams, as is my regular routine. The birds were calling me. I need not go far to see some. Birding is quite difficult for me. I cannot see with my dominant right eye. I kept hearing a bird I was unable to ID. There were several on the front lawn.
They are lousy shots, into the bright sky, but for those who enjoy the bird songs...
Finally, despite singing its little lungs out, I saw the singer.
Water levels are bad, here in South eastern Ontario. We've not had much water for 3 months. The year 2016 was the worst. The watershed conditions do not look good this year.
We drove into Ottawa Thursday, to take a baby robin into the Bird wild life. I popped it into a fake nest I'd bought years ago.
This is where we found it. In the sun, out in the open, on the dry, crackly grass.
Ottawa Valley Bird Care Centre on Moodie Dr. , 70 km and an hour later.
We made it home, after lunch with the kids, who are in our bubble. I had a suspicion, and wandered out into the backyard, where I'd found baby robin #1. Sure enough, a screaming baby robin #2. Something had gotten to the nest, I assumed.
It looked helpless, sitting there in the dried grass and in the sun. We've weasels, coyotes, aggressive blue jays, wandering around the yard. Never, in all my time outdoors, have I seen such young birds on the ground. They get their flight wings, and momma and papa follow them around. The young ones have speckles on their red breasts.
We just couldn't face another trip into the city twice in one day. I sent JB out to get pablum and eggs. That's what we fed Batman Not Robin, back in the day, on the advice from the same bird rescue peeps. It didn't work very well. Cat food (you know, stuff from the vet @$2.68 per can), is what I fed it. We weren't about to go into the city again. It was starving.
We've seen robins and robin's nests over the years. They are demanding babies.
These are archived photos of Batman. It was blind in one eye.
I'd tried pablum and egg yolk, but had troubles.
Off we drove to the bird centre.
Arriving at the Centre, I took the wee one in. I was shocked. The technician told me that I should not have done so. That Momma would be around feeding it, and I should have watched it for 2 hours. She said that it wasn't too young to be out of the nest. I felt as if she slapped my face. It was the centre that told me to feed this to Batman, all those years ago (2011). Batman did well on it. Well, we arrived home and put our feet up. At least we know they aren't dead.
You recall our last robin fledged from the wood shed. They've hung around, when I walk in the forest I'll often find an adult robin trying to scare me away from the juvenile.
Another silly story! I saw the robins going in and out of the shed. Having left the door open, to air it out, I figured they were building another nest. I thought I made a robin scooch out, and I closed the door that afternoon and I left.
What a mistake! I accidentally enclosed the robin in the shed. We were watching the next day from the deck, all day, and the adults were buzzing the shed window. Silly me. I finally twigged in.
No harm, no foul.
First priority, once I'd opened the door, was for the adults to feed it. You can hear it screeching inside the shed. After having several feeds, I knew they'd take care of it and went back up to the safety of the deck. Sure enough, after another 10 minutes I saw it fly out.
Now, as discussed in a previous post, many of us have dreams –nightmares, really– about certain things, often related to our former jobs. This morning I had one about being in University, and being unable to find my classroom. It was exacerbated by my being in a wheelchair! I have vowed NOT to take any more courses. I am a self-directed learner, and when I am curious => I do some research!
ROBINS
Robins, sadly, are no longer harbingers of spring, even up here in Canada. All About Birds has dispelled that myth, although they call them 'the quintessential early bird.' The debate is whether it is Climate Change, or simply weather patterns.
Anyway, I posted a few photos of my visitor on the bird bath, one of my experts said it was a female. That made me curious. Hence my rant on education. It is easy to do some research. I am determined not to take any more courses! The females have more white in their breasts than the males. All About Birds is a bit vague, but the female American Robin has a black tip on its beak (as do males sometimes). They say it 'usually forages on the ground.' You can see mine on the sumac, eating berries, which is all that is left for them to eat in the snow.
Also featured: baby robins I snapped in Bala back in 2009-ish, up on the eavestrough, while standing on a railing!
Of course, many of my faithful readers will remember Batman Not Robin. I him took in when he was half-blinded, and abandoned by his parents who were frantically caring for his sibling, who ran away into the forest. I think he was attacked by a predator, and fell from the nest too early. I gave him a bath, cleaned up his eye, and put him in the dog kennel.
