Peep-Peep Little Birdie!

Watched a robin feeding her babies tonight. We’ve had a Momma Bird camped on our back porch for some time now. I noticed her nest on the crossbeam of the patio about a month or so ago; it seemed to appear out of nowhere, almost magically. I pointed it out to Robert and Harrison and we began watching her come and go.

There were times I figured she would leave her little haven. Robert grilled one night and reported back that he got an earful from her for his efforts. His grill, alas, is right below her home, and I’m sure that she didn’t appreciate the banging of the lid, the rising heat or the smell of burning animal flesh.

I, on the other hand, scared her more directly, although not really intentionally. She was in her nest one afternoon when I was out there and had frozen into a sort of ‘Don’t See Me!’ position. I, seeing her not moving when before this she had been moving quite a bit, thought that she had died in her nest. Don’t ask me why—I’m not always on the ball, I suppose. Anyway, I started making loud, aggressive movements, swinging my arms and jumping around. To her credit, she barely flinched, but she finally did move a little bit. I, realizing that she was probably trying to keep me, a potential predator, from noticing her little home, felt like a doofus and quietly went back inside the house.

But it appears that all is well, because she was feeding her little ones tonight. I looked out the window as I was feeding my own babies (albeit, not regurgitated grasshoppers or worms) and saw the Momma in her nest. I’ve been watching her through the windows for days, seeing her sitting serenely, often sleeping. Tonight, I saw her sitting at the edge of the nest and I saw two little baby heads popping up, wiggling around and peeping.

I immediately pointed her out to the rest of the family and we spent the rest of our meal watching the little ones eat the rest of their meal. Additionally, we saw several red birds zooming in to eat from the bird feeder we hung from another crossbeam on the porch. Harrison built this feeder at Lowe’s a few weeks ago and the birds are finally noticing that it’s there.

I’m not sure why watching birds eat had such a magical effect on us all, but it really did. Harrison liked seeing the babies and we got to talk about the birth cycle of a bird and really tie the information he had learned in school over the past few springs in to real life.

I, on the other hand, feel like maybe I didn’t mess up so badly with my Momma Bird friend.