Nesting robins

Of all the birds we have around here, I love robins the most.

Despite their penchant for my strawberries, I'm ridiculously fond of these sassy little thrushes.

I watched a juvenile robin in our corral early yesterday morning, just at sunrise.

Needless to say, I was pretty durned tickled to find a nest in a bush right outside the garden fence.

I found it a couple weeks ago when I was weeding in a bed too close to the bush, and the parent birds scolded me.

Alert to the happy possibility of a nest, I went searching in the only logical spot and found it.

On May 24, it had three eggs in the stunning "robin's-egg blue" color.

Shortly thereafter, it had four. I took three separate photos on three separate days and no more eggs were added, so four seems to be their full brood number.

May 31:

June 1:

June 4:

I try not to disturb the mama bird too often, but fortunately she seems to realize I mean her no harm since she doesn't hesitate to settle herself back on the nest in my presence.

The father bird, however, stays nobly protective of his mate's nest, and keeps a suspicious eye on me in the garden.

Yesterday morning I heard the raucous calls of magpies, which are common around here. Magpies eat eggs -- and baby birds. A couple years ago they decimated the nest of a pair of bluebirds we had nesting in the garden, to my dismay.

I was worried they might have found the robin's nest, so I hurried over to check. Thankfully the nest was undisturbed, and I was delighted to see one baby already hatched.

I feel very protective about this nest, and hope the robins can successfully raise their brood.