Mrs. Robin Hatches Egg #3, And Mrs. Morning Dove Sits On Her Nest

third robin egg hatches 012 — Mrs. Robin watches when I go into the garage attic. She’s protecting her little babies snuggled up in the nest. If she flies away, I’ll snap a quick photo through the window, but I don’t want to disturb her purposely.

Curiosity got the best of me this morning, so I snuck outside to see if I could find a moment when Mrs. Robin was off the nest so I could check the hatched egg count. This week found two eggs had hatched – two baby robins!

Mrs. Robin had built her next on the ledge of one of our garage attic windows. (And that was quite a struggle!) That means I can go inside the garage attic, look through the window and see right into the nest without touching anything or, theoretically anyway, disturbing her.

On the other side of the garage, Mrs. Morning Dove is also sitting on her own nest of two eggs. She’s really skittish; if she feels the stairs move she starts flapping and generally causing a commotion, banging against the screen and window before hauling tail feathers out a hole in the screen. She often signals to Mrs. Robin that there’s a code red emergency, and by the time I’m upstairs Mrs. Robin usually flies away for a moment to sound the alarm.

Which is to say that I can’t really check either nest without disturbing the birds, I guess. But since I have to go into the garage anyway, I decided to try and sneak a peek if it looked safe.

Guess what? We have baby #3! One more robin egg to go!

third robin egg hatches 007 — There’s a third little head tucked in that pile of scrawny baby bird bodies! One more egg to go!

Over at Mrs. Morning Dove’s nest, there are still two eggs. I can’t wait to see those little creatures emerge from their shells.

third robin egg hatches 003 — The garage attic stairs go right by the window where Mrs. Morning Dove has built her nest between the window and old screen. I can’t help but startle her every time I go into the garage.

third robin egg hatches 004 — Mrs. Morning Dove is sitting on two tiny eggs in her nest, hidden in the garage window over my chicken coop.

When I got downstairs and outside, I looked up to find Mrs. Robin checking her nest to make sure no one was disturbed. They weren’t. I promise!

third robin egg hatches 021 — Mrs. Robin checks her nest to make sure all of her babies are there.

I know this seems silly, my love affair with these birds and their eggs. Every spring since we’ve lived in this house – 22 years! – birds have hatched from eggs and bunnies have taken their first hops and hawks have eaten sparrows and a possum has stopped by for a visit and God only knows what other critters have been born, lived or died in our yard.

This isn’t the country. We live in a village; houses are basically a one car driveway apart from each other. There are train tracks and highway noises and people and kids and lots of dogs barking nonstop up and down the street. That there’s any wildlife at all here astounds me, but it’s all hidden, in the trees and gardens, behind fences and garages, under shrubs and high over head in the roof eaves.

This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to see the miracle of a robin’s birth, basically in front of my eyes. And I had no idea the same thing was happening with the morning doves, too! It just proves that the miracle of creation is right under our nose, if we only take the time to see it.

Stay tuned for more updates, and check out the rest of the posts and photos about Mrs. Robin, her nest-building struggles, and her new babies!

Mrs. Robin hatches egg #3, and Mrs. Morning Dove sits on her nest