Three years ago my wife hung a circular wreath on the wall just to the right of our front door, just where the steps go down to the walkway. The first year robins built a nest but abandoned it because of people walking by. The next year robins built a nest in the same place. They stayed the second year. Perhaps because we were away from home for two weeks and they had already laid 3 eggs. The nest was just at head height so it was easy to look into the nest. Though the parents were not to happy. I never disturbed them very long because one or other of the parents were always setting on the eggs. But would often fly away if we passed especially if one looked in the direction of the nest. Scarring the heck out of you sometimes as they just missed hitting you in the head when they flew out.
It way quit interesting how fast the chicks grew. Two hatched then the next day the third one hatched. Once they hatched the guardian parent would fly out quickly when ever someone exited the house by the front door. But while they were setting on the eggs they would usually not fly off unless you looked at them. But after they hatched both parents would fly away quickly , flying about making quit a racket or sometimes swoop down at you. For a time we tried to remember to exit the house by another door so as not to disturb them.
I think it was just two weeks before the first two flew the nest. They bolted when I was looking in on them. I had been taking pictures of them about every two days. They flew out or fluttered out and went into the flower bed along the front of our porch. They are very good at hiding. I looked amonst the flowers for 10 minutes and never did spot them. The next day the last one was gone was gone from the nest. They seemed to be on a tight schedule in development.
A couple of days later I just arrived home and spotted them in the yard just a few feet from the flower garden. When I approached, not to close about 15 feet away they started flying low just off the ground , eventually gaining a little farther flight with each try. They gained enough altitude to fly across the small stream at the front of my yard and disappeared into the bushes on the other side of the stream. All the time the parents where making quit a fuss.
Anyway. I found it fascinating how quickly they grew from little pink featherless creatures to being able to fly across the stream in only about 16 days.
Last year and this year we have not hung the wreath so no repeat episodes.
