A Robin's Story...

Sorry it's been a couple of days. I've been trying to figure out how to write this next post. Tuesday turned out to be a very hard day for our family. It began as the days usually begin... Quick shower, get kids ready for school, quick peak at the nest and take a few pictures...




Their feathers are really starting to develop!

While they were at school, I ran a couple of errands, and then returned to pick up Qiyana from kindergarten. We did laundry and her homework... pretty much just stayed inside that day. Later, Qiyana and I decided it would be fun to roller blade to the school to pick up the kids, rather than drive. (We spent Sunday afternoon teaching Jordan on Kendra's old blades, and now that's all he wants to do!) So, I got out the stroller, loaded it with the kids blades, helmets, pads, etc., sat Qiyana in it and we left to pick up the kids. While we were gone, Lee returned home from work and called me on my cell asking me where the baby birds were. I had no idea what he was talking about! He said the nest was just... empty.

Qiyana and I picked up the kids and returned home. Still no baby birds. It was really strange... there was absolutely no sign of them. No sign of an attack. Nothing. My kids were all very upset, and Kendra cried and cried. She was very worried that the parent birds would think they couldn't trust us anymore. We'd like to think that they maybe just flew away and all was well, but they were only 8 days old, and while their feathers were becoming quite developed, it just didn't seem like they were developed enough. The really sad thing for me was to watch the mother bird return to the nest several times that afternoon and evening, with worms. She'd sit on the edge of the nest for a few minutes with the worms in her beak.... and then eventually just eat them herself.

The girls mentioned to Lee that they had seen a couple of large black birds flying around in the past week while they were outside on the trampoline. Lee has talked to some neighbors and learned that we do indeed have some ravens in the area. Perhaps they are the culprits. But there is no way to know. We simply cannot see anything around the nest or tree to give us any clues.


Although this entire experience did not turn out the way we had hoped, I have to say how blessed our family has been to be able to share the last 3 weeks with this robin family. In the last 8 days, we have come to love and appreciate those little babies more than any other wild robins have probably ever been. We will treasure our pictures and memories forever, and we thank Heavenly Father for blessing us with the opportunity we have had - it has very much enriched our lives. We hope our Mom and Dad robins will continue on well, and we hope to be able to see them again.