Saturday School

A beautiful Saturday is on the agenda.  As I was on the front porch planning my landscape projects for the day, I observed one of the Robins foraging on the ground.  I believe it was the male because it was a bit darker than the other I've seen.  He already had one juicy worm in his beak, but he ran along the ground, stopped, and stuffed another worm in there.  Next stop was the nest.  Apparently, the males feed babies as well.  The female followed.

The babies already have the traditional orange spotted breast, so I'm guessing they are close to fledging.  After hatching, they stay in the nest for about fourteen days and leave the nest within two days of each other.   The babies are adorable at this age!

I also observed one of the adult birds cleaning waste material out of the nest.  Bluebirds do this as well.  Finches do not, I've learned, and they leave a mess in the nest when they leave.

The bluebird pair was back checking out nesting spots this morning!  I have an extra bluebird nest box that I haven't installed yet, which is sitting on my grill until I find a good location.  I happened to look outside, and the male bluebird was looking inside it!  His coloring was such a deep cobalt blue that I thought  he was a barn swallow at first.  I couldn't get my camera fast enough, and here is a picture of the box on the grill... with no bird...he was too fast for me.

The hummingbirds were active this morning as well.

Yesterday, I took a photo of a bluebird and a hummingbird from the same distance, which gives a nice perspective on the size of the birds.

Happy Saturday!