What happened to the robins?
The robin’s nest was empty on Sunday morning May 26th. The recordings made by the nest camera revealed what had happened.
May 20th – A video camera is streaming and recording activity at a robin’s nest in the very small tree on the left.
May 20th – The robin’s nest has 3 eggs. This picture was taken by holding a phone camera above the nest. The video camera couldn’t be positioned that high because of tree branches.
May 25th – After about 12 days of incubation the eggs are hatching.
May 25th 3:45 PM – A parent discards an empty eggshell that had a little robin inside only minutes ago.
May 25th 6:30 PM – Two chicks have hatched. The wind vibrated the nest which made them think maybe a parent bird was there, so they’re asking for food.
May 25th 6:35 PM – A parent delivers a tiny grub for a tiny chick.
May 26th 4:40AM – Later that night – tiny robins are not the only thing that has hatched lately: LOTS of mosquitos too. The robin has its head tucked in and the bugs have a hard time getting through the feathers.
May 26th 4:50AM – Something shakes the little tree and wakes up the robin. The mosquitos seize the opportunity.
May 26th 4:50AM – A few seconds later the tree shakes again and the robin flies away into the dark night, chirping its loud alarm call. The camera isn’t fast enough to stop the motion: the blur is the robin’s wing feathers on a down-stroke. Its body is already out of the picture.
May 26th 4:51AM – A few seconds later a marauder appears. (Earlier I considered adding a raccoon barrier to the tree but didn’t. Now I wish I had – it might have stopped the cat.)
May 26th 4:51AM – The cat has a little robin. Feral cats and domestic cats that are allowed to roam outdoors are really hard on wildlife.
May 26th 4:57AM – The cat returns again. It took all three: two chicks and perhaps the third one too if it had hatched, or otherwise the egg. The cat climbed up and turned its back to the camera so it wasn’t clear, but in any case the nest was emptied. This pair of robins will try again somewhere else.
“An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. From that point on, about half of the robins alive in any year will make it to the next. Despite the fact that a lucky robin can live to be 14 years old, the entire population turns over on average every six years.”
Quote from Cornell Labs “All About Birds” https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/
We got 3 healthy ones fledged down the street, the crows and neighbor’s cat did not find them.