Sunday morning bird watching, walk with me.

    

Kevin discovered this bird nest out in our trees. See the nest there in the
 upper fork of the tree? The nest is about 6 1/2 feet off the ground.

1st there was 2 eggs.  Notice the different materials the nest is
made out of.  Little sticks & course grass.  Mud & thin softer 
looking grass.
 

It's a robin's nest.  I hid quietly behind some of the other trees & 

zoomed in to get this close up.  The bird flies off the 
nest if we go out there anywhere near it.

This area of the yard behind the garage must have the juiciest worms.  
The birds return to this spot time & time again.  One of these looks 
male & the other female, perhaps a mated pair. The male has the

darker & brighter colors.

I use the camera to look inside the nest since it's about a foot taller 
than I am.  I turn the viewing screen down, so I can see.  Can you
see those little blue eggs in there?  Looks like 4 of them.

There is really loud squawking going on when we are out
 in the trees, even if we're not looking in the nest.

Still 4 eggs after several days.

OH!  LOOK!  An egg hatched. I can't tell which end is the head,
can you?

This here is bird watching in it's finest moments.

I did a little reading to find out more about robin nesting.  The female chooses the nest location & builds the nest.  The nest is built within a couple of days & can be anywhere between 5 to 25 feet off the ground.  The bowl of the nest can be compared to the size of a baseball sitting in it.  

The female usually lays between 2 & 4 eggs.  The eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch.  The male & female both take care of the young. The female can raise up to 3 broods a year.  Each time she builds a different nest.  

The baby birds fledge about 2 weeks after they hatch.  They can't fly when they 1st leave the nest.  The young birds bounce around on the ground & onto low branches.  Often the male continues to take care of these young birds while the female gets the next nest ready. 

I looked up a couple words used in the bird nesting process:

• brood - sit on eggs to hatch them.
• fledge - leave the nest.

I'll continue watching the birds & let you know how it goes.  Do you have birds or other animals you're watching in your backyard?  For Memorial Day I express my gratitude of those that gave their life to make our world a better place.