American Robin

Last year we had a pair of Mourning Doves nesting in one of our hanging baskets right in front of our entrance door.
This year we hung two baskets at around mid April, hoping that the Doves would come back.
They did not come. Instead a pair of Am. Robins started building a nest.
They built a very well constructed nest. They use mud that they mixed with dry grass. Then they let it dry for about two days. Then they lined it with fine dry grass. After that they disappeared. You might believe that they changed their mind. A few days later the female would sit on the nest and lay the first egg. Then the next two days two more eggs follow.
She does not sit on the nest all the time. She leaves for five to fifteen minutes at a time, presumably feeding.
Here is the first picture taken when she was not on the nest and Marienna was watering the plant, to keep it alive so it would provide cover for the nest.

Yesterday the male came and fed the female on the nest. It is a sign that they are preparing to mate again. It is also a sign that the eggs will hatch soon. Today morning one of the eggs had two little cracks on it.
Later on the female checked the eggs several times.
Shortly after noon she worked on the egg, seemed to have been helping to crack the egg open.
Now she left and I had a chance to go out quickly and take a shot.

I had to work in the Artisan Store, Downtown yesterday.
I barely started when the phone rang and Marienna was telling me excitedly that there was an emergency situation that had to be discussed.
She checked on the nest when the mother was away and she noticed that the only remaining egg was out from the nest, lying in the flower pot. The two other had already hatched.
I advised her to put the egg back with a spoon, but not to touch it with her hand.
I checked on it today and this is what I saw: three little downy creatures.

After twelve days of hatching, the little birds, now looking like ready to fly, started exercising their wings. They also spent substantial time with preening.
Feeding was going on almost continuously. One parent would be still on the nest feeding the young when the other parent would fly in with the food.
Having anticipated the fledging and having some other problems, we decided to postpone our leave for Rondeau by one day.
The next day I checked on the nest at 6:00 AM. It was bulging from the large chicks. I kept packing the trailer and was ready to leave. I checked on the nest again at 10:00 AM.
The chicks were gone. We started looking around. We found two of them close by and the third was calling from further down the road. I managed to take some not too good pictures before they dispersed. We learned a lot about American Robins during this four weeks. We felt privileged to have had them nesting in one of our hanging baskets. Now every time we see an Am. Robin we say: he/she might be one of ours.