Nat Geo, LOOK OUT!

As I've already mentioned, our backyard is a Colorado wildlife preserve. 


It seems the owners before didn't think that grass or landscaping was important (ironically, the previous owner had a landscaping business). We've gathered that he was all or nothing. If there couldn't be a pond, fountain and a lightshow (I added that one ;) he didn't want to bother. 


Lucky us.


In spite of the fact that we can't use the backyard in the way we'd like to yet, the current set up is great for nature watching. You can tell that the animals are very accustomed to our yard being all theirs. When  you open our screen door to the back, at least 50 birds take flight; surprised by the intrusion. When we closed on our house and my dad started painting, he noticed that a mama robin had made a nest and laid eggs in the tree closest to the house. The best part is that our office window looked right down on it. We've watched the eggs hatch, birds grow and leave the nest, all within practically arms reach.


We've learned SO much about baby birds. It's been the highlight of days. Now the nest is empty and it's actually sort of sad. 


Here's the progression of the baby birds growth, in pictures (and video!)
*thank you in advance for humoring us. The length of this blog and extent of pictures is slightly embarrassing and quite telling of just how exciting our life is over here. But, I do love fostering the little naturalist in my little Mimi, and ironically, she just got a book that chronicled the growing of a little bird. Maybe we'll publish our own book!*




Mama robin, sitting on her four blue eggs

 One morning we discovered that they had hatched!

(there was one blue egg still waiting to make its appearance)

I was so fascinated watching the Mama bird, as she tirelessly took care of her babies. I've never felt so "kin" to an animal before :) she constantly flew back and forth, trying to make sure that they had food (and also taking care of the not so pleasant stuff too). She was so protective of them. Any time we'd poke our head out of the window to look at her and the babes, she'd stand at alert for a long time, waiting to make sure that we weren't predators!


(one time when the babies were just eggs still, she dive bombed Mimi as she played under the tree. If I wasn't a mom too, I probably would've been mad. But I got it! So we moved our play further away)

Very quickly these little guys got feathers!
They literally changed overnight from cute little pink babies to looking more "bird like."

The bigger they got, the more often the mama bird was flying back and forth feeding them. It was nonstop. 


I though that nature has a great way of preparing moms for letting their babies go. These birds were so much like "teenagers." They got all gangly and awkward; not cute anymore. They were big, taking up too much space and eating this poor mama robin out of house and nest! Probably just like human teenagers. It was time for them to get out and fly on their own!

 ...so this guy did!
We watched this first bird get out of the nest. I wanted so badly for all of us to see him make his grand exit, but we missed it.

When we came back later, he was gone.

Slowly, during the course of a day, the nest became emptier and emptier.

Till there was one little fella left:

The next day when we got up, this is what we saw:

a truly "empty nest!" Not sure where mama robin is these days. Maybe in Tahiti, sipping a mai tai. Or at least I hope so. She definitely deserves a rest.

****








*side note: it seems I was actually quite right when I mentioned that there was the potential risk of Tetnus in our new backyard. 

The other day we had some new friends over who just moved in down the street THE SAME day we did...(they are so fun. A blessing for sure. More on that later). Their son Ben was in the yard and found a long, railroad-spike sized NAIL. He then proceeded to "collect" things from our yard and put them on our outdoor serving shelf. Here's what he found in 20 minutes...

I'm sure my new friend is just DYING to race her son over here again so he can find metal spikes! What a great playdate.. ;)

It's been really hard to remember that we bought this house for what it could be. The neighborhood is like something out of a Norman Rockwell. It's so pleasant and just what we wished for. But it's so hard to be patient. Patient for grass that Bode can crawl on, for appliances that are in full working order, for new carpet to get rid of the funk my mom so gently pointed out and I ignored. All in good time I guess. In the meantime I'll just distract myself with birds. ;)