cellio: (Default)
Monica ([personal profile] cellio) wrote2018-05-22 08:53 pm
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chicks!

We have chicks. I think we've had them for about a week, but given where the nest is, it was hard to tell until they got large enough to sometimes pop up over the edges. I first saw small beaks on Friday:



This is from today. I think that's a petal from my tree (there are many shed petals in my back yard), which I wouldn't expect to be interesting food.



I took this one using a step stool in my doorway (limited range because of steps), holding my phone up as high as I could and shooting down half-blind. Most of the results were fuzzy.



Are there three chicks or four? I can only distinctly count three, but even with a lot of zoom and some brightening, I can't quite make out what's going on in there.

I know that robins are ordinary, common birds -- I see many around my house every spring -- but watching this family develop over the last few weeks has been a lot of fun anyway. I wish I had a better viewing angle (and been able to see them hatch).
wolby: Medieval illustration of a canine holding a duck by the neck; the duck says "queck." (Default)

[personal profile] wolby 2018-05-23 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Eeek, they're so cute! I love how angry-and-yet-fluffy baby and adolescent birds always look.

Re: "ordinary" nature, I've been on a quest this spring to identify all our local weeds using iNaturalist. Yes, they're nothing out of the ordinary, but there's incredible variation and it's fascinating to notice how the composition changes over time---in March it was all the rose-family fruit trees and deadnettle, in April and early May, it was hairy bittercress, cleavers, and common vetch, then fleabane and other aster-family flowers started popping up, and now in late May everything's been replaced by chicory (gorgeous blue flowers) and purple crown vetch everywhere I look.