Oh they grow up so fast

I think the older I get, the faster that time seems to go. Two cases in point:

First off, the baby robins that were only born a month or so ago, are now gone. We went on vacation and when we returned the nest was empty. The apple tree was probably a good choice for mamma robin as I didn't go over there too much this year to harass them.

Don't worry, there'll be a second set soon. Gene caught some robins doing the horizontal tango in the front yard.

Case #2: Tanner is off to Upward Bound as of Sunday night. He'll spend half of is summer living in the dorms at the local university. On his weekends off, he'll spend most of that working his new job at the grocery store.

Wasn't it like 3 minutes ago he was a 4 foot little chubby guy carrying newspapers in the snow? Now he's pushing 5'8", thin as a rail (eats like a horse), and thinking about college.

sniff.

He seems to be just FINE without his mamma. I had a shoot today at the college and could hear them all partying it up over the hill at their dorms.
I wanna join UB too. :/

Getting old sucks!

Robin Watch 2011 - we have fuzz

I decided to check out the robin nest today while I was outside poking at my camera. From about 5 feet away, I saw it....

We have fuzzies!

They must have hatched in the past 24 hours as they are all still very tiny, and nothing but wee bit of fuzz on the noggins. Oh, and mamma and daddy were REALLY PISSED at me.

sorry.

Something tells me they are hungry. I dunno, just a suspicion I have.

So very tweet - Robin Watch 2011

It's that time of year again!

I've followed the baby robins that are born at our house for several years now, and this year, the robins have had ENOUGH, and moved their nest. It's no longer on the power box, on the light pole. Nope.

I'm a little offended here.

The nest full of eggs is now about 20 feet away in the apple tree that makes no apples.

I'm still getting cussed out though. oops. Sorry guys. I promise this year not to bother you every single day.

Just every third day. ;)

Don't you just love it when you're trying to give birth and your mother-in-law won't stop coming into your room? Yeah, I think they think of me a little like that.

{I will say that I'm excited to see that it's definitely the same male robin. He has a scar on his chest that is a big identifier.}

NOTE: My mother-in-law has never seen me give birth because that would be impossible considering she didn't know me then, and also, I'm sure she wouldn't want the bejesus scared out of her.

Robin Watch - Part cinco (that's #5 btw)

Remember baby robin? That post was only 9 days ago. Look at baby robin now! Sadly the other 2 eggs never hatched so they disappeared. Apparently, getting 100% of momma and daddy's attention makes you grow even faster and fatter! I'm expecting this one to leave the nest any day now.

I'm contemplating feeding Tanner chewed up worms and see what happens.



(just kidding, lighten up!)

Wait.. you're not my MOMMA!

The Robins family has set up shop for the second time this summer already. It's still early and I wonder if she'll eek out a 3rd set of eggs for the year. One little guy is already hatched and ready for dinner. I have no idea what the 0ther two are waiting around for.

Maybe they know something I don't know.

I have severe empty nest syndrome!

Friday Evening:

Sunday Morning:

From hatching to leaving the nest... two weeks.

Robins have it so easy!

Robin Watch 2010 - oh the grow up so fast

Thursday:

{you got a little something there... on your lip... no there... right there!}

Sunday Morning:

I will say it...
Hideous little creatures aren't they?
But cute, in their own little naked bird way.

Robin Watch 2010 -

And then there were three.

All hatched and made it out into the big world ok, but something has happened and one little one got pushed out of the nest, so now we are down to 3 very, very ugly baby birds.

The weather has been cold and wet, so we have been actually taking a big wide berth to get to the coop so that the robin will stay on the nest... as suggested by my bulldog type A personality husband.

(He's a bigger softy than he lets on).

Daddy Robin finally showed up, and he looks like he's been in a bar fight.
And lost.

Limited edition - #1 of 4

Here's something, you don't see every day.

Robin Watch 2009 - 2 days

These little creatures are so amazing. I told Gene that I made the mistake of only taking photos every OTHER day, and how neat it would be to be able to do a time lapse as I've never seen anything grow and change so fast in such a short period of time.

So, I took some new pics yesterday:

And then again today:

This is a close up of the feathers as they grow out of the tip of the shaft. I had no idea that this is how feathers grew. I admit, it's kinda creepy.

And here, in the reflection in it's eye, you can see me on the left and gene on the right. He had to come out and protect me!! Mamma Robin swooped down and landed on the basketball hoop only a couple feet above my head. LOL. Oooooops.

< /tolerance level off >


Almost ripe.
We're having robin kabobs at Seth's graduation party.

JUST KIDDING
{we're having left over wings from the wedding. LOL. Jk again???}

Robin Watch 2009 - Hell have no fury like a mamma Robin

This is day 4. See how fast they are growing?! Day one they had just little pink nubbins for "wings" and now, 4 days later, they have little feathers popping out everywhere.

Isn't mother nature, an amazing woman?


This woman on the other hand has about had enough of me:

One of my readers told me about watching a robin attack a squirrel. I'm not really into being on the opposite end of a beak beating. I had one eye on the mamma and one on the babies. 3 pics and I was out because man was she cussing me!!

Sorry mamma, a couple more weeks and we'll part ways.

A little recognition!!

I'm very excited! One of my photos was featured on Shutter Sisters One Word Project!

Shutter Sisters is a community/blog about women photographers and sharing their creativity with others. I make sure to catch up with them a couple times a week and was very excited when a couple months ago, they started the One Word Project. One word is your interpretation of that word for the month.

This month the word was "Share". Rarely do I go out taking a picture on purpose, but look at my photos and see what fits the them. This time, it was my robins.

There are literally hundreds (thousands) of pictures submitted each month, with only one being featured per day. I got to be one of those today! It has made my day. Once in a while, it's nice to be patted on the back by your peers and have someone say "you know what, you don't suck."

Thanks shutter sisters! And to follow robin watch, just click on any Robin Watch tag at the bottom of any robin photo!

Robin Watch 2009 - a power struggle

I sneaked a peak yesterday. Actually there wasn't much "sneaking". Mamma robin had no desire to MOVE.

'Scuse me ma'am, might I take a moment to take a quick photograph of your children?

Please?
Helloooo??

Oh, dear. You have something on your cheek.
No... down a bit.

{can you see my reflection in her eye? Dude that's close}

Oh so ugly. But look how fast they grow. *heavy sigh*



(this is the part where you hear a LOT of Robin cussing in the background.

Her: "Oh thank god she's gone. Did you see that? Oh.My.God. How rude are humans, I mean really."

Him: "Mmdm mdhhd mmmnnrdlh." (translation: "lil' help please")

"What? Is your beak broke? Do I have to do EVERYTHING? You know, you were there for the conception too if I remember correctly!"

"Are you even DOING this right?"

"Ugh... Do you EVER brush your beak. You'll be on the couch if you don't brush your mouth."

"You're RIGHT! I CAN DO THIS BY MYSELF!"


****

Wow... I had a flashback!

Anyway, if you're getting tired of Robin Watch. Tough luck. :p
Actually, this won't last much longer, they'll be up and gone in a couple weeks!

Robin Watch 2009 - we have beaks!

Friday, I checked the robin's nest, and only saw some eggs. Saturday, while trimming around the place, tanner peeked into the nest and saw something completely different.





So new they don't even lift their heads when you come around.




Unless you tap on the pole.



Or your brother opens his big mouth



Then it's game ON!



Nothing? Shoot... I'll go back to bed then.



There's one little robin that never raised his little head. I have a feeling that wee robin is going to get kicked out of the nest :( *no I will not raise a robin*. Sorry, I have issues with chewing on worms and spitting them in bird's mouths.

Call me crazy like that.


To follow along with Robin Watch 'ought-nine, click on the robin watch tag at the end of this post.

Take 10 min

Today, when I came home from trip from town running errands, I do something that I do frequently.

I turned off the car and sat in the driveway just listening and looking.

Sometimes I just love to hear the nothing, or the traffic that's a mile away, or the birds arguing, or the wind blowing, or the world just growing around me. Right now it's in it's growing stage and it feels good to sit there and let the warm hit my face.

So after about 5 minutes of that, I looked over to my left, saw some smoke that looked like a smoke signal. I decided that I'd take a pic since I'd grabbed my camera on the way out the door. I checked the time, and decided I'd wait a few minutes and take a couple pictures.

It started out with this:




Then I noticed someone's been creeping around my driveway:


No toenails, but I think it's a raccoon.
BURNED.


A few feet away, I noticed one of the hundreds (thousands) of dandelions in my yard. I wondered what one would look like nice and close up:




Time to check on the eggs:



Let's check out the back yard since we're here:

Dirty little bastards. Note to self, buy ant killer


The tree right above that:



The little buds just a few days ago, are new little leaves


I finished up, and as I was unlocking the door, I heard a plane, and I ALWAYS look up (you know my penchant for planes) and I saw this:



The one on the left, is RIGHT over the house, I snapped it with my 18-55mm (standard wide to medium zoom) and RAN in the house for my telephoto and got the one on the right. (I never have exactly what I need at the right moment!)

As I came into the house finally, I looked at the clock, and only 10 minutes had passed.

Then I got to thinking, that everyone can find 10 minutes to create something. Even if it's not a photo, maybe it's a scrapbook page, or a blog post, a little bit of a drawing, or reading 4 pages in a book.

So much can happen in just 10 min.