Scenes from Lowell: Baby Birds Edition

After a long winter, the last month has seen the Lowell area blooming with new life. From buds on trees to baby fawns, signs of new beginnings have been everywhere.

When we noticed a robin had made a nest in a low branch, we decided to document the process from eggs to baby birds to empty nest. We only took photos of the inside of the nest when the mother robin was gone and took every effort not disturb her or her babies.

Here’s what we saw.

We first noticed this mother robin on her nest on May 16. Although we didn’t get a photo, she had four eggs in the nest with her.

On May 29, the first of the baby robins began hatching.

And by May 31, all four were out of their eggs and growing.

Four days later, on June 3, the birds were turning into fuzzy little masses.

By June 4, mother robin wasn’t fitting so snugly on top of the nest anymore.

All those beaks were maybe making it a bit uncomfortable for her.

Here they are on June 5th.

The nest was looking a bit crowded by June 6th.

By June 7, the hungry birds looked like they would outgrow the nest in no time.

We weren’t sure how long baby robins stayed in the nest, but given their size on June 8 — only about a week after they hatched — it didn’t seem like it would be long before they outgrew their living quarters.

They were still all there on June 9.

This was about the time that mom and dad started to get nervous about us being around their babies. While they didn’t seem to mind us peering into the nest before, they were now very agitated whenever we got close.

June 10 was the last day all four baby robins were in the nest. Shortly after this photo was taken, two of the birds took off, gliding down out of the nest with their parents following.

That gave the two remaining baby robins a little room to spread out.

One of those robins took off, leaving this as the lone straggler on June 11. While mom and dad had still been hanging out near the nest yesterday, they were nowhere to be seen now.

Maybe that was a hint for the last one to take off because when we checked the nest on June 12, it was empty.

What signs of new life have you seen this spring?

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*