Vacancy in the nest

I have kind of a long story to tell, but if you make it to the end you will be rewarded with a cute picture of Abby. Anyway, a robin built a nest under the corner of our deck. I had noticed some dried grass on the rocks under the deck and when I looked above the grass there was a little nest. From then on, we noticed the mother bird would swoop out of the nest when we went to play in the backyard and she would chirp at us from the fence, then swoop back to the nest when we went inside.

Last week when we were playing in the sandbox Sam said that he wanted to touch an egg. It came completely out of nowhere, so I had no idea what he was talking about. We went back and forth a bit as I tried to understand his seemingly incoherent statement. Then finally he said, "Mommy I dropped two eggs". It finally clicked for me. Uh oh. He had apparently grabbed two eggs out of the nest and dropped them. I had warned and scolded the boys about getting near the nest, but Sam's curiosity got the best of him and he, at least he said, that he broke two eggs. I felt awful about it and told him that was naughty and that we needed to leave the eggs alone. A few minutes later I had to go inside to get some water for the boys so I took a quick look at the nest as I hadn't seen much action from the mother bird lately and I feared that Sam may have destroyed all her eggs or she had abandoned them. To my surprise I saw two little heads peeking out of the nest. I was quite relieved and in my excitement I told the boys there were two baby birds in the nest. I told that I was going to get the camera and take a picture so they could see the birds without getting too close.

I ran in the house and ran back outside to witness a few robins swooping down at the boys and raising a ruckus. Then I saw two little robins who couldn't fly more than a few feet skittering/flying away from the nest. They would run, then attempt to fly and get a few feet, then run some more. One ran over to the sandbox, tried to fly and collided with the fence and the other ran alongside the house until it ran into the canyon which would be our window well. It gripped the edge of the window well and didn't move. The boys didn't seem to know what was going on, so at least they weren't scared by the robin attack and all the commotion. I quickly shooed them inside and felt even more awful about the bird situation.

I started dinner and the boys got to watch their evening tv show. I kept a look out for the birds and a few minutes later I saw the mother robin on top of the fence and right below her was one of her babies. I assumed it was the one from the sandbox collision as it was maybe 20 feet or so down the fence from the sandbox.  I didn't know where the other one was although I couldn't see it near the window well anymore. The mother seemed to be leading the baby down the fence. A few minutes later I saw the mother, hopping on the ground, with two babies behind her, crossing the fence in our backyard into our neighbor's yard. I watched them as far as I could, then they went over the hill in Karl's yard and I could no longer see them. I hope they found a better home.

And here's a cute picture of a very tired Abby.