Well, our favorite robins are at it again. They must have been okay with us tramping all around on the deck,
The first hatchling snuggling their egg siblings
because they laid another clutch of eggs in the same nest, directly under the boards of our deck,
And the eggs just hatched!
Two out of three eggs hatched yesterday, so I knew the third one was close. I actually managed to get the 3rd egg hatching on film!!!! So here it is:
And now I'm gonna quit videoing, as I have daily videos of the last babies, so I'm just gonna chill out about documenting and enjoy peeking at these ones.
My newest piece for Raise Vegan is one for all the pregnant people and exhausted new parents out there.
For me, the hardest part about co-sleeping with Tzivia right in the bed was that I like to pull my blankets up all the way over my mouth. Obviously, this wasn't going to work with a newborn in the bed, so I abruptly had to change my habits. I started wearing a fleece blanket as a hat (see below) and sleeping in a cardigan (to keep me warm but be unbuttonable for nursing in bed) so I could leave my blanket safely at my waist, but I just was not getting any sleep that way.
I finally compiled my cell phone footage of the robin's nest into one video!
12 days of baby birdies: growing feathers, snuggling, yawning, eating, pooping, getting ready to fly.
The video's over 16 minutes. Feel free to skim (obvi).
They start out so cute, and by the end, when their parents are
keeping their distance while feeding them, I'm like, "Oh yeah, birds are
totally dinosaurs."
The nest is empty now, but the internet
informs me that robins reuse the same nests, so the mama might lay eggs
there again, maybe even this spring. We loved watching both parents care
for their babies. The frequency of feedings reminded me of the early
days of breastfeeding.
For those who don't know, Charles discovered this nest, right under our feet, on our 2nd
story deck. When we lie on the deck, we can peek at the nest between the
boards, so I positioned my camera there and just left it recording and
walked away. We didn't know about the nest before they hatched, so we're not sure how old they were on Day 1 of this video, but the internet tells me robins leave the nest around 13 days old, so we must've caught them when they were brand new!
Right after eating, the babies poop; that's what the parents are putting in their mouths! Apparently, when the baby robins are very young, the parents eat the poop,
and as the babies age, the parents will take it away with their beaks but drop
it instead of eating it. Friends who have seen our car, it does seem as though every bird in the neighborhood is using it as a target for their baby's poop.
