A few weeks ago, I was opening the gate of one of our prairies and noticed a robin’s nest on a nearby fence post. (There’s a measure of success for our tree suppression efforts – robins have to build nests on fences in our prairies!!)
More importantly, the robins had built the nest right behind our “No Hunting Without Permission” sign. What a great location!
This weekend I was back at the same site and was glad to see that the robins’ sign had worked for non-human predators as well as human ones. There were four healthy nestlings in the nest, looking like they were within a few days of fledging.
Since I’d temporarily spooked the adults away by going through the gate, I took advantage of the brief period to get a few portraits of the birds. After all, it’s not often that I get the chance to photograph a robin’s nest without having to climb a ladder…
.




I also saw a similar nest…but it was on the east side of a fencepost…at our office we have one nesting in a wheel well of our truck….I couldn’t help but think she had the best spot last week in the rain!
As long as you don’t have anywhere to go for a few weeks…
Love the photos! Glad you got a chance to get close- robins sometimes nest in our yard but it is under our garage eave and not an easy place to climb up to.
Nice, Chris. I usually have to dodge dive-bombing parents as well. Have to decide whether a good photo is worth a whack on the head!
Great photos! There are bluebird babies about to fledge from my side yard box – it’s really apparent at this age how closely bluebirds and robins are related. They look almost identical except that the bluebirds have blue-gray feathers.
I remember seeing these nest in rafters of barns and sheds and under eaves of houses and porches, when I lived back east as a kid. Here in Missouri, they seem always to nest in the abundant trees. On a fence post is a new one for me. Cool pic!.