We have a real treat this year. We have a robin's nest set right underneath our deck. The robin family has built their nest in the corner of our deck. If you look closely you can see the nest through the floorboards of our deck. You can place a chair right underneath it and see inside to look at the eggs.

You even have a fantastic view of mama robin sitting on the nest from our family room couch.

The robin has laid three eggs and the kids are so excited to watch the nest each day and see what happens. Based on what we have read and our estimation on when the eggs were hatched we should see the babies born sometime next week! The kids can hardly wait.

I am proud of them. They have been so good about only looking at the nest and never touching it. They have had friends over who have encouraged taking the nest down for a better look but the kids were firm about not touching the nest which is still undisturbed. They spend quite a bit of time just looking at the eggs and trying to catch glimpses of the mama robin rolling her eggs or incubating them.

We have been learning some interesting things about robins. Their eggs are really quite blue and they typically lay 4 eggs, one each day until they are done. We believe our robin is done laying eggs because it appears that she has started incubating them. According to what we have read the robin usually waits until the last egg is laid before beginning the incubation process so the eggs will all be born in close proximity to one another.

We talked tonight about what the hatching process will look like and how it will be for the chicks. We talked about what they are going to look like and saw some pictures. Not what the kids expected. Then we talked about how the early weeks will go for the robin family.

It is quite exciting here and is even receiving more attention than the current tadpoles and the plethora of grasshoppers they have managed to catch over the past few days.

I love summer!
Tenniel