Nesting Robins

On Tuesday (April 1st), we visited RSPB Leighton Moss. As we reached the point in the path where the Garden Trail meets the Family Trail, a Robin flew over and landed on a twig about a foot away from my head. I (naturally) had a tub of live mealies for just such an occasion and as soon as I popped the lid, he flew across and took a couple of mealies from my hand. He did not eat them though. Instead, he flew away with both of them in his beak. He did this several times and then he was joined by a second Robin, which was the female of the pair. She was very friendly too, but remained on the ground to take mealies, rather than coming to hand. She might well have come to hand to feed during the next few minutes, but I'm pretty sure it was only the male that did so. The female was always quick to dive in whenever the male Robin knocked a mealie off my hand, or when one of them crawled off and fell to the ground. The following photos of me and the friendly Robin were all taken by Hazy. After we had toured the reserve and also the Morecambe Bay site, we returned to Leighton Moss for another snack and then I remained with the Robins while Hazel and Mike revisited the rest of the hides. Jason and his friend James were with us in the morning and James was eagle eyed enough to see where the Robins were going with their mealies. I was therefore able to set up the tripod and direct the camera at the nest while the Robins continued to forage near my feet. There were Marsh Harriers to be photographed from the Grisedale Hide, but I was in my element with the Robins, especially as I was able to film the nestlings as they shuffled around in the nest. I expect they have fledged by now. All in all, a fantastic experience at a wonderful location. I will post my other non-Robin photos on another thread.

Mr & Mrs together

Even with an audience, he still came to my hand for his live mealies

The rest of the photos were taken about 6 hours later when I returned to photograph and film the nest (from a sensible distance). Looks like someone was careless with a faecal sac in the first one!

Faecal sac removal

I imagine these little guys (and girls) will have fledged by now, but they will still need plenty of live mealies.

The above clip and the following one were both filmed without the tripod and are therefore somewhat shorter than the final one. They do show the Robins flitting back and forth to the nest.

This final clip is the longest and was filmed using the tripod. I was able to leave it filming the nest and you can see the nestlings as they shuffle around in the nest. The Robins were foraging near my feet (as I had turned over a couple of mossy logs to enable the Robins to forage for insects and grubs). The female did a fair bit of 'ditting' at a third Robin and the male burst into song occasionally. All in all, a wonderful experience with my favourite birds.