Bye, By Birdie....

The strangest thing happend this Spring. Every Spring a family of robbins returns to our back deck lamppost to build their nest and raise their young offspring. Well I noticed an undeveloped egg had been tossed out. Of course the impact of the land caused the delicate shell to break and the yoke oozed out. Gross- talk about a fried egg! I figured maybe it was a dudd- and the parents instinctively tossed it out! Not a day or two later... the same thing happend! MMMM.... Well a few weeks later, on a Sunday morning I noticed that a new hatchling had taken an early flight and landed on the hard unforgiving wood deck. I immediately assumed it had not survived its tragic fall and walked off. All the while the daddy or mama robbin starts to stand gaurd. We went on to church and when we got home, Mom- being ever so domesticated, checking on the bird sees that it is not dead. Knowing that it won't survive long outside the security of its nest, but also knowing that if a human touches the bird its parents won't take care of it- Mom goes into "protective" mode. She goes inside and gets a plastic bag to serve as a glove and commands me to stand guard for the ever so protective parental robbins swooping low and shrieking with fear. Oh yes, you can imagine- I looked like I was dodging bullets. In a minutes time the hatchling was safetly returned to its nost. Mom and I both felt us though our good deed for the day had been done. We went to the lake for a cookout that afternoon. Immediately apon our return I ran to the deck to check on the hatchling---- he was not in his nest were we had placed him... apparently he had been tossed out of his nest once and for all. Sad story! I found it ironic that not only had they tossed eggs, but defensless hatchings out of the nest! Mom's theory is that there were severl robbins in competion over one nest?