The morning prior to the hurricane remnants hitting us, I saw a dark blob in the back yard. I thought it was a turtle, but when I got the binoculars out, it was a bird. It took me a while to figure out it was a juvenile robin that had jumped, or fallen out of the nest. It was not yet at the stage it could fly (or maybe just hadn't figured it out yet). (following three pics taken about 9:30 am on 8/4/20)
After a while, I saw Mom and Dad in the area.
That afternoon, I got alerts from both my personal and work phones - tornado warning!The local channel had Hillsboro in the warning area also, just can't see it in this picture. The tornado was indicated by radar (not by sight) and at that time was in Peterborough area, but the storm was moving 50-70 mph (so they said). I let my boss know I was logging off from work, then grabbed the youngsters, put them in their pen, and rolled it into the hallway (closing all the doors around it). Then I grabbed Rita and put her in the basement (she respects the gate at the top of the stairs.
My side of town saw only about 1/4" of rain (as has been usual, 1/4" of rain per week since the 4" more than a month ago). and very little wind. However, at higher elevations there were lots of trees and electrical wires downed, although no tornado or straight line winds.
A couple hours later, I looked around and finally found two juvenile robins. Both were beside the red rhododendron at the side of the house. Before I could grab my phone for a picture, one had gone behind the rhodie or under the burning bush that is behind it, so I could only get a shot of one.
We must have gotten more wind that night, because the next day I found some large limbs had come down. Thursday evening, since the dump is open late, I gathered all the limbs and took them to the shrub pile
I haven't seen the juvenile robins around, and I've only seen one adult robin, so it is hard to say if they got taken by the neighborhood fox, a cat, or are fine and on their own (or even being taken care of by parents somewhere in the swamp). And, previously I had rarely seen both mom and dad robins at the same time, so all I have a questions.
Just looked it up and it seems that the fledglings take a couple of weeks before they fly. They are taken care of by dad while mom lays and sits on more eggs, so I'm going to go with that explanation :)
You were wise not to stage an intervention on the juvenile robins and, even wiser, to prep for a possible tornado strike. Peterborough isn't that far from you.
It is comical watching the juvenile bluebirds flitter about our back yard. They can fly, after a fashion, but their judgement in alighting takes a while to develop. House finches seem to be more adept when they fledge - not great, but better than the bluebirds.
Posted by: Cop Car | August 09, 2020 at 05:04 AM
I get juvenile robins on the ground here ALL THE TIME. When I find them before the dogs do I will generally try to move them into the brush line or under a bush rather than let them set in the middle of the yard. From there they're on their own, but I've seen one or both parents feeding them, so some of them likely make it.
Posted by: Ruth | August 09, 2020 at 12:01 PM