The Race

Ed and I have been racing against Mother Nature's clock as we worked all week to clean up the tree line along the drive. Tree by tree we've moved down the line, exorcizing the invasive osage orange trees, leaving the wild cherries, hickories, hackberries, cedars and walnuts. We clip the thorny, brambled branches and then Ed goes at the trunks with his chain saw. Together we stack the logs and kindling sticks and drag the branches to a brush pile.

We made it about half way down the drive before we found the first 2013 bird's nest, which was our clear signal that our tree clearning days were over until next fall.

Ed saw the nest early in the week, but assumed it was left-over from last season. He pointed it out to me yesterday and then quickly realized that a mama robin was sitting in it. We came back today to do some clean up and the mama bird was taking a break from her nest, so I snapped a photo.

Mama robins nornally lay three to five eggs, one each day. So this mama may not be through laying her eggs.

I'm not sure I'll get another chance to take a photo of the eggs. It seems that until all the eggs are laid, she limits the time she spends sitting on the nest. This is to keep the older eggs cool so that the entire clutch develops at roughly the same time. But once all the eggs are laid, the mama rarely leaves the nest for more than five or 10 minutes at a time.

Baby robins should be here in about two weeks. Can't wait to have some new avian residents at Farm Dover.