Bird Watching

The kids discovered that we had 2 robin nests under our backyard deck.  They wanted to know if there were any eggs in them, and since they are up too high to peek in, I grabbed the camera to assist me.

As I walked up to the nests, I could hear the mom and dad bird chirping away in the nearby trees... I lifted my camera up to the nest.  Snapped a picture... the first nest... Empty.

When I looked over at the second nest, I noticed 3 little beaks hanging over the edge... and snapped this picture from about 15-20 feet away.

I said to the kids, "Hey! I see 3 baby birds in this one!"  So they came a little closer, the mommy and daddy birds started chirping a little louder... so I snuck up to take a quick closeup picture with the camera...

As I pressed down on the button, the flash flipped up, scared the baby birds, causing them to JUMP out of their nest, causing the mommy and daddy bird to immediately DIVE BOMB me and the kids.... which caused Trevor and Addison to scream bloody murder all the way up the deck stairs into the house, leaving poor terrified shaking, screaming Tyler frozen in fear at the bottom.   Screaming myself at the deadly airshow going on, (man I hope the neighbors aren't watching this) I scooped up my poor baby, ran up the steps dodging BIRD DIVES at my head... and ran in the house, shut the door, and stood there, heart pounding with 3 screaming children scared to death at what just happened.

Trevor declared between cries, "I'm NEVER going outside AGAIN! WaaaaaaaaAAAAAA!"

Once my heart rate came back down, we looked out the window to see if the babies were still on the ground, but didn't see them anywhere, so we decided they were mature enough to fly on their own. 

The kids wanted me to go back out (SERIOUSLY!?!?!) and see if they were back safely in their nest.

So, wishing I had a helmet, and a racket of some sort to protect myself... I slowly opened the door, peeked my head outside looking for diving birds... and slowly made my way back down to the yard... scanning the skies for enemy.

The nests were still empty and the empty yard nearby concluded that indeed those silly baby birds could fly, and I'm sure they would be back in their nest tonight.

A quick check this morning.... nest still empty. Oops.