Tuesday, May 24, 2011

spring-loaded


For the past month, our weather has been spring-loaded.
Temperatures have ranged from below 30 to over 80
and enough snow, rain and hail has fallen
to take us from drought to flood.
Through it all, a robin built her nest next to the house
and laid her eggs.
She carefully rolls them every 40 minutes,
while fending off marauding squirrels and jays.

The eggs have begun to hatch.
Thunder and lightning crash, and the wind rocks the cradle.
Hail hurls stones at her until, to my amazement,
her mate swoops in, lands on her and
spreads his wings to protect her and the nest.

It's brutal out there, and the drama is wrenching.
It's just one family of robins,
but they're playing out the game of life.
The rule is:
robins live to make baby robins.




8 comments:

hw (hallie) farber said...

Beautiful--the story and your drawing. I'm not sure I could watch such drama; your rule is somehow comforting.

SamArtDog said...

Thanks for the comment, Hallie. Like I said, it is a drama, but I'm sure the baby robins will be yanking their own worms out of the lawn soon.

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Phoned it in on this one, right? I love what you do with your iPhone!!

We inadvertently pruned a branch that held a robin's nest and unhatched eggs. The nest cushioned the fall and the eggs were unharmed. Without disturbing them, we carefully placed the branch and eggs on a picnic table and watched until the mother came back. She found her nest and seems to still be in the mothering mode. Whew!

Endlessly fascinated by nature.

Celeste Bergin said...

ooooooooooo this is so nice...it makes me smile

SamArtDog said...

Sad to report that the nest was raided. It was knocked half off the branch with the remains of one baby on the ground beneath it.

I feel so sorry for the parents, but the rule still applies; given whatever recovery robins need, they'll be at it again. They often return to rebuild the same nest. Jeez.

Mother Nature is a beast.

Sheila Vaughan said...

Sam - what a beastly end to the tale as you say. The image is fantastic - love the electric blue. But the babies. oh dear.

Jala Pfaff said...

How cool.

Randall David Tipton said...

That was beautifully written Sam, thank you for noticing them.