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Robins' nest [message #50069] Wed, 30 May 2012 22:14 Go to next message
Robin is currently offline Robin
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http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2012/05/31/robins-nest/
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50070 is a reply to message #50069 ] Wed, 30 May 2012 22:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Maren is currently offline Maren
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Quote:

I was trying to find a link, but I can’t remember what they’re called, and there are gazillions of plant pots out there, and gazillions of gardening sites to sell them to you. These are not just biodegradable, they are built to be short-term and to disintegrate quietly after they, with the plants still in them, are put in the ground (or in a bigger, solider pot).


Peat pots?
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50071 is a reply to message #50069 ] Wed, 30 May 2012 23:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
EMoon
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Registered: March 2009
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Forgot to say thank-you for latest New Thing...but my heart just about stopped when you said you'd dropped something on mama robin...but then she's alive. At least she's alive. Convinced you're a rampaging monster, no doubt, but...alive. Is good.

I'm off to a convention for the weekend.

E
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50079 is a reply to message #50069 ] Thu, 31 May 2012 13:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Katsheare
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Registered: December 2011
Location: Berks., England
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I was thinking that since robins and tits and the other little stuff are my favourites, I could get one of those feeders in a wire cage where the gaps are only big enough for the little stuff to get through.

We love our robins and tits and the occasional finch and whatever else decides to come visit, and none of them seem too picky. Today my partner asked if he could please use a pellet gun (the answer was NO, but I considered for a moment) on the magpies. They're the prude police of our garden. The jay a couple weeks ago was exciting and somewhere near here we have a collard dove nest, but the magpies, wood pigeons and crows we can do without.

I don't know what I would do if the robins were nesting in the greenhouse, not the hedge. They holler at me for putting out the washing as it is, they would stage outright war if I were potting (and pottering) near them...

I'm glad mama (and you) survived unscathed!
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50083 is a reply to message #50069 ] Thu, 31 May 2012 19:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
abigailmm is currently offline abigailmm
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Is your English Robin any relative of our American wren? Sounds like they have similar proclivities for nesting in garages, potting sheds, eaves over doors, etc.
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50094 is a reply to message #50071 ] Fri, 01 June 2012 18:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
shalea is currently offline shalea
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EMoon wrote on Wed, 30 May 2012 23:11

Forgot to say thank-you for latest New Thing...but my heart just about stopped when you said you'd dropped something on mama robin...


You and me both!
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50097 is a reply to message #50069 ] Sat, 02 June 2012 00:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Diane in MN is currently offline Diane in MN
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But this is a lousy place for a nest.

Talking of lousy nest sites, we have been afflicted by quite a few feckless nest-builders, including the one that nearly set the house on fire by building a nest on top of an outdoor light bulb, but the worst was the American robin that built a nest in a little hollow spot in the back yard lawn. On the ground, yes. Four eggs. Snakes (or something) got three of them, but number four hatched. Did I mention that I had two Great Danes galloping around the back yard? They ignored the nest until the egg hatched, and then Tarzo--of course, Mr. Curious Tarzo--noticed noise and movement. He tipped the poor little thing out a couple of times but inexplicably failed to squash it, and persistent Mama Robin continued to sit on the nest until one horrible cold rainy day when she decided that maternal self-sacrifice had gone far enough, and abandoned her offspring in favor of a tree. I pitched the nest along with the resulting defunct baby, and fortunately the dimwitted birds found somewhere else to start another family.


"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50099 is a reply to message #50097 ] Sat, 02 June 2012 06:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
AJLR is currently offline AJLR
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Diane in MN wrote on Sat, 02 June 2012 05:28

and fortunately the dimwitted birds found somewhere else to start another family.

I wonder how many thousands of years it takes before the 'stupider' birds have died out and only the smarter ones who avoid such sites survive? Will we eventually end up with species of intelligent/adaptable birds or will humans keep changing the habitat conditions too much for them ever to achieve such a state?

"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50112 is a reply to message #50099 ] Sun, 03 June 2012 00:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Diane in MN is currently offline Diane in MN
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AJLR wrote on Sat, 02 June 2012 05:43

Diane in MN wrote on Sat, 02 June 2012 05:28

and fortunately the dimwitted birds found somewhere else to start another family.

I wonder how many thousands of years it takes before the 'stupider' birds have died out and only the smarter ones who avoid such sites survive? Will we eventually end up with species of intelligent/adaptable birds or will humans keep changing the habitat conditions too much for them ever to achieve such a state?



Except in cases of real and sudden habitat loss, I think the birds are apt to be pretty adaptable, on the whole--they cotton on to new bird feeders really fast, and I'm sure the phoebes that nest under my porch landing think the house is a very good idea. The really stupid ones might get weeded out a little faster, but they'd get weeded out anyway. Habitat loss wasn't an issue for my ground-nesting robins. I have to put that very bizarre behavior down to fecklessness.


"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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Re: Robins' nest [message #50113 is a reply to message #50112 ] Sun, 03 June 2012 02:53 Go to previous message
equus_peduus
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Registered: September 2009
Location: France
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It does depend somewhat on species though - some birds have a very specific idea of what a nest-site looks like, or what food looks like, and if it's not there... they die. others are pretty good at saying "good enough" and figuring it out.
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