Rescuing Baby Robins

This past long weekend, I spent a lot of time rescuing baby robins. Like this poor little guy, who was alive and unhurt when I found him or her on my deck, fallen out of the nest.

I like robins, but I think they are very stupid creatures. Lovely but stupid. The mother robin of the little guy pictured above built her nest on an outside light under an overhang of the roof. It is not a very secure nest and, I fear, not big enough. I have watched her for weeks out my kitchen window as she built the nest, then recently, as she constantly brought food for her babies. She worked so hard, but her babies were falling out of the nest this weekend.

When I found the little guy on the deck, I hauled out a ladder and set it up near the nest. I don't like climbing up ladders but I was on a mission of mercy to rescue the poor baby.

I picked him/her up (I was wearing green garden gloves) and he/she flopped around a bit in my hand, So tiny and so weak.  

Then I climbed the ladder and set him/her back in the nest. The mother was squawking in a tree nearby, but the little guy was back in the nest and you can see his little head poking up here, along with his brothers and sisters.

Then I turned my attention back to my gardening. It was a great weekend for gardening and my tulips were a real delight. I put in lots of annuals and did a bunch of weeding. But alas, when I went back up to the deck, another baby (or maybe the same one?) had fallen out of the nest again. And again, I rescued it, getting  up on the ladder, etc. My friend Mac was at my place this weekend, doing a bunch of work for me. He also rescued several baby robins. Finally, he jury-rigged a plastic attachment to the nest so they wouldn't keep falling out. The mother seemed to accept it. So here's hoping they will stay in there and thrive and grow up and become not-quite-so-stupid robins as their mother!