Where's mom?

Aw, crap! I have to write this post all over again! Damn! And other colorful words like that ... but you get the picture already.

That means I have to remember how I started. If I can pull that together, maybe I can zip it out anyway. Let me think for a moment ...

...

When I left for work this morning, I looked over to check on the nest and mother robin. She wasn't there. When I came home from work late in the afternoon, she wasn't there. When I left to cover a Little League game this evening, I took a quick look. She wasn't there. When I got home about an hour and a half later, she wasn't around then, either.

It doesn't take much for me to start worrying. Has some disaster befallen this little family of summertime visitors? After the first period of the Stanley Cup game this evening, I couldn't stand the uncertainty any longer. I grabbed the kitchen chair and asked my wife where her little mirror was.

You know the drill by now. Chair out to the porch. I climb up, get the mirror from my wife, hold it in my left and and hold the camera in the right hand. Here is what the mirror told us ...



Now we have three eggs hatched, and three little tiny guys in the nest! Only one egg to go. (What do they do with the eggshells, anyway?) That also explains mother robin's absence. She is out, scrounging around in the yard, looking for food for her hungry and growing brood. She's going to be one busy bird, because those little guys like to eat. And we're going to be hearing baby bird symphonies pretty regularly. Four-part harmony, even!

Oops. I made too much noise. Woke someone up.



So everything had a happy ending. When I went upstairs at about 10:30 tonight, I took one last look at the nest. There was mother robin at her station, keeping her little guys nice and warm.

The weather forecast says some storms heading east from Minnesota could be arriving here in the early morning hours. If they do, I know one family of robins that is going to be nice and safe and dry. Our porch has one big advantage over trees for nesting birds.

* * * * *

I want to give you an update on my wife's sunflowers, which I haven't done for a while. I've taken a few pictures but didn't post them.

The sunflowers are on their own now. Over the weekend, she transferred them from little tomato sauce cans to the back yard, just below the kitchen window. I'm estimating them to be about six inches high.

The position is important. They are just in front of the south wall of the house, and the light reflected off the white wall is going to give them some extra solar energy. I'm getting the feeling we'll see a lot of sun this summer. Of course, I'm going to have to be real careful when I mow the lawn. And it needs mowing.

I was going to mow it tonight, except that I got home from work late, then had to cover that Little League game, and when I got back, it was time for the Stanley Cup game to start.

It started out well for Edmonton but ended disastrously. Not only did they give up their lead in the third period, but their goalie, Roloson, who had played so well all through the playoffs, hurt a leg late in the game, and the word is that he will miss the rest of the season. A bad break for the Oilers on a bad knee sprain by Roloson. Grrr.

...

OK. I think I remembered everything I wanted to say. Getting tired. Need. Sleep. Must. Stop.

Oh, by the way, happy 6-6-06, everyone! I wonder if our hyper religious types are expecting disaster to strike today or something related to the end of the world. Too tired to write anything clever about it now.