robins nest in my garden :)

[melissa1989]

hi all,
i really dont have to foggiest about birds but i came across a robins nest next to my shed, wedged in between some old cardboard boxes.

i have only seen 1 egg so far and the robin is sitting in the nest right now. the thing im worried about is that ive seen some blue tits around the nest gathering nest material. would the blue tits "steal" the robins nest?

im not going near it or touching it but i can see the robins little face peering out as i walk by its so lovely!

[posie]

First of all Melissa, a warm welcome to WAB. How lovely to have the robin's nest, I expect she's laying another egg, they usually have several. with regard to the bluetits, I've never heard of them stealing nesting material, but there's probably some bits around the nest that they are collecting. The robin will tell them off if they get too close, but if you could keep your eye on things it would be good. (No housework today ) Don't be tempted to put food for the robin near the nest, because it will attract other birds to the area, which robin might not like. Good Luck, and let us know what happens..Posie..

[JV]

Hello
Welcome to wild about britain!
Your so lucky to have robins nest!
The blue tits are most likely to be collecting materials for there nests. Robins will protect there nest so dont worry!

[mrbright]

hi welcome, ironically, last week i raked my garden for moss for my first ever pair of nesting bluetits, lt was put out to dry no more than 6 feet from their front door, they totally ignored it.
whilst outside watching my bluetits today in the sunshine, i was astonished to see a robin helping himself to huge bundles of moss and taking it into my little outdoor brick shed, whoopeee instead of having my first nesting birds in my little garden, i now have two, within the space of a couple of metres of each other. what an afternoon watching them, one nervous as anyhting whilst the other completely oblivious of myself. i feel the luckiest man alive today, what a treat.

[posie]

Hi mrbright, you got 2 for the price of 1 there, I'm so pleased for you. You've got an interesting time ahead. That's a really good idea of your's to dry out the moss, I'll have a go at that now. A couple of years ago I had 7 horses/ponies that were groomed daily, and the hair left to blow away for the birds for their nests.... Now the sad bit.... one day I heard a lot of distressed bird calls, went out to look and 2 crows were working the hedge, down the side of the paddock, eating the songbirds' babies and eggs, I chased them off, but sadly too late for some of them. I picked up a nest that had been robbed and actually thrown down on the grass. It was a thing of beauty, and the amazing thing was that there were hairs woven into it of 7 different colours, hairs from each of my 7 horses/ponies....I'll never forget that...Posie

[Rashmika]

Over the last two weeks I've noticed a pair of Robins in my garden, although I've not seen them together for a few days now.

I'd like to think one of them is safely sat on her nest doing what comes naturally

[sharanne]

Could anyone help!
I'm too excited about my little robins nesting in my garden,watching from the window i saw this little robin hover around one of my very small conifer trees,every day Ive enjoyed watching it work extremely hard building its nest and too helped with offerings of fur after grooming my Tibetan Terrier (Dog).
I'm concerned though,last summer a baby cockney sparrow fell from its nest and landed in my garden it was extremely vulnerable on a low level wall,so i sat and kept watch while mummy & Daddy returned to feed it (it was amazing to watch & i did manage to capture it all on video which i will try to upload for anyone who would like to see),as i sat protecting it from what i though would probably be a cat, to my horror out came a rat!
Thankfully i was there but this rat didn't give up (i don't mind telling you,i was as scared as the baby probably was). Eventually after 6 hours baby sitting the baby bird (and being the but of the jokes from my friends), it was encouraged to fly by both parents... truly amazing to see,they even let me get close enough to help and thankfully the rat didn't get its easy pickings. I'm worried because the tree the robin has built its nest in, is very close to where the rats had nested.thankfully my hubby did get rid of the rats but I'm rather paranoid of them returning,is this likely? and what can i do to stop them from coming back, i would be very grateful of any advise to keep my robins safe.

[Dogghound]

The sparrow sounded like it had recently fledged and was being fed by its parents, which is totally natural and they are very vulnerable at this time, however be careful not to disturb them too much when they are like this as you could actually attract more predators to them like cats or cause the parents to leave.

I would avoid feeding birds in the garden while the robins are nesting, lots of feeding birds will attract rats and cats. Also if you do notice a rat try trapping it or removing it. Its good you removed the old rats however they quickly move back into an area. Unfortunately with all the will in the world nesting birds/eggs/chicks are vulnerable and nests will occasionally be predated its all part of ecology.