New Family in the Neighborhood

We had a new family move into the neighborhood recently.  At first everything was fine, then the fighting started.  Well, perhaps fighting is the wrong word.  Lets just say  they became so noisy that all the other neighbors were starting to complain.  Their yelling seemed to go on for hours.  It was impossible to be outside for all the racket they made.

 One evening I went out to water my flowers and they started to attack me.  First, the female would come and give me what for, to be followed by the male a few minutes later putting his two cents into the conversation.  They would not give up until they drove me back indoors.  The next evening I was faced with the same routine and this went on for almost a week.

Finally, I was fed up and went inside to get my camera.  I wanted  to record this unruly  family.  The Old Salt had informed me they were living in the large Hawthorne tree in our front yard but when I went to check I could not tell which house was their home.  

 Surely it was not this house that was in desperate need of repair.

 This place looked as if it had been vacant for sometime. 

This was a possibility but I never saw anyone at home. 

Let me introduce you to the Robin family.  First, I we have Papa Robin

 And, this is Mama Robin

And, we can't leave out little Junior 

The Robin family likes to hang out on the telephone wires that run across our yard. 

I spent forty-five minutes one night watching this group chase each other up and down the wires.  First each family member would settle on the wire and pretend to ignore the others.  Then they would start to creep ever closer, until they were sitting back to back. That led to a round of leap frogging over each other followed by some arial acrobatics.  Then they would settle down and start the whole routine all over again.  The whole time chirping and squacking and yelling at each other loud enough to upset all the residents in several rows of townhouses.     

When I would go out to water I would have Mama and Papa Robin taking turns charging at me.  They clearly did not like my invading their space.

This is Boo and I think his look speaks for all the pets in these same townhouses.  

As I said, this went on every day for about a week. Then as quickly as it started it was over.  The neighborhood got silent and the wire was empty when it was watering time.  

I suspect that this set of parents lost one of their fledglings early on. The Old Salt found a baby robin dead in the grass, under the tree, when he went out to mow.  So perhaps the nest with the hole in it was their home after all.  I could see one of the high school students who use our yard as a short cut poking a stick into the nest because it was not that far off the ground.  The world can be cruel sometimes.  

I am linking this post to World Bird Wednesday