A Maw of Need

Don't we all feel this way sometimes?

A family of robins has set up housekeeping in the holly tree by our window - giving us a (pardon!) bird's eye-view of their four babies, from the day they cracked their gorgeous robin's-egg-blue shells and struggled out into the world, yellow beaks already wide open to receive as much of the earth's goodness as their hard-working and self-sacrificing parents could supply.

The babies are born blind. The nest is a very cosy space for four chicks. When the rain fell in powerful torrents, Mother came and sat on top of them, spreading her wings wide to cover the entire nest and shield her young from the storm. Father exploited the opportunity to collect numerous worms. (Mother is a lighter gray; Father is nearly black-backed.)

The nest has been built directly over the heat pump for our air conditioning unit. I doubt the robins were aware of this when they painstakingly added twig upon twig earlier in the spring. Now, on hot days, the babies get a heated nest and a bit of a bumpy air ride as the pump disperses the hot air into the atmosphere. But they seem to be okay despite it.