ROBBIN’S NEST

 

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

10/VII/2025

 

There could be no better way to start your day than meeting your birdy friends. They hang around, meet, and greet you through their tweets, chirps, and songs. They sing in happiness and bring joy to you.

 

This is what happened after my morning walk. My friends Ms and Mr Robin usually meet me round the bend where the boundary wall had fallen a few weeks back. Last time they revealed to me that they were feeding their chicks. I had wished to see their nest. My wish came true today.

 

Generally, I step on the retaining wall of the boundary wall to peep into the adjoining plot to spot something new. Last time, a mongoose came out of its hole. I reckon, with the churning of mud by the JCB to remove all the foliage had ‘stirred’ its borough. On top of that, the rains must have filled it up, for it to move to a new abode.

 

It is my usual place and Robins come extremely close. I did not realise that they were not friendly to me, but were giving me hints to ‘buzz off’ as my position was too close for comfort from their nest.

 

It happened so that the couple were tweeting at top of their voices raising an alert for the intruder, that was me. A few clicks and I stepped back to the other side of the road leaving my perch and gave them space to do what they wanted to do.

 

One by one they came down to the place where they were nesting. I was sure that I had found their nest. It was not true. From that distance I couldn’t make out anything. The place where they were coming down was not a place where birds would nest, I thought.

 

If I ask you, where is a nest located? Most of you will say on a tree, or, on a branch somewhere high. Here it was down below. The nest was so well tactically sited that a cat even if she jumped couldn’t reach that place, leave alone eat the chicks. The predatory birds soaring above had no chance to spot it. There being a wire mesh covering the nest, they had no chance to get in.

 

The cavity between the wall and the wire mesh was where the nest was located. Had there not been a shiny empty gutka packet just adjacent, one could have never spotted it. Then there was a protrusion of some extra cement jutting out as a landmark. It gave additional safety to the nest.

 

Why was a gutka sachet kept near the nest? Was it that it flew on its own and got stuck there or was it that these birds had placed it there for ease of reaching the nest? Or was it kept to reflect and divert attention of other birds which get scared to reflective surfaces? I have seen “scare crows” here holding old CDs which move in circles with the wind and reflect light that scares birds.

 

I could not help inform my wife to see this marvel of a nest. Its placement, its direction, safety measures, thoughtfulness, and above all security said it all. Amazing piece of architecture.

 

Thanks to the zoom in the camera, I maintained my distance and took some snaps. The Robins also understood that this man means no harm, so they went about feeding the little ones.

 

One thing different I noticed while they fed their chicks was that unlike chicks of other birds which raise a ruckus begging their parents for food. These guys had ‘fingers on their beaks’. They gobbled the insects in total silence. That too adds to their safety.

 

I stood still for about an hour plus trying to understand Robin's mind. One more thing I realised that with the wall fell off, many nests would have bitten the dust. This is quite late in the season that these birdy friends are nesting. The obvious might have happened.

 

Now that I know how and where my friends the Robins nest, I shall leave them absolutely alone and to themselves, to raise the two lovely chicks which I spotted. “Fly Robin Fly, up-up in the sky”. Good luck to the chicks, may they soar and raise many more of their kind.

 

Can there be a better experience to see a Robin’s nest to begin your day? I wonder!!!!!!!

 JAI HIND

©® NOEL ELLIS