Sad Story

I was pleased to see the pair of robins at the bird table this morning. One kept popping a bit of food into the other's beak. So cute!

What wasn't cute was what we saw yesterday! 

The robins had built a nest in a tube on a shelf in the greenhouse. They've nested in our greenhouse before so they know it's warm and dry. We have done everything we could to avoid disturbing them. The man worked out that by now the chicks would have fledged and he wanted to plant his tomatoes.

We thought we should lift the tube down and peep in it. As we opened the door we were met with a fetid atmosphere and a dead chick on the floor. I removed the tube and slid out the nest gently onto the lawn. Maggots tumbled out first followed by the nest with 2 or 3 dead chicks in it.

We don't know why they died. We don't know how the very young chick ended up on the floor a long way from the nest. The Man says the parents wouldn't have abandoned live chicks. It's something I'm having trouble forgetting.

In better news, today more brainstorming at The Mate's moved our photography project forward!