At about 7pm the other day a friend called saying he had the trees in his backyard trimmed. Apparently the contractor was not a careful person and had cut down a branch with a nest with sitting chicks. My friend only noticed when the mom started flitting around the garden and constantly went into one particular downed branch. On checking he found a robin's nest still intact with 3 chicks in it. He wanted to know what could be done.
Obviously being on the ground and open to the night predators and wind the possibility of the chicks surviving looked pretty slim and we had no idea what to do. The mom was sitting on top of the next door roof observing our every move.
I went over and after some discussion we decided first to feed the chicks. Pumped his flowerbeds with water to get the worms out and we grabbed about 8 nice looking ones. His brother-in-law fed each in turn and they soon settled back into sleep.
Next we got hold of his nephew who is a tree/rock climber of sorts and had him find a nice perch on the same tree to relocate the nest. After trying all sorts of things to build a solid perch in the tree, we gave up as nothing was going to sit firmly in the fork. We then decided to get a flat piece of wood up to the nephew and asked him to tie it down on each of the 3 prongs. That got us the solid base. Then we wrapped some of the smaller cut twigs around the platform to form a sort of trough so that the nest would not be blown away by the wind.
When all the prep work was done we turned to the nest to see how it could be moved back. Birds really have it down to a fine art. That nest was stuck solid to that branch with mud and so well woven. So without touching the nest at all, we cut away the surrounding branches leaving it as it was and then lifted the whole thing into the platform. A bit more tying down and it was back onto a solid foundation.
But we would not know until the next morning the result. Thankfully the robin found the nest and kept coming in with food. At times flew dancing circles around the garden as if to thank the people for the assistance.
A good end to an otherwise messy situation. If the contractor had left with the debris as originally planned that would have been the end of this nest.
Some pics while it was on the ground.
1. Waiting for mom
2. Being fed
3.
4.
5.
6. Just before relocation
