Last year, a pair of Robins nested on a support beam under my deck. They
successfully raised one brood and were setting on a second clutch of 2 eggs
by early July. As I have long wondered about the affects of 4th of July
fireworks on late nesting species and those of second brooding birds, I
checked the nest on the day of the 4th and found all to be well. The evening
of the 4th sounded, as usual, like an absolute war in my neighborhood. I
checked the nest again on the morning of the 5th and found it abandoned with
only one egg remaining. I can only assume that the adult paniced off the
nest during the night's fireworks and in the process kicked one egg out. The
nest remained abandoned and I took it down in September.

This spring I watched to see if the birds would return to renest in the same
area. I had almost given up when one day, there it was. Already fully
constructed and with a clutch of 3 eggs. Nest construction and egg laying
must have been very rapid as I feel I had checked and found no nest there
about 10 days earlier. And the nest is in precicely the same 4x6 inch space
as last year. Because the nest is in exactly the same spot, I am convinced
that at least one of the parents is the same bird as last year (probably the
female). What is amazing to me is that, if my assumption is correct, and
since Robins are migratory, the bird not only managed to migrate back to her
previous year's territory, but also remembered exactly where she had nested
in it.

All this leads me to wonder which other migratory species display a high
degree of territory/nest site fidelity. And does anyone know if there have
been any studies done regarding the affects of 4th of July fireworks on late
nesting or second brooding species?

The good news is that this year's eggs have hatched and the young are now
about a week old!

Mark Johnston
Kent, WA


The eggs have now hatched and the young are about a week old.