Early-nesting robins still at mercy of winter’s final flurry
WHEN YOU see two robins together in the garden and they tolerate each other’s presence without starting a territorial argy-bargy, you know that spring has arrived.
And when you see one of the birds pick up a blade of dead grass, as I did last week, it can only mean that somewhere not too far away a nest is under construction.
A couple of decades ago, February was considered too early for robins to begin their nesting.
However, the lack of snow and heavy frosts so far throughout this winter has clearly played havoc with the biological clocks of these robins.
Earlier than last year, then, hopefully there will be some cute gold-mottled robins sitting on my garden fence in April.
The danger which is faced by early nesters, though, is that there might be a replay of 2018’s Beast from the East, which dumped snow on large parts of the UK during the last week of February.
It was followed by the so-called Mini Beast from the East three weeks later, and many small birds are known to have perished because of that winter’s sting in the tail.
If it happens again I doubt my garden robins’ eggs or nestlings will survive.
Like last year, I’m sure the nest is in or around a thick cypress hedge judging by the robins’ direction of travel from my back lawn.
It may well be all their own work, but they are known to adapt old nests of blackbirds and song thrushes with a few repairs.
Robins are highly inventive when it comes to picking a nesting site, of course, choosing any nook or cranny that can support a nest, and also happily occupying an open-fronted nest box.
Bizarrely, I once heard of a pair of robins and pair of redstarts both sharing one of these nest boxes near Otley in Wharfedale.
At one point the female redstart was seen to incubate the robins’ eggs.
It is said that the average date by which robins have paired up is February 14, Saint Valentine’s Day.
By the time nest construction is finished, the birds begin their ritual of courtship feeding.
I have not personally seen this ritual, but a fellow birdwatcher tells me it begins with the female uttering what he described as a tremulous begging call in the open.
This seems to send the male robin into a foraging frenzy before he presents to his mate a scrap of food like a spider or small earthworm.
It appears to be a form of interview for parenthood.
If the male is good at providing food, the female won’t go off and find another mate.
This is because the female receives much of her food from the male when she is sitting on eggs or brooding the chicks, so a good forager is absolutely vital in order to sustain her.
Her calls for food continue while she is on the nest, and it seems the more vociferous the female is, then the more food she gets.
As a consequence, it’s said that she lays more eggs.