Hanging Robin

[Boater]

No, I'm not killing off my robin population. I have a question.

A robin has decided to take up residence in one of my hanging baskets. She has built the nest and now is the proud owner of four eggs. What do I do now? Should I water the hanging basket or should I let the foliage die off? Will she still get enough protection if I leave it to shrivel? Also, we are on holiday in just over a week. I would usually take the basket down and set up a watering system on the ground, but I'm afraid she might abandon it if I move it. Help:confused:

[Emma]

I think the best thing would be to not water, and certainly not move, the basket.

Let nature take it's course. Robins nest in the most unlikely of places sometimes, and are often quite exposed whilst sitting on the nest. I've seen photos of them nesting in the middle of a rolled up hose pipe which was fixed to a wall, for example.

Is she safe from preditors?

If she's too exposed before the eggs hatch she might abandon the nest (if the nest gets wet from rain).

I'd let things happen naturally if it were me.

[Kerry L]

The wrens do that in my baskets - I wait to see if there are any cobwebs over the hole. That way you can see that it isn't being used. My wrens cooked this year, last year was a different basket, but in a more shady spot. I still want to take it down, but the cobwebs are not across the gap, so I think they use it at bed time!
Regards, Kerry

[Boater]

Good news on the robin front. As we were away for over a fortnight, I set up a watering system that added a small amount of water into the reservoir in the bottom of the hanging basket. This stopped the plants from drying out completely, but didn't disturb the robin too much. We arrived back on Monday to find the nest with one egg and some feathers in it. We hope that she fedged at least the three other ones.

This morning I saw one young robin in the garden. Hope it was one of ours.

When we left we also had a great tit feeding young in the box on the fence at the bottom of the garden. There were quite a few great tits in the garden this morning visiting the feeders. Hope they were ours too.

I find that it takes a few days for the birds to return to the garden when they haven't been feed for a while.

[oasisjack]

Robins do seem to have individual characters. Its probably why their britain's 'favourite bird'. Due to the short nights I let out my geese at about 6, and put about 30 mealworms on the bird table at the same time. As robins are early risers they have no competition at this time and soon began to recognise it as an easy meal. Before long a locally nesting pair learnt to respond iether to the sound of the geese honking or my presence and flutter down to the lower branches in expectation. This happened even if I was late. They would take big beakfuls and fly away to their nest.
As the nesting season is over the pair have now split up and we only have the one whose territory this is (I presume the male). But he still flutters down ready, soon as he hears the geese. Now though he eats them all himself.

[Jenny]

Boater - am so glad to hear about your robins