A robin comes darting at your head screeching at the top of its little lungs.  Do you run the other way or stand your ground? How about if that said robin has called in back up?  Did you know that they travel in gangs? I am even starting to look closely to see if they are wearing tiny red bandanas.

Every year for the past three years, a mommy robin and her mate have built a nest on our gutter.  The first year, ended terribly when the nest was swept up in a storm and all the babies perished.  Last year, the babies inevitably got too big for their nest and fell out onto the ground.  In an effort to save them from our dog, we attempted to scoop the babies up with a net and return them to the nest.  That is when all HELL broke loose.  Robins started to dive bomb my husband and son.  The screeching was coming from both the birds and the “human males.”  The guys barely made it in the house with their heads attached.    Eventually, with the help of our dog, we got the babies back in the nest.

One year later and the nest is back!  We watched the babies grow while our dog happily chased the mommy and daddy bird throughout the yard.  Yesterday was D Day, the dog barked and crashed on the old gutter.  The baby birds came tumbling down.  Luckily, the dog listened and did not harm the birds, but now three babies were flailing on the ground.  Could we scoop them back into the nest?  That is when mommy got her back up and they started to attack.  You wouldn’t think tiny robins are scary, but when they are dive bombing your head they are terrifying!  We decided to let the birds hop around the yard and kept the dog out of the yard for the day.

This morning ,though, my husband found one in the window well and tried to rescue it with a gloved hand.  My terrified husband quickly retreated when he realized that mommy had called in 5 other birds for help and the attack began.  So what is a fellow mom to do?  Should I let the baby bird die in the window well?  Good news is that I grabbed a lacrosse stick and headed out to war.  With my  husband and son shrieking in terror that the birds were right behind me and five birds dive bombing my head, I was able to scoop the baby up and plop him on the ground.

Next year we are putting in a new gutter and netting off the top so that this never happens again!