From my kitchen window, I can see my pond and a Lilac tree just behind it. From this Lilac, projects a dead branch and I kept seeing the robin perched ion this branch, beak full of nesting materials. Watching her, I realised she was then popping into the ivy that grows up the lower branch of this Lilac, only chest height from the ground. Closer investigation showed that they had, indeed, started building a nest and the crook of an ivy-clad branch was packed with lots of dead leaves.
This is quite a busy part of the garden as it is right outside my hub, where I am always in and out collecting food for the feeders or creating my next wildlife project. It is also dangerously close to the ground considering I have two cats.
Over the last few days, I set the Bushnell trail cam with the 60cm lens, up on the branch outside. Quite often, I could see that the robin would stop there briefly before popping into the tree. I wanted some clips showing the branch and the nest site, so it took a few attempts to get the Bushnell in the correct position and the focus correct too.
Saturday morning was very wet here and water on the lens, meant the image was not as crisp as I had hoped…
As the day progressed, the rain dried up and I got some nice clips of nest-building which progressed from leaves, to moss by the end of the day.
I captured over 400 clips on the Bushnell and this short video is an edit of some of the best bits. They have been busy for several days and bought in a surprising number of leaves into this small space!
I will keep an eye on this pair and determine whether I could get a camera on the nest in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I wish I had put another Bushnell , facing the first one, as they decided my trail cam was a better perch and, ironically, often sat on the trail cam, with a beak full of leaves, rather than the perch!