I Feel like David Attenborough

So my Mom and Dad might be the only ones out there that get this title reference (we spent a good deal of time watching nature documentaries by this famous documentarian together). Once, when I was in fifth grade, I even made a nature documentary about feeding squirrels in the backyard with a camcorder and a tripod, a few handfuls of pecans, and a seriously nerdy stocking cap. Oh, I hope they NEVER find that. Sigh, I digress.

Moving on, a couple of weeks ago we noticed a Robin meticulously piecing together a nest in our Blue Atlas Cedar right outside our front window. We had a great view of her gathering materials and weaving them into the nest. We were so excited by the prospect that we might see the whole process from beginning to end.

Each day, we would look for new signs that she might be laying an egg, and one morning, while she was in the nest, she puffed her body up so huge! It definitely looked like she might have been laying.  I didn't catch this on camera, but Rob got some other shots of her from in our living room.

Cora even enjoyed looking out the window at all of the action.

After she had been away from the nest for a while, we decided we would take a peek to see if there was an egg and we saw this beautiful, single blue jewel.  We were surprised that there was only one.  Keep in mind that we took extra care to avoid detection.

After a week had passed and we hadn't seen the mommy to be, we began to wonder.  So, in the cover of night I snuck out to see what was happening.  Here is what I found.

The single egg was gone!  I did some research and learned that Robin's eggs actually have threats from several different predators including other birds.  Also, with the nest placed so closely to our front door and all of our comings and goings, it was bound to be disturbed sooner or later.  We'll leave the nest up for now and hope that some other bird might take up residence.  Anyone know if that ever happens?