His eye is on the Sparrow....but not the Robin's Eggs!

This is what I saw on Mother's Day evening. In the lower branches of our cherry tree. (this is just a pic I took from Photobucket...I didn't dare get my camera and spook the mother). We were so excited, my 9 year old daughter and I. Monday through this a.m. we saw her sitting diligently on those 4 eggs, waiting so patiently, every once in awhile flying off for food/water or to trill at me for walking by to get the mail. I told Claire we could not go near the nest until after the eggs were hatched as the mommy robin would leave them if she felt threatened. I checked this a.m. before driving off to work and she was sitting there with her feathers all puffed out, meaning her bare belly was warming the eggs...how do I know this? because like all overly-involved moms who are teachers, I just HAD to google the topic because........

THIS is what I saw when I came home from work just 4 hours after leaving for work! ARGH....an empty nest! It's not supposed to be empty yet!! It takes 12-14 days for robin's eggs to hatch once her clutch is ready. A typical clutch is 4 eggs. See how exciting it is to be a child in my house? I am a true special ed teacher: I could do an entire whole language activity with Claire on this topic....Yes, this is how I spent my Friday afternoon rather than mopping my bathroom floors...isn't this just way more important?? I believe God would rather we educate our children about the laws of nature/creation than keep a clean house anyday! So....once I realized the nest was empty, I looked around the yard for the mother robin. And.....

I saw her in the neighbor's tree trilling loudly. I felt so bad for her. At first I thought maybe a neighbor boy (a preschooler who tends to be a bit "feisty") had gotten to the eggs. Until my friend Erin emailed me and said the nest would have been disturbed too. It wasn't. And what Erin said made sense because, after googling the topic and finding that the 2 main predators are squirrels and blue jays, I went outside to see if I could find any broken pieces of egg shells. NO! The yard was strewn with blown-down cherry blossoms from our 2 cherry trees, and the neighbors' yards are filled with dandelion puffs but no egg shells. However......

This is who I found in the neighbor's yard.....this horrid rodent! I HATE squirrels. I really do.
There is nothing cute about them. Especially since he is probably the one who removed the eggs. He was digging all over M------yard....I swear he was taunting me at one point because he sat right up and started nibbling on something in his hand. If I believed in owning guns, I think I would have shot him.
So...now I have to explain to my precious youngest daughter why we probably won't see any baby robins next week. I have to explain that yes, God watches over robins too and eggs too but....that devil of a sqiurrel just played a naughty game! And sometimes that is life. Sometimes special things are stolen from us. God is still in control. WOW...I could really turn this into a mini Bible lesson! She will probably cry or stomp her feet or, like me, want to hurt the squirrel. And she will be a bit sad that she won't see baby robins next week.....
Unless the mother robin is ready to lay more. According to the google search I did, sometimes a robin can lay 3-4 more eggs after the first clutch. Let's hope she's ovulating!