Running Chick

Discovered these little guys nesting under my deck this evening when Josh was mowing the lawn. The picture shows three babies in the nest, but there was actually four crammed in there. One little guy got scared by the mower and flopped out, or his siblings gave him the boot because I was standing by the back door when he came hopping over to me. He gave me a "Are you my mommy? No? Okay, bye." hop, hop, hop, between my legs, hop, hop. Being the calm, cool & collected type that I am, I hollered "JOSH! OMG! BABY ROBIN! OMG WTF! (oops, don't cuss in front of the baby!) OMG! WHAT DO WE DO??!!" Josh, being the responsible type with all the answers, thoughtfully remarked "How the hell should I know?" After debating whether to put him back in the nest, or leave him on the ground, we decided to do the former. Standing on a cat litter bucket (the step ladder was upstairs) and supported by Josh, I carefully placed the little fella back in the rest. He promptly flung himself to the ground. Then he flew about 20 feet across the yard. It was a wobbly, low flying sort of attempt, but at least he could fly. Then his mother appeared and flew over to him with a worm. So we decided that was good enough and went back inside.

I've noticed a robin hanging around my deck over the past couple of weeks and this afternoon I decided to investigate. I found several nests in the spaces between the joists, but this one was the only one occupied. I have no idea how old the eggs are or when to approximate their hatch date. Nor do I know about how long the babies stay in the nest after they've hatched. This could quite possibly put a damper on refinishing my deck this month. Also, some enterprising black bird is taking advantage of my unfinished eave and built a nest there as well.  I almost didn’t notice it.  but I glanced up at the roof and noticed dried grass coming out of the mesh part, thought WTF?, then noticed the bird on the neighbor’s roof having a hissy fit at me.  Oh.  Pardon me.  So sorry for interrupting your nest sitting.

Non-running update:  the pain in my right shin is gone, the pain in my left shin seems to come and go.  It didn’t bother me much yesterday, but it did today.  I have no idea why, I haven’t been doing anything exercise-related in four days.  It is better than last Thursday and it feels better every day, so I’m sure I’ll be fine by the race next Saturday.  Just in case, I’m planning on carrying several packets of Bio-Freeze with me.

In case you’re interested, my pain is narrowed down to one 3” spot on my shin where the big muscle starts to taper.  I’m a textbook case of posterior shin splints.