Mother robin takes over family porch, builds nest in Christmas wreath

A family in Cavendish, P.E.I., got a bit of a surprise when they startedtaking down some Christmas decorations in late April.

LindaLowthersays she discovered a nest wth one robin egg ona wreath still hanging on the side of her house near the door.

"I just casually went to grab it to take it down off the nail that it was nailed on to the house and it wouldn't come."

Using both hands, she yanked the wreath off only to find a big black spot of earth that left her wondering what was going on.

Found nest

After examining the dried out wreath more closely,Lowtherfound the nest at the top of it.

"I looked inside and there was one egg and I know robins lay more than one egg. Then I turned around and I saw the robin in the maple tree right beside the house."

Lowtherput the wreath back to see what would happen. As soon as she did that and went back into the house, the robin flew back to the nest.

A few days later, Lowther found four eggs in the nest and figured the robin must have at the egg laying stage when she found the nest.

Lecture time

"Every timewe open the house door she takes off and kind of gives us a little bit of a lecture and tweets at us and as soon as we go back in she goes right back to her nest."

But the robin is slowly learning to ignore the family as they come and go and for the most part, stays perched on her nest not far from the door.

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Lowther is convinced it's the same robin who used to nest in the garage until her husband deterred them by hanging up aluminum pie plates to discourage the nesting.

"And indeed it did because they never went back in but they decided to use one of my wreaths instead."

Lowther is not sure when the eggs will hatch but is keeping a close watch on the nest.

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