Nature is as violent and cruel sometimes as it is beautiful. One of our Robins produced a successful brood last week on a limb of a lilac bush.

But I know better than to get to attached baby Robins. They are a Darwinian breed of bird. I looked them up.

An American Robin can produce up to three successful broods in one year. But only 40 percent of nests are successful at producing young. And only one of the young out of four survive until November.

Once the babies fledge, both parents will feed them for a few days. But then, the mother leaves then to lay a new clutch of eggs. The fledglings will depend on other robins to teach and feed them when the male leaves to help with the new nestings.

I count four or five fledglings in this next, and the mother is nearby but has stopped hovering. I think she’s looking for a new nest.