Soon after I noticed it, a robin mother began sitting in it regularly. I was worried because every time we came out the door or drove the car in, we would startle her. 
When Elliott was home, he peeked in and saw three beautiful blue eggs. I decided it would be fun to photograph the nest from above when she wasn't sitting, of course. I never jiggled or touched the nest. I hoped to make a little slide show to show my kids at school since we had recently read a story all about chicks hatching and they were VERY interested and curious about it.
Here is a picture of her sitting on the nest, but it is very hard to see her.
Last Saturday I held the camera way up and snapped my picture. This is what I saw in the picture! I never was able to actually see in the nest, my pictures were showing me what was there. If you look very closely, you can see the egg has a crack in it.
On Sunday I snapped my picture, and I couldn't believe it! I snapped another one--it was the same. The nest was completely empty and cleaned out. There were no shell fragments or feather fragments. There were no dead babies on the ground or shells underneath the bush. The only thing I could notice is that the edge of the nest was no longer as neat and tidy as it had been but the straw around it was looser.
This has been my heart ache this week: Where did the little mother go? Did my presence and interest cause her to "clean out" her nest? But how would she and why-without a trace? My internet research tells me that it is more likely a predator--racoon, possum, snake, crow, blue jay, even squirrel. It seems like the bush is too spindly to support the first two at least. I don't know. . .only that they are gone w-i-t-h-o-u-t - a - t-r-a-c-e. Spooky. . . and sad:(.
