Pheasant nest

This is a photograph I took this morning of a pheasant's nest.  My dog found it about a week ago.  It is right next to the road behind a tussock of grass.  At first my dog wouldn't move from the spot, so I went to see what she'd found.  I couldn't see anything, so tried to drag her away, but she wouldn't budge, so I returned.  When I put my head over the tussock - it's on a bank about shoulder high - I got the fright of my life.  The pheasant gave out a screech and flew off into my face.  I saw some eggs, and knew what my dog was so interested in.

Anyway, for the next 3 days we walked past the nest.  My dog stops to have a sniff, but can't reach the nest, well she could, but doesn't.  She's very good at things like this.  Now that I know where it is I could just make out the tail of the pheasant, so we'd walk on.  However yesterday she wasn't on the nest.  I didn't think anything of it at the time, after all she has to feed herself.  But this morning she wasn't there again, so I decided to have a look.  It was full of eggs, but they were cold as I touched the top one.  So I imagine she has been killed.  The road is not busy, but it is just a few yards from a fairly busy road where drivers regularly drive at 60 mph, so no pheasant would stand a chance.  Pity about the eggs, but I don't know anything about pheasants.

I've been feeding a robin in the wood.  Again my dog found her nest on the ground - I was amazed where she's nested, but so far no-one else has found the nest.  We had about 10 days of solid rain and cold weather, so every day I'd drop off 6 mealworms for her.  Now we are back to having nice weather, and there are plenty of insects around, so she probably doesn't need my mealworms, but I'll carry on.  I usually get mealworms at this time of year for the insectivorous birds as we always have a bad patch of weather, and this just helps out a bit.