Nobody knows where the fourth sibling went. No clues anywhere. Once there were four, now just three fledges crowd the robin's nest. Our vet had given us his expert opinion: prepare for tragedy, the weak one will probably get pushed out by the others. We had hoped for better from our larger than usual family of close-knit brothers and sisters. We prefer to think nothing nefarious occurred while we weren't looking, and none of the survivors will say anything -- although that one on the right does have a rather guilty, smug look.
Perhaps, Stan's brother Virg conjectured tonight over cocktails, the eldest matured early and just flew away and is now out pulling worms on his own, or maybe the littlest is still hidden under the others' fluff. A nice thought to have, considering the alternative.
Virg's older sister Solveig doesn't think so. One of the boys must have done it, she says.
