Hi All Slovak-World members, I have been on Slovak-world for about six months. Some of you might wonder who this character (Kuchta) is? Here is a sample of my newspaper column that I wrote. Delete if not interested, although I will hate you for life!         We all know that Mother Nature can be brutal at times. In fact, even for us humans, life can be the pits at times.         This past summer I saw quite a few Robins building nests in the various trees around my property.         At various times, I walked by the nests to see how things were doing, only to see that the eggs or young Robins were gone Yes, a little prematurely!         Being an outdoor person, I do realize that it's a dog eat dog existence for nature's creatures. It does seem that everything preys on the eggs of birds or their young.         It does seem that everything likes to abscond with a nest of eggs. This includes us human beings that have a fondness for chicken eggs. Chickens lay eggs to perpetuate the chickens lineage and not for us humans to eat them for breakfast.         Everything from Chipmunks, snakes, Possums, Raccoons, and other birds, such as Blue Jays love eggs.  If the eggs finally hatch, then most of the above-mentioned will also go after the young birds including crows, hawks and other birds of prey.         Then when the young leave the nest, for a day or two, they are very vulnerable to larger animals such as fox, coyote, etc.         One of the largest predators of birds is the family cat. But not to offend any of you readers, who are cat lovers, we will just slide on by.         This summer, nest after nest of birds was cleaned out of their eggs. It did seem that the Robins were building the nests too much in the open and not hidden enough.         Some years it seems like there are  many young speckled Robins all over our lawn. This year, right up to the month of August, I saw next to none.         Most birds can lay a couple of batches of eggs in a season. This also goes with Robins and Doves.         In the first week of August, one pair of Robins built a late nest in a Crab Apple tree, right in front of our home. The nest was built in an open crotch of a branch.         The first thing I thought was…bye-bye Birdie! I thought they would never make it.         After an appropriate incubation period, my wife and I saw a couple of small chicks in the nest. Two to be exact.         The only good thing about the location of the nest was that we were able to observe the nest and the young ones from inside the window of our home. We also could guard the nest from predators.         The whole truth of the matter is that I never thought the eggs would be around to get hatched out, no less seeing  the young ones grow up and leaving the nest.         Now comes the strange part. From the time mom Robin was incubating the eggs and then feeding the young, there was no male Robin involved.         In nature some of the males help, some don't. In fact there is some birds, that when the eggs are laid, the male takes over completely. Maybe this is where the term; hen pecked comes into play. In Robins, the male helps in feeding the young.         This particular nest had no male. Did the bum, fly the coop, like so many modern Dads do? Or did he go looking for a new sweetie. More than likely, he bit the dust, maybe a cat, hawk or some predator made a lunch out of him. Then again, maybe the old boy just died of old age, or maybe he ate something he shouldn't have eaten. But in nature, they seem to steer clear of bad food. What this all meant, was that when mom Robin went out looking for worms, berries, insects the young were left in the nest all by themselves. I guess we can call this, home alone.         Being these were the worst of times, because of the semi draught conditions, worms were at a premium. The lawns were quite dried out, the earth was like a rock, and no worms were to be had. Because of this, mom Robin had to be away from the nest for longer periods of time.         When she was still incubating the eggs, I told my wife what was going on. Hey, she likes to feed the birds…let her helps guard the nest. Yes, typical male macho attitude!         Well anyway mom Robin had two humans concerned over her and her young ones welfare. Every time my wife heard the Blue Jays or Crows hollering near by, she ran out to check the nest.         If the Blue Jays or Crows aren't robbing the nests of eggs or young birds they are hollering because of a hawk nearby.         When I lived up at Lake Hauto, I saw hawks clean out several nests of young Robins. One by one, the Hawk came back until all where gone.         I even remembered going outside and throwing stones at the hawk to chase it away. Soon as I was gone, the hawk came back and did its dastardly deed.  I did have compassion for the mom Robin, but this is nature's way. Beside, just me throwing rocks at a hawk can be considered an illegal act. You can't harass hawks or owls. Isn't this just amazing…harass a hawk and get into big trouble. When people harass other people, it seems to be…no big deal, until something really bad happens.         Well the good news is that the two young Robins grew up and left the nest in one piece.         This Robin was a single mom. She did it without the old man. She also didn't file for any kind of relief. She did her thing! Of course, my wife did suffer a little bit off stress, but nothing that a little Maalox couldn't help.