Thanks folks for all your comments.
Jeremy, the reason that I called it perilous (for the birds) is that the Rhodie isn't very big, and with the nest only about 3 feet off the ground, easy pickings for the likes of a cat or a raccoon, etc.
Adhika, I spent a couple of days, off and on, observing and shooting the birds in this nest. What I really wanted was a shot just as the mother returned, at a shutter speed that showed her wings still in motion to some degree, but kept everything else sharp. That turned out to be about 1/125 sec. Over the two days she got somewhat used to my presence, but still would not visit the nest if I was too close. So I set up the camera (Canon 5D, 200mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter) on a tripod a few feet from the nest, and let her get used to that, which she did fairly quickly. I watched from a distance, and when she landed I used a wireless remote to trip the shutter. Getting the timing just right took a number of tries; I had to be quick on the trigger, but not too quick.