Tuesday, March 17, 2015

a spring break challenge


So ... how many robins can one fit in a bird bath?  Seven here, one on the ground, and a lot more in the trees.  I think it is, or soon will be, migration season.  I'm glad to provide a watering station.

I know these look nothing like English robins - indeed, these are a kind of thrush, and the robin redbreasts are old world flycatchers, and not the same genus at all.  But I didn't realize quite how different until I protested against Alice singing "When the red red robin comes bob-bob-bobbing" one more time.  My protest wasn't so much about her voice (how could I vocalize a complaint, when she and I vie for the person you'd least want in your choir?).  No - it was because the song was unseasonal.  And then, a bit more digging around revealed that whereas I think of robins as Christmas birds, turning up on Christmas cards together with holly berries, in the US they're harbingers of Spring.  As in ... "when the red red robin ..."

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