Robin

I’ve written before about how much we enjoy sitting on our patio watching our plants and wildlife.  Sheltering-in-place makes this activity even more enjoyable since we don’t do anything else, although we did eat out for the first time last week.

We put out a suet feeder for the birds every evening.  I whistle the song, Mockingbird Hill, and the birds swoop in within minutes.  Aloma says the birds come because they see us on the deck and watch me put out the suet.

We get the usual backyard birds: mockingbirds, brown thrashers, robins, sparrow/wrens (I don’t know which), bluebirds and sometimes starlings.  Hummingbirds enjoy our flowers and cardinals sing for us and use our bird bath.

Last year a pair of bluebirds were feeding their family from the feeder, but a robin chased them away every time he saw them.  Aloma was angry at the robin and told it that it was a bad bird and chased it away every time she saw it. 

This year a robin (who knows if it’s the same robin) comes to the feeder and looks around.  If Aloma is there, it will just pick up crumbs underneath the suet feeder.  If she is not out, it will fly up to get some fresh suet.  Our chairs are only about six feet from the feeders.  When she goes inside, the robin will watch her go in, look at me, then fly up to the feeder.  I warn it when I hear Aloma returning with a fresh drink.  It quickly flies down to the ground and pecks the dirt, looking innocent, waiting for her to go inside again.

We look forward to when social distancing ends.  Maybe we’ll be normal again--or maybe not.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com