There is a cheerful picture of a robin on the front of the package of mealworms – or possibly a picture of a cheerful robin. I haven’t seen much of the robin recently amidst the organised chaos of the larger birds and their entourages of fledglings. It forages around the edges of the crowd; however, this morning it was at my feet almost before I’d finished throwing out the mealworms. At that moment we seemed to be the only living souls about, but barely twenty minutes later the grass was transformed.
I almost never put out a second-sitting for breakfast, unless there is snow on the ground, but this morning half a dozen sparrows and then a couple of chaffinches appeared and a single ring dove. A couple more ring doves landed on the grass and whilst there is often a scrap between the doves, not today. Another bird landed and then two more and finally the number was topped out at nine pearl-coloured beauties, surely a pair with their brood now able to feed themselves. They were monopolizing the lawn, the little birds vanished, even a single wood pigeon looked startled, and within fifteen minutes, there was not a mealworm or seed visible.
After lunch, I put out a little more seed and filled the peanut feeders full. A female blackbird ducked her head under the roof of the birdtable to get at the peanuts…and the robin returned to claim her share at last. A female woodpecker was hanging, horizontally, on the cone feeder and chipping away at the nuts at the bottom of the cone. Pieces were dropping to the ground below and the robin chased off a female chaffinch, to have the gleanings to herself.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 