Meet Mr. Red Breast Robin
We’ve had someone knocking at the basement door every daylight hour. Or shall I say, pecking at the window? Mr. Robin pecks and flutters and flies up. Over and over and over again.
It’s a little disconcerting, this infernal knocking. The truth of the matter is he’s in love with his reflection. He’s fallen head-over-heels in love. He’s dreaming of making nests, having babies and delivering worms to his love and offspring. He’s smitten.
All day yesterday he pecked and preened and begged his love to respond. All day long our window refused to yield her position.
Our fluttering desperate crazed love-strung robin
When I returned from work this morning Barry had penned a message: “The robin is still at it.” Alas. I had tried to put a vacuum cleaner in front of the sliding glass door yesterday, in hopes he’d get the idea. Alas. He did not.
Finally a brilliant idea struck. I scurried outside and placed our two ash buckets (plus a random cardboard box) in front of the window–on the outside of the house.
Hurray! He got the idea! He’s stopped pecking and robin-dancing and attempting to mate with the window. We’re hoping he finds Mrs. Robin soon. And maybe we’ll even get a glimpse of those robin blue eggs in the nest a short while from now.
If anyone is waiting for a photo of the wild anemone, the first lovely white flower to grace our woodlands…click on this link. You’ll not witness one in this blog, yet. Our flandrumhill posted on her blog that the wild coltsfoot are blooming in Nova Scotia! My mouth dropped clear to the ground. WE haven’t seen any wildflowers. Have we, Cindy?
But, good sleuth that I am, I went searching today for our first wildflower.
Alas. None to be yet discovered, at least not in the usual places. We shall wait with expectancy.
I did discover flies. Lots of them, on my car. They, too, were doing their mating dances. Ahhh, springtime in the north woods!
Flies on my car. Sorry for the x-rated photo.
P.S. I’m hosting Book Club here tonight. Can you imagine what we’re reading and discussing this evening? The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Very appropriate, I should say. Must go finish cleaning the house NOW!
P.S.S. Almost forgot the most exciting thing! It’s 74 degrees right now, at 6 p.m. Ahhh…earthly delight…
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April 17, 2009 at 6:01 pm
flandrumhill
Narcissism is such a waste of time. All the female robins are probably engaged by now.
Your warm weather is sure to bring out the blooms soon
April 17, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Alluvja
Aaahh… hope the robin found a mate…I’m such a hopeless romantic after all…
April 18, 2009 at 9:02 am
Cindy Lou
Nope….none yet, Kathy. Though the trillium, marsh marigolds and adder’s tongue should be up soon. Fiddlehead ferns, too….have you ever eaten them? Sauteed in butter? Yummo! I’ll let you know when I see a beautiful wildflower…..oh and lovely little forget-me-nots should be poking their heads up soon. Oh I do love spring! I’ll bet that poor frustrated robin isn’t enjoying it too much….great story!
April 18, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Deborah
Happy to be able to load your blog again.
My son and I watched Robins and Doves all over the Missouri Botanical Garden recently. It was quite a bit of fun as they are used to people about (yet leaving the birds alone), so you can get much closer there, than we can get here in the wild.
Of course, we have Robins and Doves. We have wildflowers too – Violets and Phlox now and Dutchman’s Breeches, and lots of tiny flowers carpeting the woods.
Course, not trying to make you envious or anything like that, each place has it’s season and ours are running later. The plants have learned from the cold spells to bide their time. The Dogwoods have yet to bloom (usually are by Easter and that holiday ran “late” this year).
The flies and wasps?, also a sign of spring, and the first ticks too. Sigh.
April 18, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Deborah
I just saw fiddlehead ferns for sale in Whole Foods and then the next day saw them wild on the trail. Haven’t gotten up the courage to eat them yet, but did try Day Lily buds once. Not good enough to do it except in extreme hunger.
April 19, 2009 at 6:14 am
centria
Amy, that’s what had me worried. The poor robin was wasting his time chasing his own reflection. C’mon he just needed to look in another direction! (And he was at it again yesterday, this time from on TOP of the ash bucket. I gave up and left the house.)
Lucienne, you and me both. I’m sure there’s lots of single robin-gals out there just looking for a love-partner. (Maybe we’re both hopeless romantics?)
Cindy, ok, we gotta talk. I tried fiddlehead ferns once and couldn’t eat them. They were too crunchy or bad or something…so I probably did something wrong. Everyone says they’re lovely. I also cannot identify adder’s tongue. Must look in the wildflower book & be on the look-out for a “new” flower!
Deb…love what you said about the plants learning from the cold spells to bide their time. If they bloom to early, they’re in trouble. Especially when the temps can turn from 70 to 37 in less than a day. I’ll bet that was interesting to examine the birds up close and your son got quite a science lesson as well. Maybe we should both attempt some fiddlehead ferns this year? I can’t believe Whole Foods sells them.
You guys…it’s 7:14 a.m. and that robin is back downstairs knocking on the window. Sigh…here we go again!
December 19, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Memories can make you cry… « Opening the door, walking outside
[...] the crazed robin blogs, the ones where they pecked incessantly at our windows for months, including Crazed robin and stalking the first wildflower and The danger of philandering husbands. He also liked This blog is going to the dogs where those [...]
March 2, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Itaya
Oh my but this is too funny! I’ve finally found someone else that has the same kind of Robin as we have had for the past several years! LOL
We have a basement window that has a partially removed sticker on it that maybe in a very vague and abstracty kind of way could possibly resemble a bird to a crazed love sick male Robin. Anyways, every spring our Romeo will return and peck at the window and he’ll act just like yours…hopping and fluttering up and down and trying to get the window bird to respond! Never mind that there are other windows that Romeo could hang out at and court. Nope! Has to be this particular window or he’s not gonna do it for hours on end.
I’ve got a feeling that all the female Robins have been ignoring this little guy because he keeps returning each spring. At least we think it is the same one. Perhaps there are several like him out there! LOL
Just had to let you know that you aren’t the only ones out there plagued by a love sick bird.
March 4, 2010 at 8:30 am
Kathy
Itaya, I am so happy to hear that another person has a crazy lovesick bird like ours! Someone suggested in one of my later blogs that perhaps this robin is attempting to defend his territory. That’s another possibility! We’re sure hoping our crazy guy doesn’t decide to re-visit this spring. maybe we’re in for this behavior for YEARS! Yikes… Thanks for visiting. (You, not the robin.) ha ha