This is the ornamental pear tree outside our house. What you can't see is the flock of a dozen robins in the tree. They're happily eating the freeze-dried pears. In the middle of winter.
Remember kindergarten when the teacher told you that the first sign of spring was when you saw a robin? I remember when my teacher did, and then we all dutifully colored in the red breasts and the spring flowers.
So.... maybe my kindergarten teacher (and yours, too) was wrong, and if so, are there any certainties left in the world? Or Climate Change is really happening, and if so, we're all in worse shape than I thought even in my most despairing moments.
On the other hand, we haven't seen any cardinals this year. Maybe the robins and the cardinals made a deal. "Look, you guys go south this winter and we'll stay here, check out the winter sports, eat some of those frozen pears you were raving about. Why should humans be the only snowbirds?"
3 comments:
We have been experiencing the same thing in our pear tree but I don't think they are Robins. Are you sure yours are? Ours are the same size,shape etc. but lack the red breast. I am so grateful for the frozen Pears,the Mountain Ashes orange berries and the Concord grapes left on the vine. Our birds would be sad creatures without these as the ground is frozen and covered in snow. I love the birdies!
Then there is the miasma of deer tracks under our backyard apple tree. If those wrinkled, mushy, specimens under the snow and still clinging to the tree are still edible, they're welcome to 'em.
We have robins here all winter, though I can't say I've seen any this winter. And usually, there are not many.
One year when we lived in Pennsylvania, a cardinal discovered our closed-in back porch. By perching in the forsythia bush, he could see his reflection in the porch window, and spent the winter trying to peck out that interloper. I was sure he'd break the window! The clatter was quite annoying, but he entertained himself quite nicely through the frozen days.
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