One of the benefits of pneumonia, if such a thing can be said, is that it mandates idleness. Little more can be done other than sit, read, nap, read a little more, nap a lot more, all spiced liberally with administration of various medications along the way. If it wasn’t for the lack of ability to breathe well and the side-effects of one of the medications keeping me from sleeping soundly, all-in-all, it’s not so bad.
During my waking moments, I have the benefit of the birds visiting the feeders just outside the window to keep me company. As the weather has been fair as of late, there hasn’t been the dense flocks commonly seen this time of year when harsh weather prevails. However, the unseasonably pleasant conditions of the past week have brought a few irregular visitors to the property; most noticeably American Robins, Turdus migratorius.
As I have previously written, our property is just above the “robin line;” the imaginary boundary just uphill from the low-lying farm fields on reclaimed river bottom land, which replete as they are with both earthworms and assorted berry-bearing plants, give the local robins no reason whatsoever to venture uphill toward out property on the edge of the tall evergreens. The usual exception to this are the juvenile robins who, not entirely unlike wanderlust-filled human youth out to spread their wings and explore the world, tend to roam far and wide in search of “the new.”
Yet in the past few days half a dozen adults have paid a call to the yard. Not particularly interested in the feeders, they comb the grounds and ply the remaining layer of dead leaves in search of invertebrates. Often, they simply find an advantageous perch in a tree from which they sit surveying the surrounding area as if it has long been established as their territory. The Black-capped chickadees, Poecile atricapilla, and the Red-breasted Nuthatches, Sitta canadensis, appear to take little notice and care even less; they know who was here first.
Yesterday, I was awakened by a repeated thumping on one of the large windows in the living room. One thump almost certainly means a bird struck the window (fortunately, they never seem to hit hard enough to even stun themselves, and yes, we take precautions to try to prevent them from striking at all but some still do). Five or six small thumps means that the male Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, who favors the camellia bush just outside the dining room window has once again forgotten that he can’t fly through that glass-sealed portal. But this present thumping was stronger, from a larger bird, and spaced completely differently.
Dragging myself from the chair in the library, I crept around into the kitchen. Unlike those in the living room where the thumping sounds were emanating, the kitchen blinds were open and offered a view of the outside of the living room windows. When I reached my observation point, I had quite a sight – a very upset robin “boxing” its image in the living room window. I had not previously seen this behavior but recalled it once mentioned in a book. Heading straight for one of my favorite volumes of the subject, The American Robin by Roland H. Wauer, I quickly confirmed what I recalled. “There are numerous records of territorial robins attacking their own image in a windowpane or mirror” wrote Wauer.
After five minutes of battling the image in the window to a draw, the robin retreated back to the spruce twenty yards behind the house, puffed out its breast, and went back to looking smug. The chickadees and the nuthatches continued to be unimpressed. I went back to my chair and went back to sleep, thoroughly exhausted by the activity.
Peace and good bird watching.
Anonymous
March 1, 2008 @ 14:12
For all of you birdlovers, http://www.enature.com has just posted FREE animal mating call ringtones on their website! Included are swainsons thrush, whitebreasted nuthatch, pileated woodpecker, black capped chickadee, rufous-sided towhee and the carolina wren. These make really fun ringtones — and I understand that enature.com will be routinely adding more! Enjoy.
Anonymous
March 30, 2008 @ 06:52
We have two robins that seem a bit more perturbed. They wake us in the morning with their boxing at the windows. When we go out to meet them, they’ll sit quietly for a few moments, eyeing us from about 5 feet away. Since we once nursed three fledglings some years ago, the subsequent families of Robins seem to repeat the same routine of banging on the door as soon as they arrive in the spring, and then remain quite close, especially when we’re gardening. Montana Tek
Lisa Longpre
April 4, 2009 @ 14:11
We have a Robin flying at our window, batting at it with his wings or pecking it with his bill. He does this in cloudy or sunny conditions about 8 hours a day, for the last three weeks. We have a cat in the house, it doesn’t bother the bird to see him near the window. I don’t think the bird sees his reflection ther is a large pine tree that brushes at the window. But rain or shine from sunup to sundown, our feathered friend bangs away. He isnt hurting himself and we are kind of amused. Never has anything like this happened. My husband wonders if the glass ornements that hang on the inside of the window have something to do with our Robins interest
Born Again Bird Watcher
April 7, 2009 @ 20:09
Lisa, thanks for commenting and sharing your observation. Birds are remarkably curious and the ornaments are a possible interest to the robin of which you write; however I would suspect by the behavior you describe that the bird is in fact seeing a reflection. This is just a guess, of course, but it falls in line with the behavior of other American Robin’s I have observed.
Gillian le Roux
April 16, 2009 @ 02:00
We have numerous robins in our garden, who, to date havebeen a pleasure to feed and watch. However, for the past 6 weeks they ( I am asuming the males) have engaged in this frantic “boxing ” at the windows. They wake us at about 6.30 a.m. and that we can live with. However, we have a very anxious old cocker spaniel, who has become completely terrorised and as a result now spends her life under the desk in the study! My parner is a psychologist and is trying desperately to retrain our dog to come out and faceher anxieties. It hasn’t been terribly successful to date. I’m just wondering if hanging an actual mirror outside might draw them to that rather than the windows? I would appreciate any suggestions and how to resolve this problem.
HALLIE C.
April 28, 2009 @ 10:02
JUST THIS LAST WEEKEND WE HAD A ROBIN “BOXING” AT OUR BEDROOM WINDOW. IT WOULD PERCH ON A TELEPHONE LINE THAT RUNS UP TO THE HOUSE RIGHT OUTSIDE THIS WINDOW. BUT IT GOT SO BAD, THERE WAS BLOOD AND SOME OTHER FLUID LEFT ON THE UPPER PANE. I LOWERED THE BLIND AND IT STOPPED. I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY THE ROBIN WOULD HURT ITSELF LIKE THAT. I THOUGHT MAYBE IT HAD A NEST NEARBY AND WAS BEING PROTECTIVE, BUT I CAN’T FIND ONE. I FIND THIS TO BE VERY WIERD BEHAVIOR…..