Reid Rab

The Beast Fae The East (credit to Windy Wilson) imposed itself on us, and for many people it wisnae an affa positive affair. I had the luxury of procrastinating about something, and decided to graduate from using my kit lens to using the zoom lens. The absolute terror of demolishing the camera sensor simply by unscrewing the lens was overcome as the thick layer of snow became carpeted with birds. The sheer number of birds coming to what might be the only feeding station in the vicinity was dumbfounding. It’s lucky it was too cold for flies, or I’d have been catching them.

Robins are territorial little birds, so having six reid breests in one small garden is an indicator of how desperate they were for food. There were still a few scuffles, but for the most part territoriality became less of an issue, probably because I was feeding every hour or so.

Watching the Robins, I could identify two pairs, and the other two were possibly both single, as they didn’t tend to feed in close proximity with each other, and were slightly less comfortable in the garden than the two pairs.

Apparently each Robin has a distinct shape of red breast, but I wasn’t able to get that far in my observations. Apart from that, it’s impossible to tell a male and female apart from the vantage point of a window, unless you can discern whether one is larger than the other – if so, that’s the female.

For some reason it appeals to me that Robins exhibit this trait of equal appearances between the female and the male. That, and the letting go of territoriality and aggression when winter has come and the going is a bit tough, but there’s an abundance of food being provided so everyone is taken care of.

Small bird, big wisdom.