Solitary Robin

I seem to have one, solitary, lone robin. He never did move into any of the birdhouses. Poor thing, I keep expecting him to bring his wife round for a visit but I haven抰 seen one yet. When he arrived in April he came alone and I expected his wife to come in a week or two. We had a horrible snowstorm the week he arrived and I have a picture of him fluffed up and grumpy on one of the garden birdbath fountains. But for some reason he seems to be all alone still. He doesn抰 socialize much with the others but hangs around for meals and swimming in the birdbath fountain. I occasionally go to the bait store and buy him worms, these I put in the shade with a little dirt in a dish with sides (so they can抰 escape). He thinks these are a wonderful treat.

Have you ever listened to a Stellar抯 Jay? I know they can be loud and raucous but take the time to listen when they are talking to themselves. They chirrup and twitter and sing the sweetest little songs sort of under their breath and not very loud, it抯 quite pleasant.

The jays can be such bullies, they are forever chasing everyone else away from the wooden birdfeeders and the garden birdbath fountain. I have found that I can distract them with peanuts (their absolute favorites) while everyone else is eating at the ornamental bird feeders. The jays take a peanut fly somewhere hide the peanut and come back for more. Then they have to go and remember where they put their stash. This keeps them busy for hours and out of the way.

One thing they love to do is set the decorative bird feeders spinning so that seed goes flying out all over the yard. I think they have an agreement with the doves to make sure there is enough seed on the ground for them. This also makes it easier for the other jays and they don抰 have to fight over a perch on the birdfeeder. It抯 really pretty funny to watch what they are up to at any given moment.