"Leaning Slightly Forward" - Maggies, 2001

I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon watching one of the robins who regularly visits our bird table. I don't think it's our friend Batman, who has appeared in an early blog post, but I could be wrong about that.

We have a fat ball hanging off our bird table. Some of the birds - notably the acrobatic little blue tits - have no problem clinging onto the ball to munch...sometimes in multiples! But the robins just can't manage that.

One of our robins has learned an almost hovering maneuver, looking a bit like a hummingbird as it very quickly nibbles from the fat ball before losing control in the air. But the one I was watching today has learned another way of eating some of the fat. Watching very carefully to make sure it was safe, it would perch on the edge of the table and then lean forward and munch on the fat. I have never seen a robin do that before...at least not in our garden.

Although they aren't much more than snapshots, I did manage a few photos this afternoon. By the way, those streaks you see are the snow flurries coming down at the time. Click on any of the images for a full-sized version.










Clever fellow/lady, don't you think?

I hope our garden birds manage to stay warm tonight. It's already well below freezing out there, and it's likely to get colder...and perhaps begin to snow again.

Janet