The robins are back

[tsap seui]

In the mornings Wenyan and I like to look at tth birds in the yard. We noticed several more small birds than normal the last couple of days but there have been no robins in the yard since they flew the coop last year.

 

This morning, what do I see....TWO ROBINS. And, as robins do, the male was chasing the female around the yard like an American man chases his Chinese wife. And the female was being all coy and struttin' her stuff to entice him.

 

Cool man....the robins are back. The must have been waiting for the day of the time change...you know, get that extra hour of daylight to court and spark each other. Since they just got back into town last night or early this morning we'll get to watch them have sex here, there, and everywhere, and watch them build their nests.

 

Spring has sprung...yaHOO

 

tsap seui

[dnoblett]

Yep, my father noticed then a week or so ago, so we promptly cleaned the old nest from his robin's nesting box, and will see if another comes to roost this spring.

 

http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/ProdImages/BNWCNP-1.jpg

 

Simple to build, and place on a wall high enough to keep critters like raccoon out.

[Mick]

Down cheer in Tennerbama, the Robins never leave. Our back yard is filled with them year round. As is their calling card, the Robins like to scurry along on the ground and are just hilarious to watch at times. We have plenty of them and find their eggs from time to time. The local feral cat population likes to dine on the eggs but for the most part, leave the birds alone. This area also has a lot of Cardinals, which are just gorgeous birds. The females are brown with a reddish tint underneath and the males are brilliant red. We also have a plethora of Mocking Birds, which can drive you nuts if one decides to camp out just outside yer winder and make calls all night. If Sweet Baby James still wants to buy one, I got plenty I'd be happy to ship his way.

[dnoblett]

Here in NY the Cardinals stay year round, and are quite a contrast when seen against the snow.

Other bird my father has been able to get to come to a feeder is the Baltimore Oriole, a beautiful orange bird that summers in the area, these birds tend to not come to seed feeders, they like grape jelly, he has a special feeder for them.

http://www.plowhearth.com/plow_assets/images/shop/catalog/11376e.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Oriole

 

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/files/pictures/oriole-baltimore-signature.jpg

[Fu Lai]

A memorable scene from David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). With Laura Dern & Kyle MacLachlan.

[tsap seui]

I was really surprised to see the robins come back this morning. Not a one around here Sunday and then this morning I saw two, then four of them. UP to their old games of running around on the ground and then bouncing off each other in their mating flight. Like Mick says, they are a hoot to watch as I guess it is the male chases after his lil' darling. I hand fed a baby that got out of the nest last year. Showed Fengqi and Wenyan how to find a grub or a worm in the yard and they were amazed at how you could feed the baby. The baby ran out into the street and I went over and picked him up...oh my Gawd, that lil' critter was LOUD. It was like all the other robins heard his screams and I had multiple robins attackin' my head and all of them screaming at me. Fengqi and Wenyan were just in wonderment at the ruckess and how all the robins pitched in ot help the baby. They had never been around any birds like we have just walking outside. It was truly a treat for them. They weren't used to any sort of birds or squirrels, etc. Those Baltimore orioles are a thing of beauty. I have only seen two of them in my years up here. and they were more out in the country at a house I had bought to fix and flip. We have a few hawks living in the woods along our road and you get to see them glide in to attack something from time ot time.

 

I remember you and I talking about the ble jays some time back Dan. We have a few of them that stay during the winter, oddly most of them go elsewhere when it gets warm and you hardly see any during the summer. This winter we had the blue jays and a couple of the cardinals that stayed during the cold months...as well as several of the little birds. It's really cool to see the blue jays in their beautiful blue feathers, and the male cardinal in a background of snow. The blue jays really get puffed out like they are pregnate in the cold.

 

We had squirrels playing everywhere and I saw rabbits out in the yard and neighbors yards as I walked outside to take off to do some things on a project I'm playing around with.

 

I love watching the birds start chattering in the mornings just before the sun comes up. The four seasons are nothing short of spectacular as they change. I couldn't take living in an area with only one season. Fortunately the winters here are not that long, the snows come but are usually gone in 2 or 3 days and they make the leafless mountains so easy to every contour of the mountainsides.

 

It's so satisfying to enjoy this with Wenyan and Fengqi. One of the first things she asked me is if I lived in an area with "four", meaning four seasons. She's gotten to be a country girl and often shows me photos she's taken while I'm out, and many is the time she wakes up at odd hours and looks for the deer grazing outside the bedroom window. Last fall the apple tree just outside the window was a great attraction for the deer. When all the aples ran out, I wstarted buying some to put out there. Lil' rabbit went along with that for a time and then put the kabish on it....lol...it was cute helping her to "stage" the fallen apples for the deer coming to visit later in the night. She'd place them just so, in hopes of getting some photos, and to make sure they came right up to our window.

 

Damn it's nice to have the family together and to have, and take, the time to enjoy mother nature wiht these two city slickers.

 

tsap seui

Edited March 12, 2013 by tsap seui (see edit history)

[Urkidding]

I'm glad to see how happy you are with you new family! May even put some extra years to your life being your very happy now.

[tsap seui]

Must just be something in the air cuzin' kiddin'me. Birds n' the bees, that sorta thang.

 

Say, we're in the 50's here so that means you must be in the 70's and 80's....you out sportin' on the motorcycle?

 

tsap seui

[Urkidding]

You're right cuzin Chop-suie...bu-tee-full weather here... :coolthumb:almost like a roller coaster ride - 38 in the morning :cold:and 70 in the afternoon..

good biking weather but I still have to watch out for the birds and especially the bees...don't want any of them caught in my helmet.

 

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy282/texasdepot/Capture-2.jpg

[Mick]

You're right cuzin Chop-suie...bu-tee-full weather here... :coolthumb:almost like a roller coaster ride - 38 in the morning :cold:and 70 in the afternoon..

good biking weather but I still have to watch out for the birds and especially the bees...don't want any of them caught in my helmet.

 

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy282/texasdepot/Capture-2.jpg

Our weather is up and down as well, but not nearly as warm in the daytime. This morning it was 27 here and I had to scrape ice off the windows to take Salina to school. It supposed to only go to the low 50s for a high. Over last weekend, it was supposed to hit the 70s, but never quite made it. It was upper 60s with a 25 mph wind, so still coldish. Spring, however, is in the air. Down here in Tennerbama, that doesn't necessarily mean a young man's fancy turns to love. It just means the sheep start gettin' nervous.

 

http://youtu.be/oCRE9qOgbug

 

I know it's a repeat, but enjoy anyway!

[tsap seui]

Hilarious Mick...lol

 

Cuzin' padre, that temp guage looks like one for southeast Queensland Australia in their winter time there. NIce and crisp in the mornings bnad heating up to perfect in hte late morings and afternoons.

 

The 50's is good for us this time of year, if we jumped up into the mid sixties and seventies now, I'd get sluggish as hell. I can't take it when it gets too hot too quick. Am I getting to be an old fart? I have been letting some whoppers of late. You think I'm going through the change? Do you think I am at some midlife crisis where I feel the need to buy a chopper, and git me a 21 year old girlfriend? What the heck would Winnie and I do with a 21 year old girlfriend anyhow? Why do men ever feel the need to do that? What IS the meaning of life anyhow? "Why does the world keep on turning"?

 

Yes boyz and girlz answer these important questions and you could win a prize, watch the rubber duck and good luck to you all.

 

tsap seui

Edited March 12, 2013 by tsap seui (see edit history)