Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.

Throughout the summer, there has been a robin frequenting my garden, to
the point of almost over stepping the mark occasionally. One afternoon
it was perched on the back door step much to the dog's annoyance. On
another occasion while I was cutting back the hedge, it perched on the
rim of the wheelie bin next to me. I suspect it may have made its nest
in the ivy that grows up the back fence, so have left that well alone
all year. It will now get cut back during the winter.

This afternoon while I was cutting the lawn, I emptied the grass box
into the bin, only to turn round to find the feather brained little
critter perched on the handle of the mower. It still sat there as I
replaced the box, stood up and grabbed the handle, and only flew off
when I switched on the motor, to land on the wheelie bin again.

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?

jim, Northampton

"jbm" wrote in message ...
Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.

Throughout the summer, there has been a robin frequenting my garden, to
the point of almost over stepping the mark occasionally. One afternoon
it was perched on the back door step much to the dog's annoyance. On
another occasion while I was cutting back the hedge, it perched on the
rim of the wheelie bin next to me. I suspect it may have made its nest
in the ivy that grows up the back fence, so have left that well alone
all year. It will now get cut back during the winter.

This afternoon while I was cutting the lawn, I emptied the grass box
into the bin, only to turn round to find the feather brained little
critter perched on the handle of the mower. It still sat there as I
replaced the box, stood up and grabbed the handle, and only flew off
when I switched on the motor, to land on the wheelie bin again.

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?


Yes many times. Robins are curious birds.

Will
--

On 10/09/2012 23:59, jbm wrote:
Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.

Throughout the summer, there has been a robin frequenting my garden, to
the point of almost over stepping the mark occasionally. One afternoon
it was perched on the back door step much to the dog's annoyance. On
another occasion while I was cutting back the hedge, it perched on the
rim of the wheelie bin next to me. I suspect it may have made its nest
in the ivy that grows up the back fence, so have left that well alone
all year. It will now get cut back during the winter.

This afternoon while I was cutting the lawn, I emptied the grass box
into the bin, only to turn round to find the feather brained little
critter perched on the handle of the mower. It still sat there as I
replaced the box, stood up and grabbed the handle, and only flew off
when I switched on the motor, to land on the wheelie bin again.

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?

They are incredibly brave if you are disturbing the soil and will nip an
and nab worms from under your feet. Your resident male will be used to
you and considers it his garden - not yours!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...

They are incredibly brave if you are disturbing the soil and will nip an
and nab worms from under your feet. Your resident male will be used to you
and considers it his garden - not yours!

We were clearing ivy off what were the flower beds this weekend which our
robin found very interesting. When we stopped to have our lunch on the
patio, the robin joined us making a great racket. Obvioulsy he thought that
we should continue with the digging and provide food for him, not be
relaxing with our own meal.

Cheers, Alastair.

jbm wrote:

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?

I used to have an allotment. Son and I were working on it one day, son
knelt down to pull some weeds and a robin perched on the heel of one of his
boots. A magic moment.
--
MCC

jbm wrote:
Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.

Throughout the summer, there has been a robin frequenting my garden, to
the point of almost over stepping the mark occasionally. One afternoon
it was perched on the back door step much to the dog's annoyance. On
another occasion while I was cutting back the hedge, it perched on the
rim of the wheelie bin next to me. I suspect it may have made its nest
in the ivy that grows up the back fence, so have left that well alone
all year. It will now get cut back during the winter.

This afternoon while I was cutting the lawn, I emptied the grass box
into the bin, only to turn round to find the feather brained little
critter perched on the handle of the mower. It still sat there as I
replaced the box, stood up and grabbed the handle, and only flew off
when I switched on the motor, to land on the wheelie bin again.

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?

jim, Northampton
------------------------------------
I thought you were going to say when it grabbed the handle that it
started to mow the lawn for you!
I have had many similar close encounters with Robins in my garden. I've
even had them feeding mealworms from my hand. They are very tame and
associate gardeners with disturbing the ground and thus revealing food.
Dave

On Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:17:37 +0100, Dave Cornwell
wrote:

. They are very tame and
associate gardeners with disturbing the ground and thus revealing food.

The story I was once told was that Robins evolved in the wild as
scavengers. Their "niche" was to follow animals, boars for example,
that disturbed the soil and then nip in and get the small insects and
grubs that had been disturbed. They have just transferred this
behaviour to gardeners.

I have no idea if it's true or not, but it does sound plausible.

Ian
--
The From and ReplyTo addresses are valid

"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
...
jbm wrote:
Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.
------------------------------------
I thought you were going to say when it grabbed the handle that it started
to mow the lawn for you!
I have had many similar close encounters with Robins in my garden. I've
even had them feeding mealworms from my hand. They are very tame and
associate gardeners with disturbing the ground and thus revealing food.

We are plagued with pheasants here. 5 or 6 years ago a local large estate
stopped shooting them
although they continued to breed them for another couple of years. Up until
last winter, a group
of them were daily visitors, arriving every morning to be fed, often feeding
out of
my hand in the winter. This year they have been mature enough to breed and
have
proudly returned to show me their chicks. The chicks have no fear of me and
to the
consternation of their parents, as soon as I open the back door in the
morning, they are in,
all over the kitchen looking for food. I can understand their parents being
partly tame,
as they were probably raised by hand. But the chicks are wild birds; they
exhibit no
fear of humans if they are not threatened and if we treat them as sheep and
cattle would.

Phil
Northern Highlands of Scotland, 40 miles north of Inverness

On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 8:43:14 AM UTC+1, Alastair wrote:
"Martin Brown" wrote in message

...



They are incredibly brave if you are disturbing the soil and will nip an

and nab worms from under your feet. Your resident male will be used to you

and considers it his garden - not yours!



We were clearing ivy off what were the flower beds this weekend which our

robin found very interesting. When we stopped to have our lunch on the

patio, the robin joined us making a great racket. Obvioulsy he thought that

we should continue with the digging and provide food for him, not be

relaxing with our own meal.



Cheers, Alastair.

You have to remember that robins are very territorial for most of the year. They cannot stray into another territory without being sent packing unless that other 'owner' robin is distracted for some reason.

This means that they are probably within watching distance of your garden for most of daylight hours. You may not see them all the time but they will see you.

They will soon realise that you are not a threat to them, but will always be wary because of the size of humans (this is not meant to be a disparaging remark by the way). So, they will watch you going about your gardening and see discover that they need to move quickly in order to eat the insects that are disturbed by whatever you are doing.

There is a theory that with small creatures, time appears to go much more slowly - in the same way that as children we have a somewhat similar experience of time compared to when we are much older. If this is the case, then your movements to a robin would appear slow and laborious; there would be no obvious problems with darting as close as possible to you in order to grab insects, because experience has taught the bird that even if you do move, it would be at a snails pace compared with their reaction time.

"jbm" wrote in message ...
Nothing to do with the weather, but continuing the bird theme, I thought
the bird lovers would be interested in this.

Throughout the summer, there has been a robin frequenting my garden, to the
point of almost over stepping the mark occasionally. One afternoon it was
perched on the back door step much to the dog's annoyance. On another
occasion while I was cutting back the hedge, it perched on the rim of the
wheelie bin next to me. I suspect it may have made its nest in the ivy that
grows up the back fence, so have left that well alone all year. It will now
get cut back during the winter.

This afternoon while I was cutting the lawn, I emptied the grass box into
the bin, only to turn round to find the feather brained little critter
perched on the handle of the mower. It still sat there as I replaced the
box, stood up and grabbed the handle, and only flew off when I switched on
the motor, to land on the wheelie bin again.

Has anyone else experienced such "close encounters"?

jim, Northampton

Here's Robin coming indoors for food, taken by a friend:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mukumbura/6124247638/

(it'll be ordering take away soon)