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For several days around the end of March, this group (round?) of American Robins hung out in a tree just beyond our back fence. This is a phenomenon we\u2019ve not noticed before in the 24 years we\u2019ve lived in our house.<\/p>\n
Online searches and enquiries among friends yielded two theories. The first is that the birds move north with rising temperatures and hang out in roosts until the temperature rises enough for them to move further north. The second is that the birds are just sitting there scoping out their territories.<\/p>\n
With the naked eye, we thought they were all looking at us. Narcissism on our part? Or paranoia? (We\u2019ve seen Hitchcock\u2019s movie\u2026). But in the pictures that I took, some were looking north (towards us) while others were looking south. It struck me that despite all the wise opinions we received, I knew what was really happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s with the white stuff?\u201d said Dave, to no one in particular. \u201cIt should\u2019ve mostly gone by now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeats me,\u201d said Ken, who happened to be roosting nearby Dave. \u201cHere it is, March 31st, and there\u2019s still 50cm of snow everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are we?\u201d asked Steve.<\/p>\n
\u201c50.715997 degrees of latitude,\u201d replied Dave, who acted as the flock\u2019s navigator. \u201cI don\u2019t understand it. The grass should be greening up nicely by now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr at least we\u2019d be able to see berries on the ground. But look at it. We\u2019d be digging for ages,\u201d said Ken.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s not men\u2019s work. We need the women here for that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think guys?\u201d chirped Ray, who seemed to be taking the lead in the tree. \u201cNorth, south or stay put?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a murmur as the birds conferred. A couple flew above the tree for a short while, trying to get a bird\u2019s-eye view of the landscape. The frigid wind hitting their under-wing area forced them back to the tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthwards, there\u2019s no sign of anything but white,\u201d offered Zac, fluffing up his feathers to try and get warm again.<\/p>\n
\u201cDitto south,\u201d said Henry, shivering from the hypothermia setting in in his wingpits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe average daily temperature is supposed to be at least three degrees wherever we go,\u201d said Ken. Any idea what it is here at the moment?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly three degrees,\u201d replied Dave, who had all the data at his wingtips.<\/p>\n
\u201cFahrenheit or Celsius?\u201d asked Ray.<\/p>\n
\u201cFahrenheit,\u201d replied Dave.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou bloody birdbrain!\u201d scolded Ray. \u201cWe migrate behind the three-degree Celsius<\/em> temperatures, not Fahrenheit! No wonder we\u2019re freezing our wotsits off!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSorry!\u201d said Dave. \u201cI thought that being as we\u2019re American<\/em> robins, we\u2019d use the Fahrenheit system. Phil, my mentor, told me to keep us just south of the three-degree line, and I just assumed he meant Fahrenheit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an easy mistake to make,\u201d said Steve. \u201cWe may live<\/em> in Canada during the rumpy-pumpy season, but we are<\/em> American robins.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLook mate,\u201d said Ray, \u201cAmericans in Canada use the Celsius system. Canadians in the US use the Fahrenheit system. Just out of interest, where were you when Phil told you about the three-degree rule?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCanada,\u201d said Dave sounding really guilty.<\/p>\n Henry tried doing a face-palm. Unfortunately, his wingtip was no substitute for the palm of a hand and he poked himself in the eye with a feather and fell off his perch.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay guys,\u201d yelled Ray. \u201cWe\u2019re headed south. Dave here cocked up royally. We need to get back to where it\u2019s warm enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m hungry,\u201d whined Steve.<\/p>\n \u201cToo bad,\u201d said Ray. \u201cThere\u2019s squat to eat here. The sooner we get going, the sooner we can find somewhere the ground\u2019s thawed out and we can get some worms.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMmmmm\u2026 meat\u2026\u201d said Ken, his saliva freezing the instant it left his beak.<\/p>\n \u201cHow far back do we have to go till we can expect to at least find berries?\u201d asked Steve.<\/p>\n \u201cCouple of hundred miles,\u201d said Dave.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere. Are. We?\u201d said Ray menacingly, showing the place where teeth would be if birds were dentally blessed.<\/p>\n \u201c50.715997 deg\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhich damned country!?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh\u2026 uh\u2026 Canada\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoes Canada use miles for measurement?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo-o-o-\u2026 but all the roads are laid out in square mile grids, and that\u2019s what we see when we\u2019re flying\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut they use kilometres!\u201d exploded Ray.<\/p>\n \u201cSo why didn\u2019t they tear up all the roads in 1977 and lay new ones when they went metric?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t dignify that question with a response,\u201d said Ray contemptuously. \u201cNow, if we\u2019re ready\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if we pass the ladies on the way back?\u201d asked Henry, having nursed his eye back to sufficient health to clamber back into the tree.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t,\u201d said Ray with authority. \u201cThey don\u2019t have Dodo Dave here navigating for them. They\u2019ll still be w-a-a-y south.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd in any case,\u201d he added, \u201cif there\u2019s any doubt in their minds, they\u2019ll explain their problem and ask for directions.\u201d<\/p>\n By lunchtime, our tree was bird-free. Clearly, Ray had taken charge of the situation.<\/p>\n Whether or not Dave continued as the flock\u2019s navigator will remain a mystery to me. But I suspect he\u2019d mentored a few other American robin navigators, because the tree was bird-filled again a few days later.<\/p>\n And it was snowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For several days around the end of March, this group (round?) of American Robins hung out in a tree just beyond our back fence. This is a phenomenon we\u2019ve not noticed before in the 24 years we\u2019ve lived in our house. Online searches and enquiries among friends yielded two theories. The first is that the birds move north with rising… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,487],"tags":[553,554,555],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fake","category-stories","tag-american-robins","tag-fahrenheit-vs-celsius","tag-navigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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