The Yard Birds

Today's visitors include:















On a related note, I am convinced that a pair of robins and a pair of nuthatches are nesting in our garden. They've been out there all day, coming and going, and the male robin has been staking his territory quite aggressively--I watched him chase a house sparrow that had come too close to a particular area of hedge.

The robin has quickly become my favorite. They are the terriers of the bird world: fiesty, pugnacious, brave. A big bird stuck in a little bird's body. This morning, as I returned from my walk, I discovered that the workmen still tearing up the street had stationed their diesel belching backhoe in my driveway in order to excavate something in the road. I stood there watching to make sure they didn't wreck my hedges (the jerky hydraulic arm was coming a little close).

Apparently I wasn't the only one concerned--I noticed a robin standing on the ground not far from the backhoe's treads peeping up at it aggressively (robins use this special "tic tic tic" call to raise the alarm and fend off intruders to their nesting areas). Brave chap!