Three's a Crowd

Further to the recent report on the robin at the local Bird Caff, there have been developments. Our 9 am friend has been a bit unusual this winter in tolerating if reluctantly another robin’s presence. In previous winters it’s been one or none and there has been bitter rivalry for the territory and for access to the daily handouts. It must be assumed that the second bird this year is a female, though there’s no gallantry in his treatment, just a truculent acceptance. But once or twice in the last week a third robin has been present as the food parcel arrives and that has caused serious resistance. This morning our friend came to meet me out on the moor a good 200 yards from the feeding station. He was quite insistent, perching on twigs almost underfoot. He may have been bettered by the newcomer and believe his best chance of being first to the grated cheese and mealworms would be to show he was braver than the new bird. Or it could just be that the very cold conditions are making him bolder.

I can remember one morning in a very cold winter in the sixties coming into the cowshed at 6 am for milking and seeing a robin well settled on the warm back of a shorthorn cow where he had obviously spent the night. 

You always wonder how they cope with these conditions. And what will they do?  Poor things?