Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Robin and the Holly

December is not a time when I expect to see flocks of Robins. The male Great Horned Owl showed up with a girlfriend last Sunday, and it was wonderful to hear them hooting sweet nothings to each other as we prepared to attend the church choir concert. The owls could have been singing Christmas carols, such as Whoo, the Herald Great Horned Sings, Oh Little Owl with Pointed Ears, Oh Come All Ye Hoot Owls, or Hoot Owls We Have Heard On High. No offense to Handel, but I smiled all evening thinking about Owl Carols. I've been waiting for them to come back so I could record a movie with them, but haven't heard them since.
The Robins are all over though. Normally, we have holly berries all winter, and the Robins eat them in March on their way back north. For some reason, this year they have stripped all the berries from my bushes already. The neighbor's driveway is covered in red berries shaken down by the Robins. They eat from one branch, then fly off to another to see what's on the menu there.
My berries must be the tastiest though, because other trees in the neighborhood are still covered with crimson holly berries. After a filling lunch, they come to our creek for an ice cold bath in the stream. Brrr!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Robins always make an annual trip to our holly trees;however, they are earlier this year. It is Christmas Eve 2009 and we had twenty inches of snow last Saturday, the temperature is 20 degrees in Madison, CT and the Robins have made their annual visit and our stripping our holly trees of their fruit - quite a lovely site! Merry Christmas