Holy Robins, Batman!

The tiny European robins I see here are so shy that I probably average only one sighting per month, and I show you every picture of them that I manage to take. This morning, however, something had changed. Perhaps it was the dark and gloomy weather, they really seem to shun the sun, or perhaps it’s just that time of year, but today they were bold has heck.

It actually started right in front of my apartment building, while it was still quite dark out. There was a little bird hopping around on the ground, and I needed my binoculars to get enough light on my retinas to register the red color. I hear them out there nearly every morning, but they rarely ever let me see them.

Anyway, the next encounter was out in the countryside at the top of a tree in front of a farmhouse. This little cutie let me walk right up, and then he put on a show!

Arlene, I wish you could have been there to see it with me.

I couldn’t believe my eyes and only tore myself away when the farmer’s dog started to get a little too excited.

Happily, there were plenty of other pretty sights to see this morning, and here’s a handsome European wigeon drake looking quite sharp in his breeding plumage.

Here’s a white stork still putting off that flight to Africa for the winter.

Back in the forest, this buzzard uncharacteristically let us close enough to see its pretty brown eyes.

Then, as if to prove the point, another robin came out to sing his tune, and he was nice enough to stay at eye level so his background was not just white sky.

Then it started to sprinkle, quite unlike the pretty blue sky that came out yesterday morning, and so I packed up my gear and headed home. On my way, the rain let up a bit, so I took a slight detour just to see if there was anyone else around and look who I found!

This stunner is a redwing (Turdus iliacus), just in from its breeding grounds in Scandinavia, and just like the fieldfare yesterday, a close cousin to the American robin.

Welcome to South Holland, little buddy, and I hope you had a nice flight.