Spring Is Here!

by Karen Barchent
(Findlay, Ohio)

I have been so tickled to watch the variety of feathered friends enjoying the bird bath we put out several years ago.

Last summer during an especially hot day I filled it up with some fresh cool water and a little later looked out only to see a mourning dove just sitting smack dab in the middle of it.

She was looking around in complete contentment as if to say, "Ahhh!"

On an unusually warm day this spring I had a robin who was particularly delighting in splashing around and amusing itself by claiming the water as its own.

He didn't seem to want to play nicely at first, but after a while, he let some other little guys in.

My video recorder has autofocus, which can be nice, but it tends to adjust itself to light and dark, so I had a little trouble keeping the dark/bright consistent.

Anyway, here are a few birds enjoying the finch feeder and "King Robin" protecting his territory. There is also a cute little squirrel at the end just for fun. :-)

Two Hungry Baby Robins

by Richard Cammell
(Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom)

This year we were lucky enough to have a Robin nesting in the garden and when the chicks arrived they were just so cute.

We had great fun watching them, they were a joy to see and very comical too. My partner managed to take this short video.

The mother Robin had just fed one chick and then another chick showed up and wanted feeding.

The mother didn't know which chick to feed next and ended up feeding the same chick twice and the other went without.

The mother Robin looks very confused and harassed!

The mother and baby Robins became very tame and would come to the back door to be fed.

One day my partner had been videoing the mother and baby Robins and came into the kitchen to show me the video. On the video clip the baby Robins were squeaking for food.

As we were watching the video clip, the next moment the mother robin appeared and hopped into the kitchen with a beak full of food.

She looked very surprised that her chicks were not there.

She had obviously heard the baby chicks squeaking in the video and had rushed in to feed them.

We had to quickly stop the video and gently usher the mother Robin out of the kitchen.