Stocking up on robins

Babs Young writes: I’m not sure what this robin is telling the little ones, but it sounds important.

He’s probably hollering “Look out, here comes that cat again!”  Or maybe “Where the heck are all the cherries????”  Good to see that Mama Nature is busy replenishing the supply of robins.  Apparently she’s decided to give us another chance.

In my ceaseless efforts to provide sound information, I looked up the proper name for the American Robin in my Birds of Michigan Field Guide.  I was astonished to discover that it is Turdus migratorius.  Now I ask you, is that something you want to teach the school children?  I can hear whole classrooms collapsing in giggles.  I wonder if the Legislature knows that it has saddled us with a State Bird most properly called Turdus migratorius.

In any case, Babs has done a fine job with Daddy* Robin’s portrait and I invite you to click on it to see a larger version.  (The babies are all well and good if you like that sort of thing but personally I prefer to watch them when they get big enough to learn to fly.  Now that’s entertaining.)

*I am going out on a limb here.  My beloved Stan Tekiela says that male robins are distinguished by their “nearly black head and tail.”  Read Torch Lake Views and learn something new every day, some of it even true.