Common Nature

Watching parental robins at an urban railway station: the local robins at University station in Birmingham know which side their bread is buttered, and have begging from the commuters down to a fine art. I was eating my breakfast, a saffron fruit bun (translation from EnglishEnglish: a very buttery bread-textured roll with raisins, sultanas, currants, candied peel, and saffron spice), when an extremely bold robin approached me closely to ask for a share. I picked off a few small pieces until the robin decided its beak was full and flew away to its nest. It quickly returned and made begging-cheeps for more, so I obliged, and then it returned a third time. It was only on the third round that the adult robin ate any crumbs itself. I’d finished my breakfast when it returned a fourth time so I showed it my empty hands, which it understood immediately and went off to look for food elsewhere. (Note: the high animal fat content of my saffron bun makes it better for robins than most processed human foods.)



Watching young birds having learning experiences: I saw an inexperienced wood pigeon attempt to land on my neighbour’s shiny corrugated plastic shed roof and skid along a groove. It then proceeded to attack some overhanging willow leaves, first pecking them and then wrestling them with mighty vigour, before giving up and wandering out of sight. Although it wasn’t quite as funny as the very surprised young crow who recently attempted to land on the same corrugated plastic roof when it was wet, and aquaplaned the length of the roof, lol.



How are the seasonal changes moving where you are?