Red breast

It has been around two years since we have had a robin in our garden. The first time that I saw this one was on Midsummer's day. It sat on a neighbour's fence and began to make a very cross sound a sort of 'k-tock' which it repeated over and over again. As it had been so long since having a robin in the neighbourhood, I rushed to get some items of food that I thought might attract it ... these included a chunk of cheddar cheese which I chopped into small pieces. It was evidently feeding young ones, as the next time that I saw it it had a fat juicy grub wriggling in its beak. It still had not come into the garden. I placed more and more titbits onto the bird table and even crunched up a digestive biscuit ... and I was rewarded late yesterday afternoon when not just one but two robins were scrapping over the territory which now included my garden.

The robin flew into one of my pear trees and took up a guard position and even when I walked over to the tree it did not move. He was a cock robin that was shortly joined by another male that flew into a nearby apple tree then the pair proceeded to duel ... 'k-tock-k-tock-k-tock' the pear tree robin sounded out - shortly to be followed by a 'k-tock-k-tock'-k-tock' from the apple tree robin ... this duel of voices lasted for two-and-a-half hours. The pear tree robin won. The apple tree robin flew away.

The pear tree robin now owns the territory that includes both my garden and bird table!

Added note: I have decided to call the garden robin 'Puck' as it was first spied on Midsummer's day and Puck is the name given to Robin Good-fellow in Shakespeare's play 'A Midsummer-night's Dream.' Perhaps I could call the robin's wife Cobweb!

Robin or Robin red breast

A robin will defend its chosen territory with its life - it will not fly away from people and appears to be fairly tame when heavy gardening occurs. Robins will wait on a branch nearby and when earth is turned over, will fly down and pull up a tasty worm. Both male and female robins have a red-orange breast and a beautiful sweet and tuneful song. The female begins to search for her partner in the middle of the winter ... the cock bird will sit in his favourite tree, puff out his red breast of beautiful plumage, hold back his head and sing for all that he's worth. The female robin will begin the courtship by walking below. This usually goes on for several weeks and if the male takes to her - the male will welcome her and she will begin to go wherever he goes. The robin lays an average of four eggs, though sometimes one or two more. The eggs take two weeks to hatch and the young birds are fed by both parents. Robins generally raise more than one family each year. (The young brood do not have the red breast.)