Sunday, October 15, 2006

Just Curious



Big Dave of Blogger fame commented that he wished he were a robin or even a goose and could fly south with all the migrating snow birds. True, I am pulling things out of their hiding places and starting to pack for the other half of our year, but the only thing a robin packs is it's belly. They are fat as the proverbial Christmas goose, in anticipation of winging southward for a few rays while the rest of the world freezes their tail feathers in the north. I just noticed something peculiar about several of the robins hopping around on our deck and pecking away at the seeds we have thrown out there to assist them in their carbohydrate loading before the big trip. A bunch have gray feathers mingled with their red breasts. Are these the senior citizens of the bird world ? If, so --- how are they going to make the long trip with aging wings? We, too are carb loading (I just frosted a ton of graham crackers to get rid of the last of my five pounds of frosting), but I am not planning to flap my arms all the way to Ft. Myers. The robins are the lucky ones --- they don't have to drag their golf clubs, or sewing machine and clothes for any and all occasions. I am just curious to know if birds camouflage themselves with scattered gray patches to blend in with the drab winter colors? If that is the way it works, then HRH and I are going to blend in perfectly with the other golden agers, who live in tin cans and eat early birds every night for dinner.

3 comments:

Sideways Chica said...

Dear Kacey...hope you have a smooth trip and a "flappingly" good time. Watch out for the ducks!

Ciao bella...take care.

Dust-bunny said...

Kacey,

I love robins, and I always know when spring is around the corner, because they're lined up on the parkways around here starting in March! You'll be driving, and all of a sudden you'll see about 20 of them, and they're all looking in the same direction...at what, I don't know! Speaking of birds, I'm stuck here in the cold for the winter, so I need to replace my broken birdfeeder for the cardinals and bluejays! They always look beautiful against the white snow. Have a wonderful, safe trip!

Take good care,
Lisa

Big Dave T said...

Gee, how did I miss this one? My name is even dropped here.

I've always been more curious about geese. You hear them flying south---honk, honk, honk. Do they do that to get other birds to get out of their way? And often the flocks seem to be going the wrong way. South in the summer, north in the winter. (Maybe that's why I see them here in Ann Arbor throughout the winter) I think their navigation is off because they don't even look down to get their bearings. If they looked down once in a while, they'd have an idea which direction they were traveling.

Just being silly, I know.