Robins 2

Severe winter weather prevails

Birds - Robin 2

Robins are solitary birds
They will protect their territory from other robins
One winter was terribly cold
The water froze as we poured it into the birdbath
Even warmed water was frozen in a few minutes
Another robin came to visit
Our robin chased it away
The visitor was so short of food it refused to leave
A fight occurred between them
Beaks jabbing each other
A whirl of wings, beaks, legs and feathers
I had a camera handy
The resulting video was sent to the BBC nature program
It was shown
Robins will fight to the death they said
The visitor backed off and stood at the opposite side of the path
Watching all the other birds feeding
I took pity on it and dropped a few crumbs
They were gobbled up
I  dropped more and left
Resident Robin looked up and went halfway across the path
The visitor came to meet him
They stood like boxers before a fight
Eyeing each other
Then both turned and hoped away
They resumed feeding 
The truce lasted until warmer weather made food more available

Wild Rose
Jan 2020

Reviews

[AYVID N]

A sad and delightful read at the same time. Sad as the birds have to struggle for survival in such harsh weather. Delightful is the story of these two rivals and the truce that prevailed. Sometimes Birds have better sense than humans. I’m glad the video was shown on bbc. It must be exciting.

[Wild Rose]

It was the BBC Nature watch program
It was not the best quality. taken through the kitchen window. There is no way of trying for a better shot - the action would have been over
It is the same with travel shots. you are in a bus/car/train. You see a nice shot but possibly some overhead cables do you take the shot as a memory? lines and all or no shot at all
I say take what you can and ignore the critics

Have another story from our robins

[barleygirl]

This is a great description of this scene & how you captured it. Your excitement comes across vividly. In a couple places, you use passive voice & it would be good to stay in active voice for a dynamic storytelling like this . . . ex: "A fight occurred between them" (the birds thrashed into a fight -- that would be active voice) . . . "I had a camera handy" (I grabbed the camera and let 'er rip -- to stay in your dynamic voice) . . . just little picky observations from an otherwise well-told story! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Wild Rose]

Thank you Margie