March 3: Explosion of robins

Robins are all over town today, perhaps having ridden in with the rain on this warm front. We drove by a crabapple tree, and a large flock literally exploded out of the branches, robins everywhere, their rosy breasts contrasting nicely with the still-fresh snow and the grey cast to this bleak day. Robins seemed to be perched in every tree as we passed through town to the YMCA. The first thing I heard when we got out of the car was a robin's cluck. And from the workout room windows, I could see robins poised in trees, scattered throughout the woods behind the Y. (The Y, incidentally, also features some stands of beautiful, full-blown pussy willows, if you need a good seasonal pick-me-up.) As we made our way home, I noted lots more robins, including some in our own yard. These birds are moving through, probably heading northward; their numbers indicate that something's in the air. But that something won't really be spring as we know it until we see these omnivorous thrushes change their eating habits from pillaging the last lingering fruits and berries to pulling worms from our thawed lawns.

Let's encourage rain
to expose our worm-filled lawns
for hungry robins.