robin and i

I love James Herriot and Gerald Durrell. They make the natural world come alive and sparkle with humor.

While I am nothing like them (in the first place, I’m a girl. And I’m not British), I love observing, and if possible assisting, creatures around me.

The Magpie Robin has figured prominently in my life- my sister and I tried to rear a chick once; we watched a pair come to eat big black ants under our evergreen tree; we saw their wee speckled eggs in a hole in a guava tree brought down by a storm; I’ve listened to robins imitating the song of the Tickell’s blue flycatcher.

And now I have watched a magpie robin dart at a gecko and fly off with its tail. That was the most vicious thing I’ve ever seen that little bird do!

And they say Robin’s just Batman’s gay partner! Pfft!