Belmont

I had to attend a "retreat" at Habitat today. Having to take the train to Belmont and walking to the sanctuary was the best part of the day.



( visit beautiful Belmont )

100% Juice

I bought this at Dunkin Donuts the other day.



( the fine print )

365 Urban Species. Species #030: American Robin

American robin in Olmsted Park, Boston. by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #030: American Robin Turdus migratorius

A great many of the species for which human land use has been a blessing rather than a curse, are not well loved. There are "pests" like mice and rats, and introduced plagues like house sparrows and starlings, but even charismatic native species are often disdained when they become too familiar. Squirrels and crows, raccoons and deer, woodchucks and bats, all are studied in the interest of controlling them--each is treated by worried suburbanites as a troubling problem. Rarely if ever is the American robin seen this way. In my time spent at the wildlife sanctuary, I often hear wildlife-related grievances, but never have I fielded a robin-related complaint: "Those damn red-breasted birds, you know the ones I mean, they're always on my lawn, taking away my valuable earthworms!"

What's to object to? Their song is sweet and pleasant, unlike the harsh screams of gulls and crows. They don't aggressively defend their territories, swooping at your head like mockingbirds, nor do they raid birdfeeders like jays, stuffing their crops full to cache away seeds. Robins are celebrated. Poem and song exalt them, though they are heirs to praise earned only through faint similarity, and an accident of misnaming. Any praise given to "robin" before North America was colonized belongs to the English robin, a smaller bird and distant cousin. The American robin was so named not for any close kinship but because the bird vaguely reminded the Europeans of their cherished bird, in breast and behavior.

Both birds are marked with reddish fronts, and both birds have learned that human activity turns up invertebrate prey. Robins of both sorts watch gardeners and farmers turning the soil, watching for exposed grubs and worms. American robins also like to hunt earthworms in the close-cropped lawns favored by American humans. They like to nest in the kind of small trees and tall shrubs that are found next to houses, and feed on the fruits of ornamental bushes and trees. A better name for them might be "lawn thrush" or even "house thrush." They are the most common and most widespread thrush in North America. Though robins are famous for appearing in the spring, they are present year-round in Boston. [edited to add:] Cities in milder climates may see the arrival of huge migrating flocks of robins as a sign of winter.

( lookin' at me? )