Birds Behaving Oddly.

Over the past few weeks I’ve developed the habit of going for an evening stroll timed to bring me back just as the twilight is beginning to deepen. Once I get back I top up the various bird feeders so that there’s breakfast waiting for them when they get up, which is a damn sight earlier than I do.

During the process of conducting this duty (I tend to regard my routines as matters of duty, especially when there are other little lives involved) I’ve noticed over the past few nights that there’s been a robin standing in the same spot on the lawn in front of my house. It watches me until I’ve gone to the back of the house, and then hops over to get a drink from one of the water bowls. It’s becoming a nightly routine which fits perfectly with mine. You wouldn’t think that birds would be creatures of routine, would you?

And then there are the pheasants. Remember me mentioning a few nights ago that I’d witnessed the unprecedented sight of five cock birds flying together over the garden? Today they were actually in the garden, foraging in a tightly knit group under one of the bird tables. I’ve occasionally seen as many as three in the garden, but they’ve always been widely separated. To see five all together – shoulder to shoulder, as it were – is something else I’ve never seen before in the sixteen years I’ve lived here. (And one of them was an unusually large bird with a white crown. Is that significant? I’ve no idea.)

I gather there are those who say that birds bring us messages. Whether that’s true I wouldn’t know, but I’ve had several avian firsts this year and I’m beginning to wonder whether they know something we don’t.