Thursday, 31 August 2023

The Gardener’s Friend

 

The Gardener’s Friend

When working in the garden, one may have the sensation of being observed. A rustling in the leaves and a glimpse of bright red indicates that the watcher is the friendly robin. He will hop and fly after the gardener, perching on nearby branches, closely watching for tasty morsels.

Robin Redbreast (Erithacus rubecula, European robin) may be a friend to the gardener but he is extremely territorial and very aggressive to other birds. Males and females, alike in appearance, defend their territories rigorously, singing loudly from perches. Although they look indistinguishable, each robin’s red breast pattern is unique.

In the breeding season, which starts around March, male and female work as a pair to hold their ground and are among the first birds to sing in the dawn chorus and the last to finish singing at night. Some sing all night and are often mistaken for nightingales. This used to be attributed to street lighting but is now thought to be because their song is more easily heard in the still of night. Apart from when they’re moulting in mid-summer, robins sing all year round, unlike most other birds in UK, which sing only during the breeding season.

These little birds, with their bright black eyes and red breasts, are always a welcome sight in the garden and can become very trusting of people, even feeding from their hands. They have learnt to associate gardeners with an easy source of food, following them as the ground is turned over to reveal wriggling invertebrates. Young robins don’t develop a red breast until after their first moult, but can be recognised by their spindly legs and speckled brown feathers.

There are several legends concerning how the robin acquired its red breast. One says that a small brown bird was present when the fire keeping the baby Jesus warm died down. The bird flapped its wings to fan the flames and a burst of flame scorched its breast. Another story claims that the bird drew a thorn from Christ’s crown of thorns and was splashed with blood. A third folk tale says that the little bird took water to the tormented souls in Purgatory and was singed by the flames.

Until 1861, during the reign of Queen Victoria, postmen wore red waistcoats as part of their uniform. They were nicknamed ‘robins’. As they delivered Christmas cards and letters the association with the birds became stronger and they started being pictured on Christmas cards, perhaps representing the postmen. Thus, the centuries old belief that robins were harbingers of good luck and happiness and messengers of joy and peace was reinforced.

There is an old belief that robins bring messages or even visits from departed loved ones – ‘When robins appear, loved ones are near.’ Such beliefs bring comfort and peace. As robins are widespread across the British Isles, the chances of seeing one are very good.



32 comments:

  1. We love the robins in our garden, we have two big bird feeders, and we have different robins feed on each, One pair lives in the overgrown garden next door, we often see them on our fence, watching, they swoop in coming close to us, we love them.

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  2. Yes! I've seen many male Robins fighting and going
    at it, around the garden, with the female sat on a branch,
    thinking...'are they gonna be much longer'...! HeHe..! :).

    And l always remember mio Papa saying at Christmas
    time, when asked what's for Christmas dinner, he'd
    always say...'a brace of robins'...naturally l've carried
    on the tradition/saying...! :).
    πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ…πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„

    Message for Gilbert....
    Gilbert....Gardener's World is on BBC2 to~night,
    at 9,00pm. Cancelled tomorrow because of the silly
    cricket, it's been brought forward to to~night. :O).

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    1. Gilbert will be pleased to hear that. Thank you:-)

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  3. Hi Janice - they are delightful little birds and so full of cultural ties to little old England ... very Christmassy. I always loved seeing them when I was gardening but they are very territorial, as you mention. Cheers Hilary

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    1. They certainly bring a smile to the face.

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  4. In the breeding season the male and female robins work as a pair. I find that delightful.

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    1. The rest of the time, they're at daggers drawn!

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  5. As usual, you've edjicated me a little more. We have robins here but they are a different species.

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    1. You've sent me on a little tour of Australian robins!

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  6. We don't have those cute little birds here, we have territorial magpies and crows who do their bit to turn the mulch and loosen the soil when digging for worms.

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    1. Magpies and crows really do turn the soil, don't they?

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  7. We have two robins which visit our garden, easy to tell apart as one is quite rotund and the other rather scrawny. They're such friendly birds.

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  8. Mr B spends ages every year trying to get a robin to take food from him. We have put up next boxes for them but the silly wee things, last spring, decided to build a beautiful but ill advised nest in a pile of hedge clippings (near ground level) in the week between cutting the hedge and turning the slash into shredded mulch. Maybe better luck with the nest boxes this year....

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    1. They can nest in some unusual places. Maybe this year they will accept the accommodation you have so kindly provided - actually, I suppose that will be next year, now :-(

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  9. I really love Robins and I suppose I'm hopelessly sentimental about them, don't exactly believe the myth about loved ones and robins but it always warms my heart and makes me think of departed loved ones when they appear.......
    Nice blog post TQ
    Alison in Wales x

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    1. Thank you , Alison. I'm rather sentimental, too . . . sigh . . .

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  10. Your Robin Red Breast more resembles our Eastern Blue Bird than our Robin. Our Robins mostly dine on earth worms and some fruits. But the Blue birds are definitely our multi bug catchers. I was lucky last year that our birdhouse produced 15 babies in 3 nests. This year the same couple have had 12 in 3 nests. Our Robins are tree branch nest builders and mostly leave here in the winter.

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    1. How lovely to have so many baby Blue birds.

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    2. I've just looked up your Eastern bluebird - what a beautiful bird it is.

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  11. When we had the allotment, there was always a very 'friendly' robin hopping about looking hopeful! Real people pleasers, aren't they? xx

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  13. How sweet. I didn't know any of that. We have a lot of robins, though I think ours have brown heads, but I'm not sure. I'll have to birdwatch better!

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    1. American robins belong to the Thrush family while ours are flycatchers (I only know because I looked it up)

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  14. Oh, I love robins! We do have one who regularly visits our garden, particularly over Winter, and we used to have one who "helped" out when I was working in the garden! xxx

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  15. Your robins are so much tinier (and cuter) than ours, which are brawny and pushy! (I've just consulted Wikipedia, and the reason they're different seems to be that ours is a member of the thrush family while yours is of the flycatcher family. I love when a post makes me learn something that I'd never have thought to look up previously!)

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  16. It's funny how things can have the same name and yet be totally unrelated. Australian robins are different again!

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    1. So I had to check out the Australian robins after reading your reply, and - yes, so much brighter and more colourful! We have nothing like that here at all. With a few exceptions, our birds are mostly brown and black.

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    2. That's how we learn - following up other people's comments. I like that. I like learning new things:-)

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