Robin Redbreast Parents Busy in the Rain.

May 2, 2013.

It's been raining for several hours now, sometimes on, sometimes off; the sky is overcast with not one bit of blue showing, and more rain is coming along with a thunderstorm or two later this afternoon.

I was going to go to the mailbox to see if anyone besides advertisers sent me some mail. As I opened the front door, I saw a robin hopping about in the rain, looking a bit drenched. I stood very still so it wouldn't fly away ~ I wanted to see more of what he was doing.

He was near a medium-sized crepe myrtle bush, partly to escape all the rain, and partly to search in the puddles beneath it for food for his family. He'd hop a bit, stop, listen, hop a bit more, stop again, and by this time he was at the small trunk of the bush, and he stopped, looked, cocked his head to one side, then jabbed his beak into the ground.

Sure enough, he did hear something moving in that spot! It was an earthworm, and he would get it in his beak safely enough, and would keep dropping it on the ground, immediately picking it up again. It seemed that he was mashing it with his beak. I wonder if they cut it up so they can feed their babies smaller pieces? He finally got it the way he wanted it, grabbed all of it in his beak, hopped onto the small concrete bench nearby, stopped to look around, and away he flew across the street to a tall tree, all within twenty-five seconds.

He was probably humming "Dinnertime!" as he arrived at the nest. Suddenly another robin from that
direction came whizzing into the same area that he had come from. Now I am not sure if it is 'she' who came whizzing over and 'he' who caught the earthworm, or vice versa?

I figured out that it was a pair of parents. I turned around and got my camera to see if I could get a few good shots of this exciting robin activity. One of them came back again, and would hop around in the puddles that came from all of the rain that we'd already had in the last few hours. He/she hopped around, trying to obtain another good catch.

I took several pictures of those two beautiful drenched robins jumping here and there, sometimes stopping to give their feathers a shake ~ which was so whimsical to see ~ sometimes catching a worm and shaking the divvil out of it. I did see that these co-workers would find something, and would keep looking to find another item. There was one robin that flew away with three catches in its beak. The babies must have been so happy when Mom and Pop came home from a hunting trip!

What a wonderful part of my day!

I'll see you at the Corner Post ...