I Sit and Watch a Robin
There is a particular thrill that comes with seeing, in person, a bird for the first time. That’s not what today’s post is about.
Today is an appreciation of a common backyard bird. The bird that you’ll never see on the cover of a field guide. The bird most everyone knows. The American Robin.
Big, chunky, loud, and often in gangs, the Robin is ubiquitous enough to often be ignored, even among other backyard birds. It doesn't have the brilliant red of the Cardinal, the iridescent shimmer of the Blue Jay, or the hoppy cuteness of the chickadee. It’s just sort of there, blending in with it’s browns and grays and orange-browns. It doesn’t soar. It doesn’t perch all that often. In fact, most of the time, it’s down on the ground grubbin for some worms.
I’d walked up and down Kennesaw Mountain. I was tired. I’d seen a handful of birds, but not the spring migration fullness I expected. I was frustrated.
I was walking along a side trail on the way back to my car, ready to call it quits. A quick movement to my left stopped me in my tracks. A bird!
Oh, it’s just a robin.
But I was tired and frustrated and just wanted to take a picture of a bird, any bird, at that point. Plus, the light was nice, and the robin was unbothered by my presence. So I settled in and watched a robin.
It didn’t do anything extraordinary. It perched. It preened. It snapped its head up at a sound and then returned to perching and preening. It didn’t provide me with any sort of epiphany. It didn’t solve any of my worries.
But the pause gave me a chance to recenter. It gave me a chance to remember why I started bird watching, to begin with. It wasn’t to check off boxes. It wasn’t to see more birds than other folks.
It was to watch birds. It was to peek, just for a moment, into the life of another creature so unlike myself. It was to be in awe of the ordinary, to enjoy what I happen upon without the expectation of anything else.
After five or so minutes, the robin flew off. I began my walk back to my car, lighter and more satisfied with my day than before.
Oh, as I was steps from the parking lot and fishing for my car keys, I saw a hooded warbler in a bush. That pretty much sums up birding.
