| Friday, July 17, 2015
I hope that you enjoy this true story, as much as I did photographing and writing it! 
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One day a robin flew into my neighborhood. He was looking for a good place to settle down and raise a family.
He landed on top of my garage.
In front of him, across the yard, he saw a brick house covered with ivy. He talked with his wife, and they decided to stay. They built a nest in the ivy, right under my kitchen window.
Soon after they finished the nest, they spotted a problem. The problem was my collie dog Katie, who came out often to play in the backyard.
Each time she went out, the robins were greatly troubled. In their opinion, Katie was way too near their nest. (Actually, Katie didn’t even know where their nest was, but I couldn’t explain that to the robins.)
The female robin spent her time hiding in the ivy and sitting on the eggs. The male robin spent his time trying everything he could do to get Katie to go away. So he swooped at her again and again...
from the next door neighbors house…
From the top of the garage…
From the backyard fence…
...and many other places as well.
None of this made sense to Katie. All she knew was that some crazy bird had started dive bombing her every time she went outside. Furthermore, he never stopped until she went back into the house!
But no matter how hard he tried to chase her away, Katie would always appear again sooner or later. This baffled him. Why didn\'t the troublesome dog give up and leave? He was very puzzled. He wondered if he was having any effect on her at all.
Actually, he was having quite an effect on Katie. She didn\'t appreciate getting pestered by him all the time. She got into the habit of looking over her shoulder a lot to see if he was coming.
Not only that, she even started having bad dreams about robin attacks.
Eventually, however, the robins started to calm down a little. Every time Katie came out, she would explore the entire back yard. She never paid any attention to the hidden robin nest.
So the male robin didn’t chase her as much as he had before. He still kept a close eye on her though.
At last the eggs hatched. The robin parents were very busy feeding their hungry babies. One of their eggs didn’t hatch, but one of the two remaining babies grew so big and had such an enormous appetite, that the robins felt like they were feeding 3 babies!
Finally, one Saturday, I saw the two babies fly! They landed on the garage roof.
They never went back to their nest. Instead, the babies flew into a neighbor’s yard. They decided to stay there. So the Robins didn’t have to worry about Katie anymore.
As for Katie, it was her turn to be puzzled. Why wasn’t she being chased and pecked at anymore? The first times that she went out after the robins left the yard, she would look carefully up and around, expecting to get attacked. It didn’t happen.
As time went on, Katie realized that the robins had left. So as things got back to normal, she started looking around...
...for other opportunities to have fun. She liked squirrels better than robins, because this time she was the one who got to do the chasing!
When Katie goes out now, she gets attentive whenever she hears a robin. I have a feeling that she might miss them, at least a little. I know I do.
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