We’ve all heard the expression “the early bird catches the worm” and those are wise words to live by.
Most of the time anyway.
This morning I awoke at 3:00 a.m. to the pitter patter of rain on the patio roof. It began slowly, evolving into a pounding rain for about ten minutes and slackened off. Then the thunder began, a few rumbles here and there, then everything was silent. Good – no walk missed this morning because there have been enough of those rainy mornings this Spring. By the time I headed out, the ground was soggy, the pavement still damp but a faint sun was making a valiant effort to poke through the clouds.
This incessant rain has been a boon for the birds, the robins in particular. Mother Nature’s showers have topped off birdbaths or provided puddles on the street, and, if you’ve ever watched a bird splish-splashing around in a birdbath, you know what I mean … it is nirvana to our fine feathered friends.
Near-daily rain and storms have really put a damper on this Spring. I know it has certainly messed up my plans several times already. But the robins are loving the wet weather and there is much peckin’ and grinnin’ goin’ on. Robins love worms and it is a common sight after a big rain to watch a robin tugging on a long juicy worm, clasping it in its beak and holding on while the worm similarly holds on tight in the damp earth. Unfortunately for the worm, the robin usually wins this tug of war, and soon you see that red-breasted bird slurping down the worm, just like when you were a kid and sucked in those spaghetti noodles until your mother’s disapproving look made you stop.
This morning’s early rain brought out the earthworms, and I saw several of them slithering across the sidewalk enroute to the Park. I thought “better get to the other side as you are a sitting duck for the robins” as I watched them make their slow journey across the still-damp pavement.
Once I arrived at the Park, I noticed many robins dotted the saturated grass looking for breakfast. I recently learned that robins have an extraordinary sense of hearing and can hear worms, so this is why you often see a robin hopping on the ground and cocking its head. It is listening to hear if any worms are in the soil beneath the ground.
And, what about once that juicy worm is found? I stopped to watch, certainly not because I am a macabre person, but a robin brought a worm onto the path where I was walking, and it was near the tree where the baby robins just fledged. I thought I’d see if she fed the babies – yes, I’m always looking for a photo op.
I believe it was “our” Mama Robin and she was fixing breakfast for her brood.
Why you might have loved the wiggle and jiggle of Jell-O when you were a kid, I guess wiggling worms are not a good idea for robin chicks.
Follow along below as I’ve described what Mama Robin did. First, she had to kill that wiggly worm, which she did by spearing it with her bright-yellow beak, then she clamped down on the near-lifeless worm and proceeded to slice and dice it. Ouch! Soon it was in two pieces, but it still had a little wiggle goin’ on, then finally it was good to go.
Boy, I’d love me a worm, but this one is for the kids’ breakfast.
I’ll just slice and dice this baby up!
Whatcha looking at – you’re not getting any of this worm, so go away!
Oops! It’s not ready yet because it’s still movin’!
I’ll just chomp on it a little more … it looks like the other half is good to go.
OK, this worm is a goner, catch you later … I’m off to feed one of the kids.
Your mom had it easy, she just made you oatmeal, or opened up a box of Froot Loops and breakfast was served.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
How neat that you photographed all of that. Love your captions.
My husband and I have a love/hate relationship with the early bird. For the last three years we have had a robin who nests in the maple tree outside our bedroom window. She starts singing every morning between 3:30 and 4:30. If we keep the window closed there is a chance that she might not wake us up. If we have the window open and put the fan in the window there is also a chance that she might not wake us up but if we have the window open with no fan in it there is no chance we will miss this alarm. LOL.
The other day my husband said “if the early bird gets up that early, how early does the worm get up?” I said, “they are called night crawlers, honey.” We laughed.
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That’s funny Ruth – I have songbirds that perch on the back window ledges, especially when it is raining or snowing, and I believe they sleep there also, because they are up at the crack of dawn, or early like your robin. And, it is never light out. Who sings in the middle of the night?
I took these photos thinking the next photo would be Mama robin carrying the worm to her young. She flew off but not to “their tree” so I didn’t want to bring that up in the post. I looked at the photos and decided I’d do a silly post on how mother robins get their worms ready to feed their young. I thought I’d do the funny captions too for something different – glad you liked them.
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Haha that was such an uplifting blog! Thank you!
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Thanks Diane – I was amused watching the antics of that robin as she prepared her babies’ breakfast. She had plenty of opportunities to eat the worm, so I knew it was not for her, but her chicks. 🙂
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We haven’t got any rain for long time, but yesterday it was “cold” only 68°F😁 Beautiful picture of the beautiful robin!😊
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Wow – your hot weather took a nosedive! That was like us here over the Memorial Day holiday weekend – in the 90s and like that for a week, then suddenly last Saturday a high of 65. This Spring has been incredible for its highs and lows and this ever-present rain.
We have 49 degrees right now, but the northern suburbs have 40 and there is talk of people putting their furnaces back on. Glad you liked the robin and I decided that I could not pass up using this series of photographs … I knew right away the worm was not for her as she’d have eaten it at the very beginning. So I stayed to watch. Unfortunately she flew off and was in the tree but I saw no babies – they have graduated to the higher branches of the tree. 🙂
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the thing I’m amazed at is their listening abilities! They hop around,stop & listen! How loud is a crawling worm……….underground?
So when we humans start out leaf blowers,lawn mowers etc I’m surprised they can still hear them!
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Robins are such good parents! 🙂 I was just thinking, this morning, about robins in our area. It is so dry here, so the worms must be way down low. Maybe they are eating insects and other things.
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They must be eating insects, not that I’ve seen any yet – I saw one Cabbage White butterfly and that was it. Not a fly even. We don’t have any berries on bushes yet so they are not eating those either. I don’t think people feed robins at their feeders – do people put out mealworms Tom?
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People put out mealworms and bee moth larva for bluebirds; they do not feed robins at all as far as i know. Robins are common and independent and people just don’t make the effort to help them out. My mother, when she was young, took care of (and fed) a robin that was rejected by its mother. 🙂
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People assume they’ll fend for themselves – that’s too bad. I was reading the news Tom and saw this story about a caterpillar … you, being a macro photography enthusiast, will enjoy this photo and the story below. Here in Michigan we are plagued by fish flies the end of June. When I worked at the diner while in college, every Summer I’d go into work for my 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 shift and the white building would be covered in them. We’d have to try to open the door and not let them into the diner.
https://wwjnewsradio.radio.com/articles/wandering-caterpillars-make-slippery-road-maine
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Dear Miss Linda…………………………………..I’m glad its night time and not breakfast-time………………seeing how mama robin attacked that poor worm…………………..I lost my appetite………………..cool pictures…………………just put it in motion and you can start your own business……………………..”action pictures”…………….at the park
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I know Ann Marie – I hesitated putting it in here because it was a little gory, but I started taking the pictures of “how to prepare a worm for breakfast” as I thought it was the Mama bird getting ready to deliver to her babies, but she flew up into a tree and I never saw the babies. I guess they are bigger now and can hop up higher and explore other trees.
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Linda,
It is a gory story if you look at it that way but you reported it just as you saw it, non-judgmental, just a fact of life. It is like when year-after-year, I look after litters of kittens for at least six months and then one fine day, poof, they are gone- dead, poisoned or stolen( rarely)- other than my heartbreak nothing remains.
A month later, the same mama kittens deliver again and the cycle repeats.
I used to cry for every kitten lost but these days I console myself- life goes on- new beginnings are just round the corner. We have to do what we are given to do. If the result is death, then so be it.
Susie
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Susie, I think I mentioned my friend Carol who lives in New York and she has shelters on her back deck in Winter, with heated pads and straw in there plus heated dishes for the water and food to keep it from freezing. This is for the feral mom and kittens, and, she has three inside cats of her own. But she cries like a baby, every time one of the ferals dies. Several of them have had the feline disease and she paid to have them euthanized. You are a good soul Susie and it must be terrible to go outside and find one or more of them has died.
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