Garden Friends

The 1st of February and already there is a bit of a dawn chorus. The robins have paired up, Spring must be just around the corner! At this time of year I always spend a fair bit of time digging up brambles from under trees and shrubs where the sheep are not allowed to go. They would eat the shrubs and some of the trees if they got the chance. It is a double edged sword; I do not want the brambles and the sheep are longing to nibble some thing green, so I dig the brambles and feed them to the sheep who eat all the leaves and leave me with the bare stalks which burn more easily.
It is not just the sheep who benefit, the robins around the place love the disturbed ground where they can search for grubs and insects. After a few minutes of clearing a pair usually turn up. Robins are extremely territorial birds and at the end of the year they are only ever seen singularly, although they may make a truce around a bird table so that every one gets a share of any easy pickings. At the beginning of January they soon pair up. According to a radio programme that we heard just after Christmas the males stay in the breeding territory and defend it whilst the females move out once the chicks have been raised. If she survives the winter, the female may well return to the territory where she bred successfully, but if she did not do too well she will look elsewhere. Robins pair up long before most birds and it will be a while before the hen starts nest building and laying eggs. Then the cock bird will begin to feed his Mrs, but for now they just keep each other, and me, company in the shrubbery.
There are several pairs of robins in the garden but I am always surprised that there are not more. Each pair will have two broods of 5 or 6 eggs so at the end of the breeding season we should be awash with young robins. Unfortunately a lot of youngsters perish almost as soon as they leave the nest. At first they cannot fly too well and tend to hide under bushes and shrubs waiting for their parents to feed them. They do not have red breasts at this stage, just soft speckled brown feathers to blend in with the background. They are easy prey for cats and anything else that likes a small mouthful! Their parents work so hard to brood and feed them, but at the end of the day only one chick out of the 5 is likely to survive. It is a hard life isn't it ! Wendy Bathurst