The Strangest Thing I’ve Ever Seen In Nature
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Yesterday the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in nature occurred on my patio. I was sitting in a chair when I heard a loud whooshing sound.
Then out of the corner of my left eye I saw a dark shadow outside the French doors.
I heard a loud chirring sound in intervals before I knew what was happening.
When I looked up I was aghast. Dozens, possibly hundreds, of robins had descended down upon my patio. They were perched on the fence and in the iced up tree branches. .
Ivy made her way to the French doors. It felt kind of like a dream because I’d never seen anything remotely like it.
A Picture Worth A Thousand Words:
I grabbed my camera. There were a couple of other kinds of birds, but the mass was mostly robins.
They moved almost too quickly to photograph. Flitting from one surface to another as if agitated.
Then every minute or so they’d gather together and head back up into the sky. Only to come right back a few seconds later.
It was the most amazing thing I think I’ve ever seen in nature. It was awe-inspiring.
I stood there and took over a hundred photos, simply because I felt that I should record what was happening.
It was hard to look away because I didn’t know if I’d ever witness such an odd event again.
I found this info in All About Birds:
One reason why they seem to disappear every winter is that their behavior changes. In winter, robins form nomadic flocks, which can consist of hundreds to thousands of birds.
Usually, these flocks appear where there are plentiful fruits on trees and shrubs, such as crab apples, hawthorns, holly, juniper, and others.
Ivy was transfixed by the display of so many birds at one time. She was so surprised that she lay at the bottom of the tunnel in her cat tower and watched.
A vision from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie “The Birds” flashed in my head. I remember how scary the scene with the birds was when they flocked to Janet Leigh.
What Brought About The Attack Of The Birds In The Movie?
In 1998, Camille Paglia wrote a book about The Birds for the British Film Institute to commemorate the movie’s 35th anniversary.
Paglia quotes Hitchcock explaining the reason for the birds’ attacks. They wanted to exact revenge against humanity for taking nature for granted.
What happened on my patio was amazing to watch. I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Hundreds of birds all coming down together and then rising back up and out of sight.
This went on for close to an hour maybe. Then they were gone. Whoosh, and they all took flight. And everything was still again.
The Berries Were All Gone:
I noticed that they’d picked the tree free of all the hundreds of berries that clung to the branches in icy clusters.
There did not appear to be even one berry left after the birds took flight.
What an amazing thing to witness.
What an amazing experience! Years ago my I was in my parents backyard when I saw wave after wave of some sort of raptor birds flying above me. There had to be thousands. It was definitely a migration. I had never seen anything like this. I grabbed binoculars to get a better look. I still couldn’t tell what kind of birds they were, but I could see that they had the kind of beaks that hawks and falcons have. I laid on top of the trampoline and watched them for hours. It was such an awesome experience. To this day I still have a recurring dream where I witness a migration of all sorts of birds like flamingoes, owls, geese, etc.
It’s called a murmer or murmeration. Most common with starlings but other birds do it. Here’s a link to info about it:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=bird+murmuration&form=WNSGPH&qs=SC&cvid=53af766d9203481d89897ee7c42f5ea7&pq=bird+murmer&cc=US&setlang=en-US&PC=DCTS&nclid=4FE3DE0F47F7EBAC38D632BA76076975&ts=1613061611941&wsso=Moderate
Very beautiful to see all the pretty birds o
n your patio. Lucky you.
Two separate times we have had the giant gathering of robins in our yard and the houses right around ours. They flew swirling down onto the branches of big old oak trees. There were several huge flocks swirling up and around and back down into the trees. They were all in everyone’s birdbaths, bird feeders, trees and bushes with any berries and in all of the yards on the ground pecking around. My persimmon trees were filled with them and so was the ground beneath. They were pecking at persimmons.
They were all making their little robin call. Our visits both happened after mid November. As it got dark, they all perched in all of the big old trees in every tree I could see from my house in all of the yards. As it got dark they were all doing that swirling down of the flocks into the trees. By daylight they were gone. I missed their flying away. Only one lone robin stayed here around our yard. He survived fine during the winter. I don’t know what he ate all winter. It felt miraculous to see and hear that many robins all at the same time. I am so glad that you and little Charlie and big Ivy got to see them.
I hope those robins are the ones that live around here on their way back home to my neighborhood in Misssouri. I usually see and hear the first ones after mid February. I hope they don’t get here before our predicted zero degree weather gets gone. The earthworms couldn’t get to the top of the ground here if they had steel drills to tunnnel up with.
Wow! Those are really cool pics of the robins!
I wait every year to see some robins bc then Spring will be coming soon!
Brenda… it seems you have a gift of being mindful and “living in the moment” which I’ve been trying to do more of in the past few years. Paying attention to things, especially nature, helps me “get out of my own head” and is calming for me. We used to live on some acreage and we saw a lot of wildlife. I miss it. The 2 things I enjoyed most were the bluebirds and hummingbirds. Living in town we still see hummers which is always a pleasure. Thanks for saring your observations with us. (by the way to clippers came yesterday and they’re great!)