Rockin' robin

Even though Mother Nature keeps toying with us here in New England, both the calendar and the recent influx of Robins indicate that spring has finally arrived. While Robins are occasionally spotted during the winter months, it's when we start seeing handfuls of them dotting yards and fields that we know the warmer weather is indeed on its way.

When I visited Mom and Dad Monday night for dinner, there were at least a dozen or so Robins either searching the ground for food or flying in and out of the trees bordering the property. Or, in the case of this bird, taking advantage of the cover offered by the blue spruce to do a little preening:





However, the lawn was where the real action took place. Mom and I were actually checking out a Red-winged Blackbird (which tend to be a fairly rare sight near their place) when she noticed a female Robin working on pulling a worm out of the ground:



As it turns out, it was a really long worm, which meant a great chance for me to get some fun shots:



She kept pulling, and the worm kept coming:





Success at last:





After she finally got the worm free, the Robin spent the next little while hopping from place to place with it. Each time she stopped, she'd peck at the worm a bit before picking it up and finding a new spot to begin the process all over again:







I kept this one a wide shot because I liked the glimpse of the two Robins streaking past:



Finally, it was dinnertime:



Kind of looks like a post-meal belch, doesn't it?:



Not only did I really like how this shot came out, but you can also see how distended the Robin's crop is after her super-sized meal:



Finally, while the Robin in the lower left corner of this image was my intended focus, the two Robins having a slight disagreement on the right definitely ended up stealing the show: