A robin's bath

Can a bird be mindful?

My post on why access to nature is important for wellbeing isn’t ready yet, so I thought I’d tell you a little story about a robin I know.

Our garden’s been showing me for some time that besides the health benefits nature gives us, it can inspire and even entertain. It’s not a typical garden, having been designed by an amateur (me) and planted too densely because I didn’t realize things would grow so big and so fast. We began with good soil and a strong southern exposure but things still grew more quickly than we expected. The resulting thickets of shrubs and flowering trees have attracted more birds than I’ve ever seen in one place before. That may be why every spring and summer there are many “volunteer” plants coming up that we never planted. Some helpful and discerning birds often bring in quite pretty flowers, for example, from somewhere else. So the garden constantly surprises us, which we love, and we’re also learning a lot about birds.

(Speaking of surprises, did you know that trees talk to each other? Check out the book The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.)

Our bird guests are also attracted to our two bird baths. One bird bath is a fountain too (so the birds can take a shower). The other is small, and can hold a crowd of about 6 sparrows but they have to be wing-to-wing to fit. We’ve put some flattish rocks in both baths because birds can drown if the water’s even a little too deep.

The robin of my title is pretty hefty-looking as robins go so I call him Big Robin, though after some research I learned he might be a female carrying eggs. Females have slightly lighter heads but I haven’t gotten close enough to clearly see Big Robin’s head color (yet). Anyway he does takes up most of the small bath so he’s quite a lovely and impressive sight.

Recently on a hot day many birds were bathing and drinking in the bigger bird bath. Big Robin loves the showers there but it wasn’t running well that day so he settled for the little bath, where he usually flaps violently in the water like a delighted toddler in a tub. But this day he sat quietly for some time. I guessed at first that he was just cooling his legs and chest. There wasn’t one sip or flap. Instead, every 30 seconds or so he ducked his head swiftly into the water and shook it. He then lifted his head, otherwise remaining very still, and still sitting in the water. This happened over and over for more than five minutes. After that he simply sat there, not moving.

I’d never seen any of our birds do that before and so far haven’t been able to learn why they would, but it seemed to me Big Robin was thinking hard about something. If you’re thinking hard and it’s hot, and you haven’t figured things out, I guess it helps to rinse your head. On the other hand, maybe Big Robin was meditating. When he sat up, staying in the bath, so still, he seemed to look outward at something, never turning his head.

I found it pretty mesmerizing to watch him, and began to feel somewhat meditative myself. It wasn’t as if he was making sure he was safe, but rather that he was simply enjoying the water, the calm, and, again, thinking. It had gotten a little cooler, and as the sun moved slowly downward he looked beautiful in the dappled shade as the rays peaked through the branches of the dogwood tree next to the bird bath.

I wondered if he knew that a half-dozen or so starlings who had flown into the garden that day were about to descend on a tall shrub near him. It had just become covered with berries that both the starlings and our mockingbirds adore. In fact it was the starlings who finally interrupted Big Robin’s bath when they came, after eating berries, for a drink and a bath themselves. He surprised me by not flying off or chasing them away which some of our bigger birds do with smaller birds. He just moved over and let them use what lately has become his personal space.

This is one very considerate robin, I thought. I wanted to do something for him. I looked up what robins like to eat and among a few things listed were fruit and peanut butter. Next time he’s here I’ll put some peanut butter on pieces of apple for him.

I looked for some insight into Big Robin’s behavior in the bath, but while I learned some things, his stillness that day wasn’t described. The site “Journey North” does say that showers and baths help robins to clean their feathers. They fluff the feathers to help get the water right down to the skin. Then they shake to get the water off. And that’s usually what all our robins do. But, it said, “A robin typically takes many short baths rather than one long soak. If the feathers got too wet, the robin would have trouble flying.”

So now I know that the next time Big Robin is soaking and not shaking, I should try to make sure he doesn’t stay too long. Maybe he was feeling itchy and badly wanted the soak. But what about that long, far-off look? Well anyway, he needs to be able to fly for sure since there are sometimes neighbors’ cats in the garden, attracted by the birds, and there are hawks, falcons, and small eagles around.

I also learned that robins may recognize people they see often, so if you put water or food out for them regularly they may begin to expect you, and some even might eat something they really love right out of your hand.

Other wonderful birds in our New England garden include mockingbirds, blue jays, doves, cardinals, nuthatches, Carolina wrens, goldfinches (they come in August for the coneflowers), chickadees. woodpeckers, starlings lately, and a few I haven’t yet identified.

Below is the small birdbath. You can see the stones, and half a mosquito “dunk” that discourages mosquitoes from breeding in the water. I couldn’t get close enough to Big Robin to photograph him without his flying away. But you can imagine him sitting in the middle like a little pumpkin with feathers!

Notes:

https://journeynorth.org/tm/robin/taking_a_bath2.html#:~:text=Robins%20bathe%20whenever%20water%20is,to%20get%20the%20water%20off.