Attack of the Holly Berries…
As I walked out of the office, it was immediately apparent that something was different. Stopping to look and listen, I first noticed the frenzied sound of dozens hundreds thousands of birds chattering, flapping, flying in and out of … what… Ah, the holly tree on the other side of the parking lot. Standing there in amazement, I saw what had to be literally thousands of robins. Not blackbirds or grackles or those pesky starlings that we are accustomed to seeing, but robins. The
y were flying in and out of the holly tree in droves. They were swooping down for quick landing and retrieval of berries that had been shaken loose by their brethren and sistren in the tree above. And as quickly as they arrived and grabbed a beak full of berries, they were airborn again, heading up into the pine trees on my side of the lot. And eating the berries. And shitting all over my car. Thousands of them. I had wondered why so many other office residents chose to park across the lot. Now I know. Thousand and thousands… of robins. They shat on my nice clean car until I could barely see out the windshield. Thousands…
I’m thinking of a midnight run with a chainsaw. Saw that damn holly tree down and drag it around back by the dumpster. Thousands…
13 Comments so far
I’m laughing…forgive me. Just YOUR car, huh? Dirty birds….all thousands of them….
Years ago I got a new job and started parking my car in the shade under an oak tree. My dad drove by and saw it there and called me that night and told me the branch could come down in a wind storm. So, I stopped parking there and sure enough, the very next wind storm a huge branch fell on the car that was there, breaking all the windows and leaving a huge dent in the roof.
Another Scrooge…….excellent!
Christmas, holly bushes, Santa, Tickle me Elmo…..bah humbug!
I get it–you don’t like birds crapping on your car. I’m really perceptive ain’t I? However, reducing habitat and forage doesn’t strike me as proportionate to a dirty car. Call me Scrooge.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! SPLAT! It’s a bird
Just Daisy Smartass, putting her two cents in.
NO, don’t saw it down, dig it up and freight it to me, I want one….. I’ll put it in my back garden, away from cars and the bird noise won’t disturb anyone….
Aw come on W, can’t be thousands and thousands…. isn’t that a wee exaggeration now…..
You are right, ainelivia, I exaggerated and you caught me. It was really millions…
Thank God, it’s birds and not cows W…
Now are you sure they were robins? Only robins are very territorial and you don’t see two together. So maybe they were a figment of your Christmas-fevered imagination!
In Willow Grove PA on January 4th and 5th(today), I was upset at seeing a flock of 20-40 robins devouring the berries on my Holly bush, which had the best crop of berries since we moved into our house in 1968. I had been enjoying the Holly berries and had looked forward to seeing them all winter, assuming that winter does eventually arrive here. Our temperatures have been 10-20 degrees above average for much of the last two months, so I gusee the robins are confused and think that they should be here rather than somewhere south of here where they normally are at this time of year.
Ed Tyrrell,
I too am anxious for winter to get here so that it can soon be over and we can enjoy spring! Despite the inconvenience of the loss of berries it must have been a pretty sight to see so many robins.
ps. by the way, I tend to be a bit compulsive about spelling. . .you spelled the word “guess” incorrectly.
A huge group of robins are eating the berries off my holly right now, causing pandemonium among the cats who are glued to the window. I had never seen this behaviour, so I had to come research it online. I guess it’s not that uncommon (these are American robins, which are much less territorial that the European ones) but I’ve never seen more that a couple of robins at once before.
Does it seem appropriate, in light of your car, that the latin name for these is Turdus migratorius? Seriously, I did NOT make that up, it’s true!
This is so funny! I came home after an errand this morning to find my holly tree full of robins. NEVER have I seen so many robins in one place at one time. I told my husband it looked like the Hitchcock thriller, The Birds. The were swooping from every direction and trees across the street were full of them just waiting to come and get their berries. I left again and upon my arrival home this evening, there is not a single berry left on the tree, no robins in sight, but they sure did leave a lot of residuals behind-ACH! What a mess, just glad that I could help them out with some food. I had noticed a few around the house yesterday and had pondered letting the hose run in the yard for a while so some worms might come up~glad I didn’t add that to their digestive problems….
In the 5 years that we have lived in this house, I have never noticed anything like this before-have I always just not been here at the right time or is this just a fluke and something that doesn’t happen every year? Anyone know?