Saturday, May 30, 2020

The robin and the solar system

Between sunup and sundown on a May day, a robin built a nest on my solar system. When I say solar system, I mean to the control box that monitors the roof's solar panels. The greater system, the one that is powered by the sun, is also the source of power for my house's system. The electrician and crew spent a week installing the metal boxes and the panels. The robin watched from her perch on an elm branch. She pounced when the networks of steel and aluminum and copper were in their proper spots. Hers is a fine nest, a work of art. Robin sits in the nest and stares when I arrive on the patio to water plants or grill a burger. If I linger too long, she flees and and watches me from an elm branch. She is wary of the bipeds who built her foundation. We're known for our mischief. Any living thing can tell you.

2 comments:

Lynn said...

Great title to this blog--drew me right in! :-) Those robins are very single-minded when it comes to nesting. When we lived on Apache Street in Cheyenne (before we moved into this "close-in rural" neighborhood, we had the best view of robin nests from our second story bedroom window.

My favorite moment was when it started to hail (imagine that, in Cheyenne?!) and I knew that a robin was on the nest, with fledglings. So I ran upstairs to check on them. The robin had her/his head down and its wings splayed out, creating the perfect umbrella over the fledglings. The parent robin was getting hammered by hailstones, but the babies stayed safe. Awwwww...

Michael Shay said...

Great story, Lynn. This robin decided on her nesting site and who was I to argue? She flies away when I go to the the patio and ten minutes later she's back on the picnic table, staring at me. She wants me to go away, I can see it in her eyes. Now I know why so many got into bird-watching during the shutdown.