Three Robins

While looking out the front window yesterday, there were three Robins that alighted on my lawn, the first ones of Spring. All began to pop around looking for worms. It was delightful to watch their enthusiasm as they turned to their work. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a Mocking Bird across the street in a small tree. He was watching the Robins. I knew he would be attacking them since they are so territorial. Sure enough, he picked the closest Robin and flew at it. It, of course, flew away but the Mocking Bird was close behind. It surprised me that the remaining Robins did not fly also. They took no notice of their buddy who was being chased, and it was being chased, back and forth, up and down, around the chimney across the street, swooping down low and then high. They were both in my field of vision all the time, yet the two Robins seemed oblivious to this flurry of activity. After a few minutes of this, the Mocking Bird alighted in his tree and the chased Robin joined the other two looking for worms. I expected them to jump close to one another and chirp about it, but nothing. They did not, as far as I could tell, look in the direction of the Mocking Bird. The Mocking Bird appeared to be out of breath and reassessing the situation. The last two years we did not have a Mocking Bird protecting this territory and I hope he moves on. Sometimes they dive at people to get them to move on and our walkers do not need this type of harassment.