as i was walking through the house, i heard the sounds of birds, like you hear in the spring when you wake up. i looked outside and thought we were being taken over by grackles like the parking lots of the shopping centers. i hate those grackle get-togethers. they happen during their mating season and they congregate in all the live oaks that are planted around commercial centers. the parking lots are polka dotted with their poop! not only that, you can’t park your car there without it being bombarded with poop.

so, i wasn’t happy when i first looked outside. then, i looked a little closer and we were overwhelmed with robins instead. they were so cute with their fat red bellies!  according to my field guide, the robin song is ‘cheerily cheer-up cheerio’. how can you not be happy with sound like that in your front yard. it beats the awful screeching call of a grackle. my same field guide describes it as a sound like ripping cloth or cracking twigs, but it is much more annoying.

it was impossible to take a good picture with my little point and shoot, but i took some anyway.

they left about an hour later. again, unlike those hateful grackles that stay for months (probably only one month, but it feels like forever). did i mention how much i hate grackles!?