Obliging Robin Is Obliging
Went round the lake today for the first time in a long time (I feel like I've been neglecting it). You may remember that, while taking photos at the lake last winter, I encountered a particularly obliging robin, who flew to a railing beside me and stayed there long enough for me to take four pics.
Well, it seems he's still here. Either that or another similarly obliging robin has moved into his patch, as it happened in exactly the same place. And he stayed there long enough for me to get more than four pics this time.
I took forty-nine.
I know one of the groundsmen fed robins in the past, eventually getting one of them so tame it would fly to his hand to take mealworms. I wonder if he's been at work again, because this robin let me get gradually closer, and sometimes flew to a closer branch himself. I even held out a hand to see if he would perch on that too. He was literally close enough to touch. Eventually I stopped taking pictures altogether and just watched him, mesmerised.
I first spotted him when he perched on this post a few feet from the path.
After I'd taken a few shots he moved to a nearby branch.
Finally he moved to this bush...
...whereafter he let me get steadily closer.
All the pics were taken at the full 10x optical zoom, but in the last few he was so close to the lens I had to switch to macro focus. All these pics are scaled down for the web, but otherwise they are shown exactly as taken. They're not cropped so the bird fills the picture; that's actually how close he was.
If he has indeed been tamed enough to accept food, my only regret is that I had none on me. Tomorrow I will make sure to have some dried mealworms with me and see if he's in the same spot over lunchbreak.
Wow.
Well, it seems he's still here. Either that or another similarly obliging robin has moved into his patch, as it happened in exactly the same place. And he stayed there long enough for me to get more than four pics this time.
I took forty-nine.
I know one of the groundsmen fed robins in the past, eventually getting one of them so tame it would fly to his hand to take mealworms. I wonder if he's been at work again, because this robin let me get gradually closer, and sometimes flew to a closer branch himself. I even held out a hand to see if he would perch on that too. He was literally close enough to touch. Eventually I stopped taking pictures altogether and just watched him, mesmerised.
I first spotted him when he perched on this post a few feet from the path.
After I'd taken a few shots he moved to a nearby branch.
Finally he moved to this bush...
...whereafter he let me get steadily closer.
All the pics were taken at the full 10x optical zoom, but in the last few he was so close to the lens I had to switch to macro focus. All these pics are scaled down for the web, but otherwise they are shown exactly as taken. They're not cropped so the bird fills the picture; that's actually how close he was.
If he has indeed been tamed enough to accept food, my only regret is that I had none on me. Tomorrow I will make sure to have some dried mealworms with me and see if he's in the same spot over lunchbreak.
Wow.