Robins

There are Robins in our yard - bunches of them. I don't think I had ever seen Robins in real life before, but our neighbor, who I just met yesterday has lived here for over 50 years and she says that for about a month the Robins come to eat the berries off of the ivy fences and then they are gone. They are bigger than I had imagined, about as tall as a pigeon, but not so fat or so... um ... dumb. At least this first impression of them is that they are not so dumb, but I've had a lot of time to watch pigeons and I am frankly pretty distracted by how shockingly beautiful the Robins are to pay much attention to their behavior. They're not flashy-beautiful, they are mostly brown, but the red-orange feathers on their breast are also under their wings, so when they open them up to fly or catch their balance on top of the ivy they completely light up and become golden and glowing for a moment. I stand at the window mesmerized.