Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

There is a robin who has built its nest in one of our evergreens.  It’s a smart robin, since the nest is hidden on the back side and is visible only to those to who paw the tree looking for it.  I am not one of those people.

Still, the robin and I continually startle each other. I walk in front of the evergeen daily as I check my various flower beds, more eager to rid myself of weeds than robins. Invariably I forget the evergreen has a flighty tenant, and it hasn’t learned that I’m harmless.

So the regular scenario goes like this:  Human checks flowers each morning, reveling in the beautiful blooms this summer has offered.  Bird hears and then sees human and becomes upset.  Flies from evergreen with a loud squawk and lands on driveway as if to challenge a mean intruder.  Human wonders, “Who is the interloper here?”

It’s true I’m not much of a bird lover.  In fact, I belong to the school that believes feeding birds ultimately gets in nature’s way.  At the same time, I would never attack a nest. So I wish the robin would just go about its business and let me go about mine.