Each Day Already is a Challenge

Opera plays with everything....and 200 robins!!!

At our house now, with that 5 month old kitten looking for things to play with all day long, you can't drop anything on the floor. If you do, Opera comes a-running and takes off with it as if she's playing hockey. Boy is she quick. It doesn't matter if I drop a small piece of food while cooking in the kitchen or if she knocks mail off the kitchen table. Anything on the floor becomes her toy. She swats things under the stove and refrigerator. Yesterday, she even swatted something under the door to the cellar. I found that out when I started down the steps and found a piece of junk mail on the steps. Luckily I didn't just step down without looking.

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This morning, I noticed that there were lots of birds singing. I thought it rather odd, considering the time of year. You just don't usually hear bunches of birds singing in the winter time.

Later this afternoon, I realized that the weather must have the birds totally confused. First, I noticed a robin on the tree in our front yard.

When you live in the northern US, you usually can't wait to spot that first spring robin, knowing it means that warm weather is coming. I saw that robin and, again, thought it rather odd.

Just 30 minutes later, I was sitting on our front porch and was truly amazed. Frankly, in my 54 years, I don't think I've ever seen more than two robins at one time. I saw about 200 this afternoon. There were four to six in every tree lining the neighborhood. Plus there were about another 50 sitting in one yard just down the street from me.

I wondered... Are these birds finally flying south because they know we're supposed to finally have some winter weather? Or are they returning because our winter has been so mild?

I never really thought about it before, but the strange, warm winter must have the migration patterns all goofed up. From what I've been told, even Canada has had a mild winter.

Hmmm.