Robins

It has been bitterly cold.  Most mornings the temperatures have been in the single didgets.  I feel badly for all the wild birds, they spend most of their time sitting on one foot then the other. The flock of Rusty Blackbirds is still coming to feed on the cracked corn multiple times each day.  They now number up to 25 birds.  Today a nice size flock of Robins was feeding on the remaining crab-apples on the tree in the backyard.  Both trees in the front yard were cleaned off many weeks ago.  They are both a much smaller variety of crab-apple fruit.   I bought some cheap apples for the robins, and also put out some raisins.  A huge flock of Starlings came though leaving very little food for anyone else.  They even went on our front porch and ate the Cedar Berries off of my Solstice Wreath, guess I can take it down now.  They made a huge mess with droppings and all the greens.  I still love them.  One of my first rehabs when I was a child was a Starling.  I raised him from a tiny featherless bird.  He was highly intelligent and I became very attached to him.  I knew he should be wild and free and started to take him outside and let him fly, he would always come back to me.  One day a large flock of Starlings were at the next door neighbors, he flew off with them.  I stood on a box calling him to come back, and fell, breaking 3 fingers on my right hand.  I only saw him one other time several days later, and he was still with him new family.