30th November 2009
Robins
With the festive season well under way thoughts turn to wild plants such as holly and mistletoe. The latter is an intriguing one as according to the books it does not grow in Scotland although there may be a few records around the Borders. If that is the case then why did it become the Plant Badge of Clan Hay? The festive season and birds bring to mind the wintering flocks of geese that may well have bred in Iceland and Greenland. Then there are the thrushes, Scandinavian immigrants such as fieldfare and redwings. In the gardens the siskins will be back mixing with chaffinches and greenfinches as they tackle the peanut holders. Despite all these the pride of place for this time of the year must go to what we take as very much a common garden bird, the robin. In the Highlands the robin is a widespread breeding bird as far as the lower areas are concerned. In other parts it avoids the treeless uplands but is found on almost all the islands including the Western Isles. Most robins are sedentary but a few migrate and move south into England and Ireland. Interestingly in the Highlands, and elsewhere, individual robins are highly territorial in the winter with both males and females vigorously defending territory between October to March.
The general image of the robin in the Highlands is the sedentary, comparatively tame bird that sits on the garden spade, takes a variety of food from garden feeders and may even take food such as live mealworms from the hand. However all is not what it seems as some of the robins around at this time of the year and at Christmas may not be the local resident Highland bird at all. There is an influx of Scandinavian robins in the winter, in particular to Scotland, including the Highlands. These birds are not as confiding as the resident robins and may even form small groups which is virtually unheard of with the local birds. One of the reason for this is that on the continent there has been little association with man mainly because in the past they were hunted as food so thy tended to be comparatively wild.
The history of the robin and its association with ourselves goes back a long way even with the tradition of its being drawn on greetings cards. In Victorian days robins were depicted on a variety of greeting cards with some of the earliest being on the Valentine cards. The celebrated St. Valentine’s Day of February 14th and even then the birds often has letters, love letters in their beaks. The transition to Christmas cards did not become a common occurrence until after 1860 and now a large percentage of the cards have robins on them. This is partly because the birds are one of the commonest to be seen around Christmas and partly because of the postmen.
The first postmen, whose uniform included a bright vermilion waistcoat, were known as “robins” which is one of the reasons the birds are on so many Christmas cards. They also often have a letter in their beak , actually delivering mail. The robin has attracted many authors and one of the most well know is David Lack who wrote the famous monograph “Robin Redbreast” published in 1950. His son, Andrew Lack, wrote an up-date, “Redbreast”, published in 2008. Both are a “must read” for people who like robins. Little wonder then that in a national newspaper poll in 1960 the robin was voted to Britain’s national bird.