I’m sure you know the American bird is the Bald Eagle and I’m sure you know it almost didn’t get that job. One of the smartest of our founding fathers, maybe the smartest, Benjamin Franklin didn’t want the Bald Eagle. He said it was a fish eater and eater of carrion. Ben wanted the wild, American Turkey, a native of these shores, to be the national bird. It may really have been the fact that many of the monarchies of Europe used the Eagle as their symbol: Ancient Rome, Germany, the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire. It was not always posed the same, but it was an Eagle.
I don’t think about this very much except in the springtime. The bird I like the best is the one I see every day at this time of year … the Robin. Male or female, who can tell the difference, is the hardest working bird I know about. In the early dawn before daylight and into darkness in the evening, the Robin is pecking through my yard for bugs and worms. He’s the blue-collar bird of these parts.
Last year a pair of Robins had three babies in a nest under the eaves of our front porch. To say they worked their tails off would be an understatement. But it ended up with three healthy, feathered kids screeching and hollering and ready to leave the nest. The two largest of the trio jumped out of the nest onto the support that holds up that part of my roof.
The last to jump out was the smallest. Obviously, the two larger birds had eaten more than their share. And there they sat. You don’t often have a chance to see birds leave the nest and here were three ready to take that leap into the air. “Meenie,” “Miney,” and “Moe,” and I thought for sure “Moe”, the smallest, wouldn’t make it. I didn’t hear any bird call but the two biggest birds one after the other took off and flew off over the large yard to a tree. There sat little “Moe” by himself with his older siblings flying like old pros. And then, just like magic, little “Moe” flapped his wings and took off as if he’d been doing it for a long, long time.
Well, I lost track of the parents and do not know what happened to the three little guys that flew away. But since then, my yard has Robins all over it cocking their heads and looking for bugs and/or worms.
Watching them makes me feel like something I’ve known for a long time … that compared to a Robin, I’m just plain lazy. This blue-collar, hard-working, orange-breasted bird could very easily in these difficult times be an inspiration to many Americans.
When the red, red Robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’ along …
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
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RONN MOTT’S MINUTE: Robins
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