I've been clearing the weeds in part of my back yard, moving from the
outside in, so the patch of 3-foot high weeds has been getting smaller and
more isolated. The past few days, a robin started conspicuously hanging
around, hopping around the cleared area, looking for displaced insects.

I reached the end of the weeds last night. As the patch was reduced, the
grasshoppers got denser and denser in the remaining weeds. The robin kept a
close eye on the proceedings. As soon as I was finished, the robin raced
around snatching now-homeless, exposed grasshoppers as fast as he/she could.

Did the robin learn over the past two weeks that following me around led to
an easy meal, or did the robin merely see all the grasshoppers in the air
around me?

Kelly Cassidy
Pullman, WA
lostriver at completebbs.com