Subject: [Tweeters] Testosterone driven robin
Date: Jul 2 12:54:08 2013
From: mary hrudkaj - mch1096 at hotmail.com


This morning while brushing my teeth I watched a male robin hop onto a small black object out in the garden. He seemed to jump on it a couple times and peck at it before flying off a short way. At first I thought the robin was attacking a small bird but I've never seen robins do that before. Curiosity got the better of me so after finishing with my teeth I got my binoculars to see what the robin had attacked. To my surprise I found it to be a pine cone.

As I watched the yard I saw the same robin come over to another pine cone a few feet from the first and saw the robin hop onto the stem end, position itself, peck at the other end and then moved its cloaca down to the pine cone and begin to appear to copulate with the pine cone. It quickly hopped off and over to the first pine cone and did the same thing all over again. Talk about raging hormones!!!

Has anyone ever heard of or seen robins trying to copulate with such things? Maybe its mate had a headache?? After enjoying itself it returned to ordinary robin behaviour of foraging for food.

While eating breakfast I was watching a female mountain quail luxuriating in a long dust bath out in the driveway. It spent almost 4 minutes pecking and scratching at the dry soil and then bathing every part of her body. At times a small dust cloud completely surrounded the bird. She seemed to be really enjoying her time away from the kids.

>From sunny and strange Tahuya

Mary Hrudkaj