Mrs Robin is Back
Bernie Marvin
May 07, 2026
FOR THE HARBINGER OF SPRING AT OUR PLACE, IT IS NOT THE HUMMINGBIRD, IT IS MRS. ROBIN AND HER USUAL DEMANDS FOR US TO MOVE ALONG AND BE OUT OF HER WAY, PLEASE
We always anxiously await the early May date for the arrival of the hummingbirds who stream into these parts after their 2500-mile flight that includes flying over the Gulf of Mexico. Once again over land, they fly straight up the east coast of America. We have found that this arrival comes in our area during the first week or 10 days of May each year.
Sometimes they arrive a tad early or a day or so late, but they do make some mystical travel arrangement that humans have not figured out yet, so if and when the hummers show up, we are always happy they do. From then on until they depart in the cooler fall months, we keep the red feeders filled with the white cane sugar-and-water mix they love.
But long before the arrival of the hummingbirds, we are entertained by Mrs. Robin. She and a skittish Mr. Robin always scout our 32-foot front porch and ceiling area for their next perfectly constructed nest location, where they will settle down and raise, then launch a small family of robins into the official state birding census.
Today, as I write this after viewing her and her mate hopping around the rafters in their search for the safest, most comfortable spot, they will visit time and time again before deciding where they will live. For some reason, it has always been on the left side of the porch as you face the house.
This is a spring ritual around here. Also, ritual is the interesting behavior of the two phoebes who come here to build their future home. Without fail, they fly in and begin resting on phone wires and clothes lines strung up along the front of the porch, eventually, where the phoebes will hatch little ones, the hummingbirds will fly in and out throughout the summer and fall, and warn all species, even their own, to stay away from the red feeder.
We realize that as the hummingbird arrival gets closer, there could be one or even two of these tired travelers that could find our red feeder more attractive than the others scattered about the region.
Are they more attractive than all those on front porches along Route 10 that passersby nearby see?
We would like this to be true because we have a sneaking suspicion that something out there is presently drinking our sugar water. We have noticed the water level keeps going down, yet there are no visible signs of any hummingbirds around here. It could be other birds (doubtful) or bees doing this (possible), but we have seen nothing, which leads us to think there may be some errant hummingbirds in the area, lowering our sugar water levels at night.
The phoebes have completed building their 2026 nest and are currently flying around, grabbing insects and generally making themselves known, as they have every year since we built here 19 years ago.
Do these birds remember from where they were hatched and flew their first flight off our second-story deck into the freedom of the air in Piermont? Do robin families raise little birds who remember where they came from and return the next year to enjoy more of the same as their parents did?
Pity the flock of barn swallows in Rye, NH, who have been totally shut down and locked out of their former living and breeding spaces in a town-owned barn where they had been gathering for many years.
Rye town officials said that so many barn swallows are not healthy in public buildings, so they voted to shut the barn doors and windows this spring and let the returning barn swallows find someplace else to live.
As you can imagine, the barn swallow activists in Rye are not happy, and neither are the barn swallows. I am pleased that we do not face the same choices for our returning robins and phoebes. \We welcome them here to our are.
Actually, if the truth be known, our bird and animal friends were here first, long before we moved onto their property and built our home. We are happy they allow us to live here!
We always anxiously await the early May date for the arrival of the hummingbirds who stream into these parts after their 2500-mile flight that includes flying over the Gulf of Mexico. Once again over land, they fly straight up the east coast of America. We have found that this arrival comes in our area during the first week or 10 days of May each year.
Sometimes they arrive a tad early or a day or so late, but they do make some mystical travel arrangement that humans have not figured out yet, so if and when the hummers show up, we are always happy they do. From then on until they depart in the cooler fall months, we keep the red feeders filled with the white cane sugar-and-water mix they love.
But long before the arrival of the hummingbirds, we are entertained by Mrs. Robin. She and a skittish Mr. Robin always scout our 32-foot front porch and ceiling area for their next perfectly constructed nest location, where they will settle down and raise, then launch a small family of robins into the official state birding census.
Today, as I write this after viewing her and her mate hopping around the rafters in their search for the safest, most comfortable spot, they will visit time and time again before deciding where they will live. For some reason, it has always been on the left side of the porch as you face the house.
This is a spring ritual around here. Also, ritual is the interesting behavior of the two phoebes who come here to build their future home. Without fail, they fly in and begin resting on phone wires and clothes lines strung up along the front of the porch, eventually, where the phoebes will hatch little ones, the hummingbirds will fly in and out throughout the summer and fall, and warn all species, even their own, to stay away from the red feeder.
We realize that as the hummingbird arrival gets closer, there could be one or even two of these tired travelers that could find our red feeder more attractive than the others scattered about the region.
Are they more attractive than all those on front porches along Route 10 that passersby nearby see?
We would like this to be true because we have a sneaking suspicion that something out there is presently drinking our sugar water. We have noticed the water level keeps going down, yet there are no visible signs of any hummingbirds around here. It could be other birds (doubtful) or bees doing this (possible), but we have seen nothing, which leads us to think there may be some errant hummingbirds in the area, lowering our sugar water levels at night.
The phoebes have completed building their 2026 nest and are currently flying around, grabbing insects and generally making themselves known, as they have every year since we built here 19 years ago.
Do these birds remember from where they were hatched and flew their first flight off our second-story deck into the freedom of the air in Piermont? Do robin families raise little birds who remember where they came from and return the next year to enjoy more of the same as their parents did?
Pity the flock of barn swallows in Rye, NH, who have been totally shut down and locked out of their former living and breeding spaces in a town-owned barn where they had been gathering for many years.
Rye town officials said that so many barn swallows are not healthy in public buildings, so they voted to shut the barn doors and windows this spring and let the returning barn swallows find someplace else to live.
As you can imagine, the barn swallow activists in Rye are not happy, and neither are the barn swallows. I am pleased that we do not face the same choices for our returning robins and phoebes. \We welcome them here to our are.
Actually, if the truth be known, our bird and animal friends were here first, long before we moved onto their property and built our home. We are happy they allow us to live here!
Mrs. Robin thought it good to build her nest in a pot of pansies on our front porch. We discouraged that, so she moved her nest up into the rafters where it belonged. The Bridge Weekly file/Bernie Marvin
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