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Saturday 20 October 2012

Robins

Robin Redbreast

© Sharon Whitley


Robins are very popular birds - most people like them - even if they're not really into birds - a robin is thought of as being so friendly and you often hear stories of them feeding from the hand  like this ...

Gary shared his sandwiches with this friendly robin when on a walk in the Lake District.

Unfortunately I've not yet been lucky enough to have a bird feeding from my hand - one day hopefully!

Robins may be friendly with us humans but they're not so nice to each other, being extremely territorial and they will attack another robin who intrudes on their territory.

And of course the robin is always associated with Christmas, which is why I tried to give this next painting a more Christmassy feel and give the impression that it's snowing by creating blooms and using a bit of salt to give it an icy cold feel - so hope that comes across.....

Frosty Robin

© Sharon Whitley

Another thing about the robin is that they will nest in the most unusual places - we had a robins nest in our BBQ a couple of years ago (at least I think they were robins - please correct me if I'm wrong anyone who knows any better!)




this last photo I took one morning before heading out for a walk - by the time I got back they had all fledged

Another thing robins are known for is their singing - this is a painting I did last Christmas of a robin in full song...

Singing Robin

© Sharon Whitley

Gary and I spent our day off visiting RSPB Conwy today where we had a lovely walk, and then spent the afternoon on the Great Orme at Llandudno where we spotted a few stonechats - there were also lots of very strong smelling feral Kashmir goats - a very pleasant and relaxing day - to see some gorgeous photos from the nature reserves pop over to Gary's blogpost about our day  -  a good mountain walk is planned for Monday somewhere in Snowdonia depending on the weather! 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend whatever you're doing.

16 comments:

  1. beautiful painting! love the photos and information too!

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  2. Fabulous photos of the little robins with their mouths open , and great information. Your painting is wonderful and perfectly showing the joyfulness of this little bird, love it !

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  3. Replies
    1. thanks Judy, they are a lovely bird to have in the garden

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  4. Lovely all round post about the Robin Sharon. The one feeding from the hand has a ring on its right leg....but you know that don't you!

    How many was the 'few' Stonechats on the Great Orme Sharon, personal interest.

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    1. Pete, we heard some in the gorse and bracken, and then a pair on a wall, and a bit later a lone female, pic is on my page. Still not got an elusive male shot!!

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    2. Pete, we heard some in the gorse and bracken, and then a pair on a wall, and a bit later a lone female, pic is on my page. Still not got an elusive male shot!!

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  5. Oh I love English Robins and how precious to have one feed from you hand.
    Sharon, your paintings are great and how wonderful to have Robins (or whatever!) nesting so close where you could keep an eye on their progress........

    Claire :}

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    1. it was a real treat to have them nesting in the BBQ like that and I was amazed that they all survived up to fledging as they could have easily been taken by a cat.

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  6. What an interesting post to read. Lovely photos and sketches! I particularly like the second robin sketch with the more wet colors!

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  7. More interesting activity alongside another set of super pictures. Thanks.

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