Robins

 Judy.  It's the middle of January, cold by Georgia standards, but today the sky is a beautiful clear blue. Covid-19 is raging, although the vaccine is bringing hope. The country is in an uproar, and our hope is the Inauguration will bring a calming of emotions.

And our yard is full of robins.

At first we didn't know what to make of this. One morning we looked out the window and spotted dozens of robins in the yard and at the birdbath--something we'd never seen before. Cedric, our resident robin, was lost in the crowd. And what the heck were dozens doing here, mostly getting along and sharing the birdbath and bugs in the yard. It's not mating season. And they don't appear interested in leaving. They're usually spotted in ones or twos, at least in our experience. So Ted looked it up.

Turns out that in the winter flocks of robins sometimes gather together to roost at night. According to Wikipedia, they split up during the daytime, but not these guys. They're busy feeding and bathing and chirping. Sometimes a tussle breaks out, but mostly they seem to get along.

As harbingers of springtime, robins have always brought hope, but spring is two months away. In these crazy, frustrating times, though, our flock has brought hope and joy and and the belief that we, too, can get along with each other, get our vaccines, and do our own migrating.