TRAINING YOUR ROBIN

Most British gardens must have a resident robin that hangs around to pick up small worms when earth is dug.

I think that we all love these friendly little birds. The American robin is a much larger bird, as befits its nationality.

We have a small walled garden in London that is mostly paved with flagstones with nearly all its trees, bushes and floral displays growing in pots. These we move around as peer season and the vigour of the plants.

Growing next to the garden’s south-facing wall are alternating tomatoes and runner beans. On its north-facing wall is a small pear tree and apple tree, both in pots, apparently springing from a abacanthus that waves its long leaves in the wind. I grow mistletoe in the apple tree. 

 

All this is in the land, owned by its resident robin, who, this year, chose to nest and bring up a family with a mate high on the house wall in a box made for, but never used, by swifts.

At breeding time we do see and feed two robins but only one seems to belong. 

There have been robin-less years and the garden has seemed bare without one.

The only food we use to train a resident robin is Cheddar cheese, grated very finely. They love it, fresh or dry. 

To train a robin we place a little “bait” near to the house at one end of the garden, the other end housing our summerhouse, or shed as we call it. 

It is within this shed, where we spend much time and where we aim to entice a robin for company.

The first move is bait left on the ground well away from the shed where we humans have drink, music, food and conversation. Then, when the robin has acquired the taste for grated Cheddar, we lay bait nearer and nearer to the shed.

We keep as still as possible during this training period.

The first real excitement is when the robin takes bait from the sill of the opened shed door.

All this time the bird will have noticed, with its eagle eye, grated cheese in the feeder designed for it.

This object is of wood and roughly described as one open shallow box, upside down and sliding over another open shallow box. This can be adjusted to offer a small or large amount of grated cheese.

Bird-landing edges are of rounded dowel rod - fit for birds’ feet. 

Finally, our robin will enter our shed in short stages or even fly directly in, eventually to eat from my knee, which happens generally to be next to the feeding box. 

Friendly wood pigeons also raid the robin box and are deterred from tipping the feeder over to get to the cheese by a lead weight (a sculpture) resting on top of it.

Friendly birdlife has become quite a feature of our garden and amazes guests. 

                                                                             photo