Sunday 26 May 2019

It's Your Reflection, Stupid Bird


    I was awaken at 5:00 by a commotion.  I got up to investigate and found it was a Robin flapping around and pecking on a window in my studio.  “Oh no, not again,” I thought.  This has happened numerous times during previous springs;  a male robin sees his reflection in the window glass then thinks it’s another male Robin in its territory, and begins to attack it’s reflection.  
    The attack is unrelenting and will not stop.  The only way I have found to stop the stupid bird from banging it’s brains out, is to cover the window so that the robin can no longer see its reflection.  So after breakfast, that’s what I did.  I covered the window with a foamy plastic sheet that I had handy.   Relieved at solving the problem, I began preparing to paint my morning square, only to be interrupted again, this time by a different sound.  
    It was the robin again, but this time he had spotted his reflection through a screen door, on the house door window.  He kept flying against the screen in an attempt to attack his rival.  I grabbed another piece of foamy plastic sheeting and covered the screen door.  I haven’t heard the robin since, but as you can see from the photo, I can no longer look outside.

    Many years ago, when a male Robin was doing the same thing to a window, I found it dead on the ground.  He evidently attacked the window too aggressively and ended up killing himself.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

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