First Robin

I saw my first robin of the season out walking today - see it up there? Kind of in front of the top of the pine tree. Sorry for the fuzzy photo; all I had with me was my phone! So, it's the first robin I've seen this year. I'm sure others have seen some, but this was my first and it made me smile! I saw 3 more on the walk.

I also saw several ducks and geese today. Actually, the ducks were blocking the main drive at the Pine Rest main campus ... they tend to do that until they migrate in the fall! There's a duck pond that is well populated. I work in a buidling called Mulder Center (the campus is about 44 acres with many different buildings and residences). Mulder looks like it was built in the 50's or early 60's - it's inappropriate for Michigan. It's 2 conjoined squares with a couple of wings jutting out; each square is loaded with large windows (so yes, it's freezing in winter, hot in summer) on both the inside walls and outside walls and each square has a large courtyard in the center.

The courtyard near where I work has ducks that come every year to nest. When the duckings are ready to go in water and start feeding that way, the parents go a little crazy trying to fly them out (tough because they learn to swim before fly). So each year, the maintenance department has duck parade ... they herd a couple of duckings and pretty soon they're all following (sometimes as many as 20 or 25) and they lead them into the building, down through the halls, and out the front door so they can get to the pond.

Happy spring! :-)