Comparative Robins - European Versus American

American Robin

When visiting the Brownshill Portal Tomb near Carlow, I identified my first European bird - the Robin. That bird was quite different than the American Robin (shown at the left) - eating insects instead of worms, and being quite smallish in comparison. I have been slowly reading through a book one of my sons gave me as a birthday gift last year that is a compilation of literature that mentions birds, or stories about birds. The night-before-last, I happened on a poem by the Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) titled Proud Masie. Had I not seen the Robin in Ireland, I wouldn't have had an accurate picture in my mind of what Scott was writing about. I found the poem at the Poetry Foundation Website as well, but the spelling of the subject was Maisie, rather than Masie, as found in the Graeme Gibson compilation. It is interesting to hear an writer talk about his perspectives of birds, and what motivates him to consider birds and wildlife.

Robin ('Erithacus rubecula')

Proud Masie

Proud Masie is in the wood,

   Walking so early;

Sweet Robin sits on the bush,

   Singing so rarely.

"Tell me, thou bonny bird,

   When shall I marry me?"—

"When six braw gentlemen

   Kirkward shall carry ye."

"Who makes the bridal bed,

   Birdie, say truly?"—

"The gray-headed sexton

   That delves the grave duly.

"The glowworm o'er grave and stone

   Shall light thee steady;

The owl from the steeple sing,

   'Welcome, proud lady.'"

Ancient Ireland - The Northern Six

Ancient Ireland, indeed! I was reared by her bedside,

The rune and the chant, evil eye and averted heard.

Fomorian fierceness of family and local feud.

Gaunt figures of fear and of friendliness,

For years they trespassed on my dreams,

Until once, in a standing circle of stones,

I felt their shadows pass

Into that dark permanence of ancient forms.

- from Home Again, John Montague

Tá Préacháin Sa Chaisleán - Irish Birding

Rook crow nest silhouettes

My schedule was full the past week I spent in Ireland, and there wasn't a wild area near my hotel to walk through looking for birds. Even though I could watch fields across the road from the fourth floor restaurant, there wasn't good access, and I would have felt uncomfortable trespassing. My hosts were most amiable, going out of their way when there was a chance to show me a little bit more of Ireland than the inside of meeting and hotel rooms. The most noticeable bird I saw for all the driving around the parts of the country I visited were crows - both Rooks, Jackdaw, and some Hooded Crows and Magpies. Most impressive were the nests in the trees around Duckett's Grove Castle in County Carlow. They continued a barrage of calls, flying overhead, and some landing in holes in the walls of the castle. (The on-line European Birdguide Online is an excellent reference - it seems as helpful as the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory site.)

Brownshill Portal Tomb

There were not a lot of other birds to be seen - maybe it was just a little too soon in the season. But the other most noted for me as the Robin I saw while walking back from viewing the great rock structure that makes up Brownshill Portal Tomb. There were a good number of birds chirping in the trees along the path leading to the structure - a near hedge of shrubs intertwined with the trees over our heads. I got a quick glimpse of a colored bird, and then again when we were just about back to the car park. I had heard earlier in passing that the robins in Ireland are smaller than the ones in North America, so when I quickly flipped through the pages of my Birds of Europe, and found on page 276 the same as described to me earlier in the week, I had my first confirmed new identification in Europe.

I didn't get a photograph of the little Robin, and the photograph of the Rooks in the rock walls of the castle didn't turn out well, so a few other sight seeing photographs around Duckett's Grove Castle are presented instead.

Castle and jet fuel precursor

Behind the castle

An abandoned bridge, as the house

Bluebells outside the walls

Return path from a dead end

Enter the garden

The formal abandoned estate's garden

A superfluity of nuns on an outing