Snow Robins Regina - Thursday, May 23, 2002 Stu Innes The baby Robin seems quite interested in the snow on the flower bed. His brother is thinking of jumping too! Editor's note: The Robin is the most commonly seen member of the Thrush family which includes all three versions of Blue Birds, Townsend's Solitaire, Varied Thrush and the Hermit Thrush. Each of the members of this family are

popular in every yard they decide to visit. The all love to sing and have a pretty simple diet. The like to munch on worms and enjoy a dessert of berries when they are in season. All members of the family have blue or blue with white spotted eggs. They are found all across North America from northern Mexico to Alaska although each member of the family has their preferred habitats. But they are all the same shape, walk erect have the main features of a robin with regard to tale and wings and can be separated one from the other by their size differences. I am surprised at how fast this family of Stu's have developed. Our first pictures of them just showed the mouths and then we saw all four of them now only days later they are out of their nest and ready to take flying lessons. They are particularly vulnerable at the stage of the ones in these pictures as they are sitting ducks for a hungry or bad tempered cat but this only is a day or two before they solo and get their license. VFR (visual flight rules) only all birds are not certified for IFR (instrument flight rules) but no doubt with the advancements in technology some crows will figure out how to use a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) and nigh vision equipment and they will make the great leap into non-visual flight. What gets me, as Ken Styan pointed out last year, as far as we know these remarkable creatures lack a sense of smell.