We have been plunged back into winter. I don’t mind winter – in fact, I adore winter, and we had far too little of it this year. What I do mind is the vacillations between winter and spring. Turns out I prefer the seasons to progress as intended, rather than swinging back and forth willy nilly. Well. Perhaps “seasons” no longer exist, in this iteration of the world, and I should enjoy the beautiful snow falling all around the house while I can.
The robins, however, have decided It Is Spring. One of the new delightful (no) quirks of our new house is that we seem to be neighbors with a bunch of attack robins. As of this weekend, we are constantly startled by the unpleasant sound of a robin flinging himself bodily into our windows. All. Day. Long.
Robins are not, as I originally assumed, getting distracted mid-flight by daydreams and blundering into the glass. No. I have seen them perch on the lintel outside the window and then flap violently at their reflections. There is also belligerent pecking. A small robin can manufacture quite a lot of racket and I no longer need an alarm clock.
My understanding from a very cursory google search is that the robins are not trying to systematically deprive me of my home and sanity. Instead, they perceive their reflections as rival male robins and attack them. Seems to me like this would be a fairly easy trial and error sort of experience. You see a male robin on your home turf, you flap in his face, but instead of scaring the intruder robin away, you are rebuffed by something smooth and hard between you. I mean, maybe it takes a couple of times to realize that the other robin is in some alternate dimension that in no way intersects with your own. But no. The robin returns and returns. And then when I shake the window blinds at it, it flies away for a few minutes and either returns to that window or a different window. Maybe future iterations of robins could benefit from additional brainpower and a smidge less territorial rage hmm????
My daughter’s brilliant idea of setting up a giant stuffed Pikachu in the window has not been the deterrent she hoped it would be. It seems that our options are a) stick a reflective decal/tape on the window, b) get an owl sculpture to police the windows, or c) close the blinds, although closing the blinds doesn’t seem to work. I am hoping this frenzy of possessive bluster is tied to mating season and ends soon. My husband and I both wonder why this was never an issue at our old house. I guess the new neighborhood’s robins are fiercer/dumber than the old ones.
Robin attack team aside, we must eat.
Dinners for the Week of March 18-24
- Guinness Beef Stew with Homemade Egg Noodles: To be fair, we made this meal on a whim yesterday; such was the extent of our St. Patrick’s Day observance. But the recipe made such an enormous amount of stew that we have plenty for upcoming meals, so I’m counting it. The egg noodles were my husband’s idea, and much easier than I anticipated. I think of stew as soup, with bigger chunks of things in it. But he was anticipating something thicker, like maybe a beef stroganoff or a chicken paprikash type of texture. This stew is closer to soup, despite a couple of cornstarch slurries. I followed the instructions for making it on the stove, but once the beef was seared and the onions/garlic were deglazed with the beer, I put everything in the crockpot for six hours. I also added about 10 ounces of mushrooms, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and quite a lot of salt. Delicious.
- Lemon Feta Sheet Pan Chicken and Veggies: I will obviously be excluding the tomatoes.
- Oven Baked Pork Chops and Steamed Broccoli: Easy and peasy.
- Spiced Chicken Kebabs with Salad and Yogurt Dressing: I cannot abide ground chicken, so I will use chicken breast, cut into chunks, and roasted in the air fryer. So not kebabs at all; I know, I am one of Those People. The marinade sounds delicious, though (I am very intrigued by sumac) and the rest of the salad and yogurt sauce are highly appealing.
That’s all I have on the meal plan for this week, Internet.
Has winter returned to your neck of the woods? What are you eating to cope with the ongoing Kate Middleton drama?
I’m making beef stew tonight but with red wine, no Guinness. As for robins, they’re idiots. When we finally get to Spring I anticipate that a few will fly into our windows, knock themselves out temporarily, then get up and do it again.
As for Kategate I’m into English tea and hot cross buns as I await the next development. Such a good soap opera.
Your robin story brings back memories of a few years ago when we had a robin do the same thing! There was nothing I could do to convince him that his rival was his own reflection. I can’t even imagine having a bunch of them doing that! It would be very annoying!
The whole Kate Middleton thing is very mysterious! What is going on? I shall have some crisps as I investigate!
I have a woodpecker on my chimney cap and he (she?) loves the very early morning. Arggh! We’re having summer right now, then spring/winter later this week with a return to 50s and rain. Are there new developments in KateGate?
Happy winter part 2! There was a finch in our yard that would fight with its reflection at the back door all day long. It’d be funny if all the tapping weren’t so annoying. To deter the robin at the window, you can put a decal of a hawk silouette on the window (Amazon sells them). The fake owl you mentioned should work too.
Oh nom now I want beef stew! My only nod to St Pat’s was getting Baileys. It was and is delicious, but it would be even better with a big ol’ stew on hand.
I know my chicken stance is ridiculous, but I actually don’t mind ground chicken. I’d be down to try the kebabs.
Sigh if an owl statue will scare off birds why doesn’t a stuffed Pikachu have the same effect?
Have you ever read The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier? It’s a short story that was used as the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock movie. It might be a fun pairing with your current bird drama.
Yeah, plunged from spring back into winter here too. I don’t mind it being cold again, but the inconsistency is a little annoying.
We had attack robins where I grew up. I guess the literal bird brain doesn’t have enough space for a learning curve.
I don’t like ground chicken unless I mix it with ground beef. And kebabs always make me feel like I’m going to stab myself in the throat. I’m with you, is what I’m saying. That lemon feta recipe looks really good.
Yep, winter-ish weather is headed it’s way here as I type. And for the record, I am OVER it and the rain.
The robin thing would drive me insane and I have no solutions, sadly.
You know, I would have thought I’d have an issue with ground chicken (or turkey)…but turns out, in a lot of dishes I don’t mind it and usually can’t tell the difference between it and ground beef. Except for meatloaf – in meatloaf the texture is just not right if you use ground chicken/turkey.
Our dinners this week all contain tortillas, and 3 of them are tacos, enchiladas, and quesadillas. I cannot.
For once I know what our meals are going to be this week, and I didn’t even post about it. Those chicken kabobs sound good, and I also would make them with chunks not ground.
Here’s my thoughts on this week’s dinners:
Pasta with tomatoes, parley, garlic, and shallots. An all time favorite. My husband can’t eat this, so I’m making him his very own meal of chicken thighs with canned tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, bok choy, and artichoke hearts.
Tomorrow night, my husband is going out with his brother, so we are going all in on the carbs (as if pasta isn’t carb enough…why can’t I lose weight again?) and I’m making pancakes for dinner.
Wednesday will be Shakshuka for my husband and me, and an omelet for our daughter, since she doesn’t like Shakshuka (too spicy)
Thursday is my daughter’s night to cook, and she’s making a chicken stew of some sort. Not sure what that means for her, she’s vegetarian, but she’ll let me know. Sometimes she does things twice, and just uses fake chicken for one batch.
It’s 72 and gorgeous outside today, and is supposed to rain again later this week. Fabulous news is that California snow pack is at 100% of normal! YAY!
Did you know when bull moose are rutting, they will attack a train? Don’t fuck with bull moose, is all I have to say. I think it’s the same as the robin, they think it’s another big ole moose somehow. I hope you find a way to stop the damn robin.
Tonight I felt pretty clever because I made Shepherd’s Pie out of some leftover taco meat. My Shepherd’s Pie recipe uses bbq sauce, which the kids don’t like, so I put the taco meat in the casserole dish instead, and then some salsa, and then a layer of cooked corn, and then a layer of mashed potatoes. It was a little fussy in that I had to remember to start the mashed potatoes 45 minutes before I would usually start dinner—but other than that, easy and it used up leftovers that were about to be thrown out.
Something to try re: annoying robin behavior:
Get suction cups with hooks. {Or is it get hooks with suction cups? 🤔) Tie strands of curling ribbon onto the hooks. Place on the outside of the window. You might need more than one depending on the size of the window. Good luck!
I’ve never heard of robins attacking like that – we have lots here and also lots in Calgary. What we did have in Calgary was a real problem with northern flickers. Those bastards would attack anything during mating season, so, I guess, now. I mean you would see houses with stucco missing all over the place. They didn’t attack our stucco for some reason but they did attack our tree and there was severe damage to it. We had to jam rocks into the holes that they made, but they would just hammer away at the rocks. Our neighbour’s house had a lot of damage and he actually SHOT one (IN THE CITY!!!!) (with a BB but still). The first time I met that neighbour I was talking to him about it, and he mentioned that he “took care” of one of the birds, and his little boy came over to me and said “Daddy, are you telling that lady how you killed that bird?” Lol, good times. That was many years ago but I still laugh about it. I mean, not about the damage – they were just awful!
Yum, beef stew! I want to go out and make it right now actually. Although we did have corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots on Sunday, so maybe that is too much hearty beef dishes. Or not. I still think I want to make it.
As J said, we are getting nice weather lately and the flowers are blooming and the buds are budding and it is wonderful. BUT it is supposed to rain for about a week starting on Friday. Boo! I don’t care about the snowpack anymore, let there be spring (aka NO MORE RAIN)!
I think the line between soup and stew is fine and very subjective.
Beth made St. Patrick’s Day dinner because it fell on a Sunday and she was nervous about making the soda bread because I usually do it, but it turned out fine. And she delighted North by making colcannon because since I was diagnosed with diabetes I refuse to make bread and potatoes for the same meal and the bread won the past couple years.
We have robins in our neighborhood but they’ve never done that to our house. It sounds irritating. I wonder if it has something to do with the concentration of robins. The more birds the more territorial they feel? They are not the predominant bird here. We have more starlings, sparrows, and mourning doves.
It has gotten colder here, too, but not wintry.
What a weird story about the robins- there must be a solution! I’ll be interested to hear if you try the owl statue idea. It reminds me of a situation here- we don’t have it, but people who live right on the water are being tortured by birds crying LOUDLY in the middle of the night. I forget what kind of bird, and it’s not a dainty “chirp”- it sounds like they’re being tortured. Apparently it also has something to do with mating season, and people literally can’t sleep because of this. Some people are so enraged (and sleep deprived) that they want to go out and shoot them, but it turns out they’re endangered. Again this doesn’t affect us personally- it seems to be really bad around bodies of water.
Anyway! I made a Guinness stew on Sunday, with seitan- it was good! Other than that I have no dinner ideas for this week. Luckily tonight we’re going out.
Bird-window collisions are sadly common, accounting for one-third of man-made avian deaths (http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2022/ph240/gross1/docs/klem-1991.pdf). I don’t know why I’m sharing this with you. I just think it’s sad because we have a big picture window that probably kills at least 2-3 birds a year even though we frequently have the blinds drawn.
Also, cats kill BILLIONS of birds and small mammals a year. (https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380?WT.mc_id=FBK_NCOMMS#abstract) If you have a domesticated cat, don’t let it wander around outside unsupervised!!
You love winter?? Wow. I cannot say love and winter in the same sentence living in Minnesota. Maybe it if was only 3 months long I would like it more? This winter has been so nice and mild, though, so I can’t complain too much but the flip flopping between spring and winter is getting old. And get this – paul somehow lost his jacket on Friday! Right in time for winter weather to return. We’ve checked the school, they’ve checked the bus, we’ve checked the lost and found. It is no where. How does a person lose A JACKET? And of course it is the nicest hand-me-down jacket – Osh kosh brand and extra warm. We have another hand-me-down jacket he can wear but it’s not as warm so I’m kind of hemming and hawing over whether I should go to once upon a child and buy a stupid jacket. I’m peeved if you can’t tell! 😉
I made pasta sauce w/ sneaky veggies hidden in it on Sunday night and last night I made chicken tikka masala w/ cauliflower and peas. So now Phil will have enough meals to get through the week while I am in Charlotte for work. Yee haw.
Poor little robin. What a life to life where they don’t understand the consequences of their own actions! Side note: The Popcast with Knox and Jamie did a deep dive on the Kate Middleton drama – highly recommend! I am still on the side of they’re getting a divorce, but at this point, I just want her to be okay!!! WHERE IS SHE?!?!?
Carla is simply amazing. Not to belittle robins, but possibly they need to wear glasses? 🤣
What’s strange is that, despite all the birds we have in our yard, robins are not one of them. Maybe that is a good thing.
Re: the robins: we have windows that are badly reflective at certain times of day, certain times of year. We used to have real problem with bird strikes: 1-3 birds flying into the windows with a bang a day at times. We ended up getting two 40-packs of window cling decals from Amazon. They’re semitransparent, not colorful, and are shaped like butterflies. We put several on each window. The decals interrupt the reflectivity enough that the birds aren’t a problem and I like the shapes I picked. They don’t interrupt the view too much from the inside, plus on bright days, the butterflies make a sort of shadow art across the walls and floors. They’ve lasted for several years, and are finally getting close to needing to be replaced soon.
Maybe look into something like that? I wouldn’t have wanted reflective tape across our windows, but I do really like our butterflies.
I occasionally feel guilty for not making authentic Irish meals for St. Pat’s but corned beef and cabbage is not really yummy and they don’t really eat that in Ireland anyway. My Irish soda bread makes up for it. I do like beef stew, but not enough to try to make it at home.
The bird situation sounds alarming. I have never heard of this. I got a chuckle out of pikachu (sp?) standing guard.
I made taco salad this am. Packed it into a cooler and loaded it into a checked bag for our flight to Tampa so we have one meal ready and made. Fingers crossed that our hour delay does not cause the food to spoil.
Wow those robins are sure a strange breed. I would also assume they would realize after banging their tiny heads so many times. Fingers crossed it only lasts during mating season.
Birds. Do not walk by a red-winged blackbird nest in mating season. Consider yourself warned. 😉
Last year, while at our place in Georgia I could see out of my kitchen window a blue bird attacking my neighbors bathroom window. I called her and said: Are you ok? What the heck with the violent bird? HA!
I love that Carla had the brilliant idea for Pikachu to stand watch….can’t believe that didn’t work.
Our weather was summer (high 80’s) until this morning whereas it was absolutely delightful outside at 65*!
I know this is no laughing matter but I think the stupidity of the robins is hilarious. I mean, birds are so smart in other ways (have you seen them weave nests? But yeah, those are the females, maybe LOL).