I have some sad news.Bob, the cottage robin, is believed dead.
I arrived home from work on Friday and did my customary circuit of the garden and discovered a little bird snuggled down in a hollow in the lawn. He must have been there a while because he was dead and had a drooped wing and a ruffled chest as though he had been attacked. He was less than a metre from the bird feeder and the hedge where most of our garden birds congregate.
While I can't be sure that it was Bob, there have been two robins in our garden since the heavy snowfall in December. I had been surprised that they had managed to co-exist for so long.
I had been quite worried about one of them which had been hiding in a hollow under the snow during the bad weather. I had given him water and mealworms to help him through and he seemed to be doing okay.
There hasn't been a morning in a long time when I haven't seen our robin on the corner of the shed roof but yesterday morning there was no sign of him.
I left the dead bird in situ overnight, expecting a fox or larger bird to take him, but when he was still there on Saturday morning, I decided to bury him behind the shed where he spent so much of his time.
Whether its Bob or his rival, RIP little bird.
