Noticing the birds

Well, it's springtime, which means the birds are seemingly more plentiful around the yard, in the trees, on the wires, etc. Last year I had a nest right above the backdoor of my house. This year, a pigeon is roosting on top of one of the pillars that hold on the carport roof.

Right now I am looking out my kitchen window at a robin sitting on powerwires, who is literally raising his tail feathers, lowering them, and swinging the wire by doing so. It's like watching a little kid on a swingset. Raising the tail feathers like that must be some sort of communication - a mating call? I really should know these sorts of things.

There's a famous story that a student once came to speak with Nabokov at Cornell after he became a well-known (to Americans) author. He asked Mr. Nabokov for advice on how to be a writer. Mr. Nabokov turned to his window, pointed to a tree, and asked the student, "Do you know what kind of tree that is?" The student responded, "No." And Mr. Nabokov replied, "Until you do, you'll never be a writer." Or so the story goes, I believe.