There is a mature Mountain Ash tree in the backyard of a home I have owned for more than 30 years.
The branches of the tree unfold annually, right in front of a picture window. Every fall, when the berries are ripened, the tree has filled with literally hundreds of robins, providing so much joy and entertainment as we watched them feast and frolic.
This year, for the first time, I have not seen a single robin in that tree. As a matter of fact I have not seen a robin at all this fall. The berries are now rotting on the branches. If this lack of robins is cyclical, I have never before seen such a cycle occur.
Perhaps all of this is coincidence but to me something more must be afoot.
I do not know if the California wildfires have anything to do with this, or if the situation has been affected by something local.
Or perhaps there is some other reason I cannot fathom.
But I do miss seeing the robins, and hearing their distinctive calls. I just hope their species, as with penguins, is not just one more tragedy befalling us as nature struggles to survive by the onslaught of modern ‘civilization’.
Stephen Pyle
Nanoose Bay
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