The Buckets by Greg Cravens for January 25, 2024

Those are northern birds who flew south to get to where they are seen.

“There’s always an exception to the rule” is the first lesson that life ain’t gonna be easy.

In the PNW there are robins all year round. We get snowbirds coming down from Alaska in the winter. Someone got a PhD proving that.

One year I noticed a robin wintering over. I never figured out if it was due to illness or injury, but she seemed to be getting around okay so I made it my duty to make sure she had food and liquid water. Then I caught Covid and missed a couple of days checking on her. Remarkably, she found my bedroom window and came a-tapping. As near death as I felt I got up and trudged out to the snow-covered balcony to refill the feeder and bring fresh water. We’ve been friends ever since. She even comes to talk with me while I have breakfast out there. Well, that might also be because of the few Honey-Nut Cheerios I place on the railing for her.

“I before E except after C …” is also easy to remember—but totally wrong. https://youtu.Be/duqlZXiIZqA?si=I3jBr3NG3eY6DURW

Apparently it wasn’t easy for the birds to remember.

Gone away is the bluebird. Here to stay is a new bird.

I before E, except after C … EXCEPT

We feign agreeing, but this foreign poltergeist of a rule is neither efficient nor smart- and therein lies the height of the issue. It’s as if an ancient deity has deigned to influence the zeitgeist of the people. We must remove the weight of this veil from their eyes, and forfeit the obeisance of this weird and heinous rule from our science and leisure alike.

Some bird from the far north fly south to where you live but not further.