Signifier of spring, the robin is a perennial totem of hope. One usually builds a nest near the house, sometimes in a most inconvenient place that occasionally needs to be taken down before it goes up (if they’re too close to a door or entryway, they would not allow us by once the eggs get laid). The last few years we’ve reached a reasonable compromise – they’ve taken to the Wolf’s eye dogwood tree, the climbing hydrangea’s arbor, or somewhere in the Thuja wall. We are still less of a threat than the hawks or crows, which have heartbreakingly raided nests in the past.
The circle of life often feels most perilous in the spring, when everything is still tender and raw.
