A Robin Named Hook

I’m not exactly sure how or why it happened, but last spring we had a Robin that visited our yard frequently. Actually he or she visited our strawberry bed frequently because we didn’t have bird netting on it he/she ate all our strawberries. It was most likely not one single robin but a number of them that would visit. However Leighton determined that it was one robin and to that robin he gave the name Hook. I have no idea where that name came from, he’s never heard or read or watched Peter Pan, he’s not a big fan of pirates, so I’m not exactly sure…Of course we have frogs named Truck and Ice Cream and fish named Cheese and Dump Truck, so I guess Hook isn’t too far from his baseline of naming things. I won’t mention here what he thought we should name his little brother….except to maybe that it started with “Pe” and ended with “nis”.

Since last spring, anytime we have seen a robin it is clearly been Hook, at least in the eyes of a certain 5 year old.

And so with the return of spring we have also had the return of Hook (or more likely “Hooks”). Everything freezes whenever we see Hook and two boys watch and stare at him/her as he/she jumps around or moves up and down the fence line. Our strawberries are in full bloom and we should have a ton of strawberries in the weeks to come, so it will be a good test whether or not the bird netting actually works. The boys love Hook, if we are out on a run and see a robin fly by, I hear both of them “Hi Hook”. Early in the morning during breakfast they often look out the window and will see him/her hopping around the yard and I hear them given Hook a run down of our day and whatever plans we have.

A bird (likely “Hook”) built a nest in one of the trees last year and Leighton looks out his window every morning to see if “Hook” has returned to lay some eggs. It is so much fun to hear his excitement and just the pure joy that both boys get out of watching a simple robin

I pray that as they get older and more things are there to divert their attention, that they will continue to pause and watch at the simple and beautiful things in life such as a “Hook” jumping across the yard on a warm spring day.