I just looked out the window onto the back yard to see how things were going with the birds. I watched a male robin fly out of my yard to a parked black car in my neighbor's lot. It then ran up to the icicles on the back of the car bumper and started drinking water from each of them until he was done. He then went about his business. Makes sense but I hadn't seen it before.
Always looking for interesting plants for pollinators and food! Bonus points for highly, and pleasantly scented plants.
"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." [“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”] -- Marcus Tullius Cicero in Ad Familiares IX, 4, to Varro. 46 BCE
Understood. And normally it isn't an issue. But we just had a mess of freezing rain here that we're diffing out of. I was just about to put out water from inside the house when I saw this drinking behavior. There is almost no melt save what is happening in the street and that should be pretty close to salt water with all the salt they've been laying down the last 2 days.
Always looking for interesting plants for pollinators and food! Bonus points for highly, and pleasantly scented plants.
"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." [“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”] -- Marcus Tullius Cicero in Ad Familiares IX, 4, to Varro. 46 BCE
Interesting! Of all the birds in my yard, the American robins spend the most time at the birdbath...way more time drinking and bathing than any of the others. Perhaps they've devised various ways to satisfy their thirst under adverse conditions.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Salt is not the only chemical that is put on the roads.
Birds are creatures of habit. Even though their lifespan is short this could be a learned behavior. They saw someone else do it. Doesn't have to have been a Robin.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
