Elvis The European Robin
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Who is Sean and how did he first meet Elvis the bald robin?
Now, not every robin gets a name, but one of our listeners, Sean Garrity, gave his garden visitor a name. The moment he turned up, bawled around the head, but for one to find quiff on top. Elvis, as he has become known, has been holding court on the patio in Lucan since early summer, taking mealworms from Sean's wife's hand and, before long, bringing a partner and two broods of chicks along with him. But Sean's got some questions about that bare head and about why Elvis and his mate have turned surprisingly fierce towards one particular youngster. So we're calling Sean now to say hello to him and find out more about... His robin called Elvis. Hello? Hello, Sean. How are you? It's Derek Mooney here at RT Radio.
Ah, Derek, how are you? Thanks for calling. Not at all. Lovely to speak with you. Terry Flanagan is in studio, as is Richard Collins. Now, tell us about Elvis the robin.
It was my wife, actually. She spotted the robin out on the patio and she started putting out mealworms. and the robin came down straight down and started taking the worms. But we noticed that he had no feathers on his head, that he was very bald-looking. So we thought maybe he'd been in a territorial dispute with another bird. And we christened him Elvis because he had a few feathers remaining on the top of his head. But I suppose in hindsight, we should have called him Kojak because he's completely bald now.
Well, he'd have to have a lollipop too, wouldn't he?
Well, that's it. Yeah, yeah. Who loves your baby? Who loves your baby, yeah. So my wife had a big interest in it because she had seen people feeding robins and then coming to their hands there. in public parks and that so she got the worms anyway and she put them out and Elvis as we christened them was coming to the back door and every morning she'd come down and open the blind and he'd be waiting outside looking up the little beady eyes looking up like saying where are you I'm ready for food now this went on for a few days and then a second robin appeared now we might have been a bit presumptuous calling the first fat Elvis because we didn't know whether he was the male or female. But when the second robin appeared anyway, Elvis started to woo it and he was doing little head movements from side to side and he was presenting the other bird with the mealworms.
Yeah, that's called courtship feeding.
Courtship feeding. So we knew then which was the male and which was the female. So soon after that, the female disappeared and we presumed that they were nesting. Now, Our concern was with the condition of Elvis's head. We weren't sure if he was going to last, whether he was sick or whether he was, as I said, whether he'd been in a territorial dispute and came out second best. But nevertheless, anyway, the weeks passed and that would have been early summer around May. And on the 9th of May, Elvis and Mrs. Robin, as we called her, arrived back and they had three juveniles. So we knew that they had been successful and Elvis was still in good health. And on the 17th then of May, a smaller juvenile appeared.
So the first brood was four juveniles and they followed suit with the parents. Geraldine kept putting out the mealworms and Quite often in the morning she'd look out the window and there'd be six robins staring up waiting to be fed. And it was gas at one point that Elvis used. If you can picture youngsters when they'd be going along the wall or something trying to jump up to look over where they weren't tall enough to see over the wall, Elvis would do a flutter up as far as the window in the kitchen door and look in and then drop back down and do this several times until Geraldine would appear out with the mealworms for him. The juveniles were all present anyway and doing their begging calls each day.
And Elvis was doing the bulk of the feeding there. Mrs. Rodman took a back seat there and let him feed all the youngsters. But it was gas to feed them then after a few days. The youngsters would be given the begging calls Elvis would ignore them. And then once he had his back turned, it was like a child raiding the sweet jar.
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