Sharing a Robin's Life

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

1993. 129p. photos. $12.95pa. ISBN 1–55109–055–4pa. CCIP. DDC
C818'.5403.

For the countless people who have tried to care for a baby bird rescued
after a fall from the nest, this book will set off a wave of memories
and trigger a response of respect and awe for the author’s dedication.

Johns, an artist living in rural Nova Scotia, took in a fledgling robin
and shared every detail of its life for eight years. That life included
the daily routines—feeding, playing, bathing—and major events such
as nest building, egg laying, raising nestlings, sickness, and even
migration-displacement activity.

It is staggering to contemplate the amount of work that providing a
daily supply of natural food for a robin and her many nestlings, over an
eight-year period, must have entailed. Add to that the attentiveness,
care, and extra labor necessitated by having free-flying birds in the
house, and it becomes apparent that “sharing a robin’s life”
became a full-time career for the author.

Over the course of meeting the robin’s physical and psychological
needs, Johns became a perceptive observer of bird behavior, and in this
book she adds new information and insights to the literature on robins.
Her lively text is packed with first-person observations. Approximately
50 amateur color photos and one color plate of a painting by the author
add visual interest. This informative and enjoyable book will be
welcomed by anyone with an interest in ornithology, from the
kitchen-window birder to the scientist.