People who will say they hardly know one bird from another, will always recognise the robin: the robin redbreast of Christmas cards and greeting cards. And yet, a man who is studying for a PhD on the breeding biology of robins, can write that while recognised on a wide scale, "remarkably little is known about Irish robins". What does he want to know: Well, he lists the clutch size i.e. the number of eggs, the brood size and the choice of nest site, for example.
The latter is a tricky one, for a friend, who almost daily puts out some crumbs in exactly the same place for the bird can never find out just where the nearby nest is.
"It's somewhere between the second and third oaks along the drive," he says. That is, about ten yards from where he feeds the bird. But he will not go in between the trees in case his footprints lead some predator to the neat. But he peers from the drive. Unsuccessfully, so far. They are friendly, man and bird. For the latter will often eat out of his hand. Our PhD aspirant, Gavin Fennessy, says robins can begin pairing as soon as December, and the majority of broods occur between March and June.
Robins often build in idiosyncratic places - old kettles, in letter boxes. And was there not one which built in a tractor machine and carried through to a successful conclusion? Or is that just a story? Or was it another bird? There may be two or three broods in a season.
Advice: don't go looking too closely; you may bring disaster on the nest, but if you can come on it by chance or can view it without disturbance, or even remember past nests, Gavin Fennessy, Zoology and Animal Ecology Department, University College, Cork, would like to hear from you.
He will send a Nest and Habitat Study Card to you "post haste", and you just fill out a few answers to questions. His appeal is taken from Wings, journal of the Irish Wildbird Conservancy, also known as Birdwatch Ireland.