Love in the Sticks... Part One

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a Robin, minding his own business, when one day a new feature turned up in his territory.
He couldn't know it was a 24 inch square black plastic tray. He just knew someone had loaded it with 'goodies', and all the other birds in the area had discovered it before him.
He set about clearing out the competition, and settled down to feast.
He'd been picking through the windfall for about ten minutes when he spotted, from the corner of his eye, something small and round and pink staring at him from the middle of a small green box.

He'd never seen anything like it before in his life and went closer to investigate....

...and promptly fell in love.




Food forgotten the robin serenaded his new love for several minutes, he sang loud and clear without stopping to give her time to reply.
Undaunted when his new love failed to respond, the robin doubled his efforts. He sang louder and longer and stopped only to chase off intruders who dared to filch the sunflower seeds while he concentrated on serenading his new love.
For two days he sang and preened and puffed up his feathers, only stopping long enough to search round the side of the green box to see if his love was hiding behind it.
The longer she failed to respond the more desperate he became. Overnight he perched on a nearby branch to watch over the love of his life, and during the night the wind blew up a storm...
... and his love disappeared.

To be continued…