I noticed his arrival earlier this spring when the weather first began to warm. I remember looking outside and being so excited at my first Robin sighting of the spring. I held our little nugget up to the window, trying to point out the Robin and explain to her my excitement.

Over the last few months since this first sighting, I noticed this same Robin frequenting our yard. I could see him from the rocking chair by my computer, hopping through my gardens outside the window plucking worms from the wet spring soil.

A few weeks ago as our little nugget and I sat outside in the grass next to the gardens, observing all the beautiful flowers starting to bloom, this same Robin hopped into the yard like he wanted to join in our spring reverie. It was then I decided we needed to name our little friend and Roberto was the first name that popped into my mind, so Roberto it is. Although my husband and I joke at times that our Robin friend may very well be a “Roberta”, for now we’ll just stick with Roberto.

Every day I find myself looking forward to seeing Roberto, mesmerized by his bird habits when he skillfully plucks a worm from my gardens and eats it while I watch. If our little nugget is not napping, I point out Roberto and what he is doing so maybe one day she’ll experience the same sense of joy I do when bird watching. At nine months old she is a bit too distracted by my long hair, the zipper on my hoodie, or my earrings to pay too much attention to her mama rambling about a bird in the garden.

As she grows, those distractions will become less interesting and the outside world will become more intriguing. I look forward to the day where mama and daughter can have an interactive bird watching experience, engaging in conversation about what we see and hear. Then she will join me as we watch Roberto and his bird friends. She may be too young now to fully understand all I tell her about birds and other natural things around us, but as she grows it will become a part of who she is.

I wasn’t always a bird fanatic. Somewhere in the last few years something shifted in me and I became mesmerized with these feathered creatures. When I saw a bird or heard a bird singing when outdoors, I became so curious as to what type of bird it was. I began collecting bird identification books: books specific to region, books with colored pictures, thick books that had tiny pencil sketches but listed thousands of birds found on our continent.

Several years ago, I set up a bird feeding “restaurant” in our front yard that is visible from our main living area. I have two suet feeders, a squirrel proof seed feeder and in warm weather a hummingbird feeder. There is also a lovely cast iron bird bath that sees a lot of action in the few short, warm months in Montana. I also have specifically planted my flower gardens around the house with flowers that attract of birds, especially hummingbirds.

I keep several bird identification books and a pair of binoculars in the front room of the house so when I see birds on the feeders I can inspect them closer and practice my identification skills. It seemed only natural then that I would incorporate our little nugget into my bird watching hobby.

One day last fall when our little nugget was not more than two months old, I decided that instead of reading her a child’s book from the bookshelf in her room I would start reading her the bird identification book. I reasoned that at such a young age, the importance was more about the fact that I read to her and not what I read to her since I knew she wouldn’t understand or retain what I was reading at that age.

So I picked up the bird identification book that had the brightest pictures and began reading. This book even has spellings of what sounds the birds make so I would practice those as I was reading. Now when I read her those parts she gets a big smile and loves to hear me make these unusual sounds. Each day when I would pick up the book to read about a few more birds, I reviewed all the birds we had covered previously as a way to also help me memorize and remember.

I have yet to tackle the thick bird identification book with our little nugget, maybe next winter. For now we’re too involved in actually watching the birds in action outside our house, identifying them and watching their behaviors.

We’re too busy spending time outdoors with our new friend Roberto, watching and learning from him about his bird ways. I continue to look around our house for a nest where Roberto calls home but I have yet to find one. How rich of an experience it would be for us this summer if Roberto really is a Roberta and has a nest with eggs that will hatch into baby Robins we can watch grow!