On a quiet Montréal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks away, port facilities on the St Lawrence River.
Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa, Ontario, is here on a frigid February morning hoping to see the rare bird, which was first spotted at the beginning of January.
This is the first recorded sighting of a European robin in Canada, and only the fifth or sixth in North America. That it has taken up residence in Quebec is a source of delight but also consternation for birders. How did it travel thousands of kilometres from its home territory, and will it survive a very cold Montréal winter?
I solved the case, it was a pet.
Goddamn I’m good at this.
Perhaps it waz supposed to extend an invitation to join the EU, and got lost on the way to Ottawa.
When the red red robin comes bob bob bobbing along
Remember when Burnaby Lake had the mandarin duck in residence for a year?
Does not the plumber may seek warmer climes in winter yet these are not strangers to our land?