Are Robins Symbols Of Dead Loved Ones?

GNC said:
Ever since the heavy snow of the past couple of weeks, there's a blackbird in my garden that has been guarding the bird feeders and making sure no other birdies get any seeds. Even the robin, who is a mean little bastard (but cute!) and normally wouldn't take that shit, has been chased away. It's ridiculous, one blackbird can't eat all that anyway. With any luck the Spring will give him other things to think about.
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Oh my blackbirds - a pair - seem pretty shy and in awe of the robins and the tit collection. You probably have a more macho blackbird than our's. The other tentative feeder, I've noticed, is a thrush that just comes occasionally, and seems to peck the others' leftovers off the floor, under the feeders. The wood pigeons are probably our biggest birds and they waddle, they're so fat. I was watching the super morbidly obese one feed the other day (as opposed to the just obese one) and thinking "How can you possibly cram more food into your cakehole?" Even in the middle of those few days of snow, it didn't, for one moment, look realistically hungry.
 
This has just come up on my Facebook feed. It's a glass ornament, available here - Robins Appear

I'm posting the page because the comments are so varied!

robin.jpg
 
My brother is currently seeing them all the time.

Whats remarkable about this thread is if you read it from the beginning when I first started it many years ago I observed that the trope didn't appear to exist in the general folklore, or anywhere online, but that it seemed to be coming into being as a new thing out there... 14 years on and its fully "a thing" to the extent of having mass produced objects referencing it.
 
gattino said:
My brother is currently seeing them all the time.

Whats remarkable about this thread is if you read it from the beginning when I first started it many years ago I observed that the trope didn't appear to exist in the general folklore, or anywhere online, but that it seemed to be coming into being as a new thing out there... 14 years on and its fully "a thing" to the extent of having mass produced objects referencing it.
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It's not new though, it's old, but it's spread more during the last how-many years.
 
This is about a BBC R4 programme which could be mentioned under any one of several headings - atheism, symbols from beyond, angels etc - but I'm putting it under Robins because robins.

Hashtag Pray

Jane Little meets people who define themselves as non-religious, yet hold strong beliefs in the supernatural - people like Russ and Kerry from Uttoxeterwho lost their baby daughter Ruby Jane when she was just three months old but believe she is still sending them signs in the form or feathers, Pat who is an atheist but claims to have had a whole raft of encounters with ghosts, and Rowan who feels "belief" isn’t a strong enough word for her experience of angels.
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It's less about atheism versus belief and more about the beliefs that people hold whether or not they feel themselves to be religious.
Well, I enjoyed it!
 
A few months ago, in June, our dog died suddenly and without warning and we had to make that heartbreaking journey to the vets to take her for cremation. On the way home we stopped at a garden centre to cheer ourselves up a little by getting a few flowers we could plant in the garden and a cup of tea and slice of cake.

While in the cafe a robin flew inside and decided to perch on our basket and watch us for a bit before flying back outside again. Never seen a robin there before or since and thought it was odd that it chose our basket to perch on as we were quite a way inside the cafe and there were quite a large number of both occupied and unoccupied tables. I am not sure as to the whole mechanics of the situation, but my wife and I like to think that in some way it was our dog passing on a message not to be sad. Even if it was just a coincidence and completely random chance it was a really nice coincidence.
 
Morning all, I've always believed that a Robin does mean a loved one is near. Earlier on this week, while on my way to work, I saw a Goldfinch. Instantly I said" Hello Dad." I knew he was around and I had a big smile on me gob!!! The Goldfinch feathers were so bright, saw it fly up and must've seen at least 4 of them. Years ago my Dad use to have an aviary and Goldfinches were on of his favourite birds.
 
Morning, were we live only birds we see are sparrows, crows, magpies and bleeding pigeons. That's why it was such a surprise to see the goldfinches and why I thought of my Dad.
 
Crankyoldgit62 said:
Morning, were we live only birds we see are sparrows, crows, magpies and bleeding pigeons. That's why it was such a surprise to see the goldfinches and why I thought of my Dad.
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They really are lovely little birds. I liked bullfinches too, though again, haven't seen one in years.
 
Morning, a couple of weeks ago myself and the missus, went to Bletchley Park and at the end of our tour, we went to the Polish War Memorial there and to our surprise saw a robin. He was quite big for a robin, or bigger than the ones I've seen. He looked so tame that if I held my hand out to him, I think he would've landed on my hand. We took a few photos. And, yes, I did say "Hello Dad", missus and a few people who were there gave me a look but didn't care. He would've been 99 last month and it was a nice surprise to see the robin.
 
GNC said:
I used to see goldfinches all the time, but not anymore. Hardly ever see any finches now, not even chaffinches.
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A bit off topic (as if that ever stops me!) but what's happened to their habitat in your area, & and how much home pesticide is used by your neighbors?
 
IbisNibs said:
A bit off topic (as if that ever stops me!) but what's happened to their habitat in your area, & and how much home pesticide is used by your neighbors?
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From what I gather, it's not pesticide killing the birds' food sources (though that is a problem), more climate change that is wrecking their life cycles by giving them too-cold winters followed by too-warm-too-early springs, which means their breeding is being knocked further and further out of whack, so many aren't surviving.
 
AlchoPwn said:
The minute you say that something is symbolic of something else, you can't really refute it, except by asking "since when?". Such things seem to rest on traditions, but every tradition needs to have its origins at some time.
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How did you extrapolate all that from a sentimental Facebook meme?
 
AlchoPwn said:
Such things seem to rest on traditions, but every tradition needs to have its origins at some time.
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Every?

How about the tradition of not starting traditions? ;)

Given that a tradition is a ritualistically repeated action/thought or set of actions/thoughts*, I think we're into 'Ship of Theseus' territory: how many repetitions and with what degree of unity to qualify? And once a threshold is established can we really say that it differs significantly enough from the mere 'tendency' half a rung below? And if that is then included, how to exclude the tendency beneath that?

I tend to think of traditions as like games: there is no single quality that all games share, but each shares at least one quality with at least one other member of the category: they have a 'family resemblance' that tends to mean that 'you know one when you see it'; you know a tradition when you observe it, but it's sometimes hard to say what makes it a tradition or when it started to be one.

* Ritualistic in the sense of being 'performed' with intention in a tolerably similar fashion.
 
Yithian said:
Every? How about the tradition of not starting traditions? ;)
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To have a tradition of not starting traditions would contradict itself, thus, to follow it one would have to start traditions in order to not start the tradition of not starting traditions. It is logically unavoidable.
 
I was watching a programme on robins a few years back, the presenter doing her PhD thesis on them:
The males are so territorially aggressive that they come up to you, not out of friendliness but to assess your threat level and whether you can be made to move away. The sustained level of aggression leads to burn-out in the males and most have a life-span of about 18 months before succumbing to viral diseases. If you see a robin in your garden from year to year, it is very unlikely to be the same one.
My money on dead-loved-ones returning would be in the form of corvids - crows, ravens, jackdaws, jays, magpies etc - tiny brains but hugely intelligent and I find they have an unsettling presence. And some can swear.
 
Bad Bungle said:
crows, ravens, jackdaws, jays, magpies etc - tiny brains but hugely intelligent and I find they have an unsettling presence. And some can swear.
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Cats can swear, too, they just don't use consonants. But, yes, corvids—Odin's intelligence gatherers. Smart birds.
 
Large jackdaw used to hop about in the playground of my Primary School in the early '60s. Occasionally we'd come out on a break and try to get closer to it and get the response fuck off fuck off in a reasonable impersonation of old Mr Weller the village Street Sweeper.
Once a Teacher pointed out the bird as a prelude to a Nature lesson and was met with a chorus of "Miss, Miss it can TALK ! "
"Yes ........." she said slowly and changed the subject.
Don't remember if the jackdaw was seen again after the demise of old Mr Weller.
 
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news...jHVRwfXjVPci5ILRSIEexQL5XDRcShL_3B35CVDl86aoI

"
A ROBIN has confirmed he is not the vessel of a deceased grandparent returned to visit the family for Christmas, and is just eating some seeds.


The misunderstanding arose when the robin alighted on a bird-table outside the window just as Mary Fisher was discussing her much-missed grandmother.


Mary said: “It was like a sign from the heavens. Just as I mentioned Nana Fisher, there was the robin bold as brass with a cheeky look in its eye the very same as hers.



“As it nibbled the fat balls I said ‘Nana? Is that you?’ and it gave me this wise look as if to tell me everything was okay and to stop fretting, just like she used to, before flying off. Probably to our Jason’s.”


However, robin Wayne Hayes said: “There’s a birdfeeder by the window and I need protein-rich food to make it through winter. It’s that simple.


“I am not now, nor have I ever been, the spiritual vessel of a dead human.


“The spirit of Mary’s nan is actually inhabiting her Canon MG5700 colour printer. Those paper jams are a sign. She hates you.”
 
The tree outside my front window was stuffed full of robins today. I don't know that many dead people.

Winter robins are known as "swamp robins" here. I suppose that's where the best winter feeding usually is.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
A relative of mine was obsessively fond of robins; friends and family would make sure that every Christmas card revolved around the theme
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My godmother hated Christmas cards with robins on, you had to make sure there were none lurking in the background or the card wouldn't make it! I'm not sure of her train of thought on that front.

Personally I love robins. We used to have outside tea breaks back when I was doing m PhD, and there was a robin who quickly sussed that we were a good source of biscuit crumbs and bits of sandwich. He was affectionately nicknamed Johnny, and could sometimes be persuaded to hop onto people's hands.
 
Jackdaws live on the roof of my house, been a tribe there for years, they are bright and naughty- tease the dog by sitting on the window and steal the fat balls. Not sure if they talk, but it does sound like they chat to each other.

" Our" robins are the only birds that are not intimidated by them, we seem to be neutral territory for two males who take it in turns to visit the feeder.
 
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