Rain Party

I was sitting at the French doors eating my lunch and watching the rain. There were big puddles on the sidewalk, leaves and branches down on the lawn, trees waving vigorously in the gusty wind. The rain was not coming down. It was coming sideways.

Then, in the middle of the rain and wind and puddles, the yard was full of robins. I had never seen so many at one time. They were jumping from branch to branch in the dripping trees. They were digging in the mulch for lunch. They were hop, hop, hopping across the lawn with rain streaming down their small brown feathers. They were splish-splashing delightedly in the puddles.

Some of them scurried over to the door to peer at me, as if to say, "Hmmm, what have we here? Anything to eat?"

Where did they all come from? Why were they here in a late October rainstorm? I couldn't get my bearings. We've lived in Pennsylvania for years where the robins discreetly disappear as the leaves change, and we don't see them again until they return in the spring with the daffodils.

Then I realized. They were retreating, heading east out of the Smokies, in search of low, wooded valleys and rich earth to forage. I'm in a southern climate. This was a migrating rain party.

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Have you ever seen something remarkable during migration season?