Our Robin

Pohanginapete had a post up the other day that deeply considered the individuality of an animal. He was writing about a one-eyed kingfisher that he had spotted, and who had spotted him with its one good eye. How does such an animal survive? Especially one that must navigate the waters for its food? We have wondered the same thing about an animal's ability to adapt to its particular deficits and injuries. We think about it, because we have a robin that we have watched for several months. There are many robins that congregate in our yard and bathe in the pond. They like to eat the juicy worms and bathe in relative safety. But we do have one robin in particular that we call our robin. He comes to our yard a few times a week. How do we recognize that one robin?
He has something sticking out of his chest. We can't tell if it's superficial or one of those peculiar punctures, like the nail through the jaw into the brain, but that hits just right and causes no obvious injury. We emailed our friend Dave at BLC and sent him this photo. He didn't think there was much we could do, and offered that we would probably cause more damage if we tried to capture the bird and assist it.
So, we just keep our eye out for him, and notice when he shows up. We're always glad to see him.
He reminds us that animals adapt and survive. They have resilience, persistence, and a deep desire to keep eating worms.