Robin

 Indy and I stepped outside early this morning for our constitutional.  There was a robin, not singing, but emitting short call notes.  From where I was it looked to have something on it's beak and it carried it as it flew around.  The bird didn't seem terribly afraid.   Why would a bird fly around w/ something hanging from it's beak?   My heart sank as I thought it had gotten into something that it couldn't get off it's beak.  No way to get close enough to help the little guy out.   I did take a pic.

Later in the morning I and Indy were back out on the deck to water the flowers (the storms forecast for last night had fizzled out).   The same robin was jumping around - flying from shepards hook to bench to lilac bush and back again chirping insistently.  It still had something on it's beak that it carried where ever it went.  I took another picture.  Couldn't stand not knowing what the bird had stuck on it's beak so I downloaded the pictures and blew them up on my computer.  Didn't look like the bird had a problem.  The later picture clearly showed he was carrying around a fat grub.  I blew up the picture from the morning.  This time it wasn't a grub he had but an earthworm.  Because of the white on him and his totally butch haircut I first thought he was a juvenile showing off that he'd actually caught something. Nope.  That just didn't fit.  I didn't think a robin only a month or so old could be that big nor have grown such red breast feathers.  American robins are in the thrush family and their young sport spots in front.  Bet this is a parent that was calling for it's fledglings.  Willing to supplement their diet if his children hadn't gotten the knack yet of hunting for themselves.  What a nice guy.