Reader Ron Marshall recently sent me a video of a robin attacking the windows of his East Lansing home. Marshall wrote: “I've affectionately named the robin 'Don Quixote' who attacked windmills with the same disillusioned abandon.”
As I’ve written in the past, in relation to my own battered, robin-spittle-covered windows, it’s a mating thing. The head-banger is a male robin defending his territory against rival males, real and reflected.
Well, Marshall, to his credit, is obviously a man who respects language. In a follow-up email he wrote: “I sent you an email earlier today about a robin attacking my windows and described it as being disillusioned. I realize now that I have misused the word 'disillusioned'. As a friend pointed out, if the robin were, in fact, disillusioned, he would no longer be attacking my
windows for he would have realized his error and stopped. So clearly, this robin is not disillusioned! Deluded perhaps is a better term.”
Bravo, Mr. Marshall.
