A flock of robins is wintering in an orchard down the road.
A few of them regularly drop by to forage on a steep, south-facing slope near my office. I thought it was a sign of global warning that they didn’t fly south, but instead
robins live here year round. I had no idea!
Here’s a photo of a bobbing robin, with both feet off the ground.
Here’s a picture of a stotting mule deer, all four feet off the ground. (This is my edit of a photo from the biology department of the University of Regina in Canada).
Bobbing is a gerund of bob, and like many old words ’bob’ has many meanings. In the robin’s case, it’s
bob –verb (used with object)
2. to move quickly down and up: to bob the head
Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English bobben. )
The mule deer’s stot is from the same root as stutter.
stot –noun
1. a springing gait of certain bovids, as gazelles and antelopes, used esp. when running in alarm from a predator
verb used without object
2. to run with such a gait
Origin:
special use of Scots, N England dial. stot bound, go by leaps, bounce; perh. akin to ME stuten to stutter 
It takes a special word to leap straight up in the air.
Gravity and grave behavior keep us moored to earth, while all around us creatures are stotting and bobbing. There’s a lesson about joy here, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Recent Comments