Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 16:09:24 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rob Hilton Subject: Robins and more Comments: To: dhmbowen@yahoo.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Yesterday in the great unspecified land to the south of the mouth of Four Mile Run, District of Columbia, I saw over a hundred American Robins feeding on berries and walking (foraging in hope as the ground was frozen and earthwormless) on the snow-free ground. Many of the ground birds let me approach within ten feet of them before they stirred themselves to move away. Other ground robins at this, marina, were actually lying on the ground for a bit. One of the birds in the tree appeared to have its eyes closed and its bill pointed skyward until I came to close, then it opened its eyes. At the mouth of Four Mile Run yesterday morning were 2 male Redheads, 2 male and 2 female Canvasbacks, and a male Common Merganser. The water was partly frozen there. Earlier, at Kenilworth Park, Northeast DC, I heard a distant Killdeer and saw some geese and gulls. No other birds, really. Friday afternoon near sunset there was a Cooper's Hawk sitting in a tree on the east of the Whole Foods/Strosnider's parking lot. If only I kept a food shopping list ... Best, Rob Hilton >From: "D.H. Michael Bowen" >To: Maryland Birds & Birding >CC: Rob Hilton >Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Robin flight over Bethesda >Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 16:08:02 -0500 > >Rob and MDOspreyers: > >There have been hundreds of Robins flying around Bethesda for the past >couple of weeks. When last it was mild and the grass unfrozen (was that >only two weeks ago, seems longer?!) the Robins were going for earthworms. >I remember that there were hundreds on the grassy fields of Landon School, >off Wilson Lane, around Christmas. Now that all is frozen and/or snow >covered, they're cruising around, looking for berries. > >This morning I was doing business in downtown Bethesda and a flock of about >50 was devouring berries from some ornamental trees just west of Wisconsin >Avenue. Passers-by seemed oblivious; so did the Robins, who were clearly >ravenous. Yesterday, a flock of 20 stopped by briefly in our backyard to >bathe in our heated bird bath. > >A number of my Bethesda non-birding friends and neighbors have called to >ask what's going on. Is spring just around the corner, they ask? I tell >them unfortunately the answer is probably no. They are generally surprised >to hear that there are large flocks of Robins around every winter, not just >this one. > >Mike Bowen > > > >At 11:38 AM 1/17/03 -0500, you wrote: >>This morning I have noticed about 75 American Robins from my office >>window. All of them are flying from east to west. Has anybody noticed >>robin movements since the snowfall ended? >> >>Rob Hilton >>Bethesda, MD >>rhilton@csa.com >> >>======================================================================= >>To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >>with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >>======================================================================= > >D. H. Michael Bowen, Ph.D. >Consulting Services for Technical and Professional Organizations >8609 Ewing Drive >Bethesda, MD 20817 >Tel./Fax.: 301-530-5764 >e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com >web: http://www.consultants-consortium.com/DHMichaelBowen.html _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================