Date:         Thu, 27 Feb 2003 09:41:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Janet Millenson <janet@TWOCROWS.COM>
Subject:      Re: American Robins
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

The number of robins around here this winter may -- according to Gail
Mackiernan -- or may not -- according to Dave Mozurkewich -- be larger than
usual. Like Dave, in winter I often come across flocks of up to several
hundred robins, but those birds have almost always been in the woods.

What seems undeniably different this year is that people are noticing large
numbers of robins in suburban areas that typically remain fairly robin-free
until late March. Even a non-birding friend in Bethesda recently phoned me
to ask about the amazing number of robins she was seeing ("Is this
normal?").

Has anyone noticed FEWER robins in the woods? If so, then perhaps the
weather or some other circumstance is driving the usual birds to seek food
in unusual foraging areas. If the woodland numbers seem normal, then perhaps
these suburban robins do indeed represent an irruption from the north, as
Gail suggests.

Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)
janet@twocrows.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot

=======================================================================
To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com
with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey
=======================================================================
=========================================================================