Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 08:23:00 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Re: Robins In-Reply-To: <003501c2df1f$51029860$1463a3d1@oemcomputer> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi Bob and all -- These large robin flocks have been around our area since late fall -- so it is not all migration although it could represent southward incursion of birds from further north. I have seen flocks of over 1,000 birds together since early December. In fact, my understanding was that a lot of our "winter robins" were from the NE and Canadian Maritimes, while ours went further south. These birds are generally somewhat darker than our locally breeding robins. And this *has* been a cold winter, with early and subfreezing cold since the beginning of December with very few periods of "normal" temperatures according to the NWS. True, we have not had any sub or near-zero periods, so birds have survived fairly well. Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD gail@mdsg.umd.edu on 02/28/2003 6:48 AM, Robert Ringler at ringler@QIS.NET wrote: > I always like to suggest that a good way to find out about the expected > status of a bird is to check the Yellow Book first. In this case it shows > that the Robin's spring migration is underway and it should not be > unexpected to see lots of them around. We are not used to seeing so many in > the snow because we have been spoiled by the recent mild winters. The snow > also tends to concentrate the birds in larger flocks, making them more > obvious. They also stand out more against a white background rather than > the grays and browns of other years. History has shown that the first > migrant Robins begin arriving about the first of February with numbers > increasing greatly by the middle of the month. Peak migration is in March > so you have more to look forward to. > Has anybody seen skunk cabbage poking through the snow yet? > > Bob Ringler > Eldersburg > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================