Monday, September 30, 2013

Now I'll Send You Robins

     In my last post I sent you some birds that can be a bit of a nuisance. Brewer's black birds can form huge flocks and sometimes there are two or three species in the same flock. These flocks can be a nuisance if they stay in one area.

     For a couple of weeks or more we have had robins cruising the neighborhood. The flocks keep getting bigger as birds from further north arrive. So there are now huge flocks that fly exuberantly though the neighborhood. I watched today and there would constantly be three or four robins in my back yard. They don't stay long before they suddenly buzz off and some different birds arrive.

    So in a few days this large group of robins will gradually move south. Some of them will not go too far south. A few will even stay here of the winter. Every winter I see robins and robins are always in our winter bird count.

    When I was in Inuvik in the 1960's we did not see robins. Now they have robins and robins have nested on Banks Island which is 400km (250 mi) further north and over the Beaufort Sea. When I backpacked in the Rockies one of the most common birds above the tree line was the robin. Robins will nest on the ground even  when trees are nearby. So robins inhabit a wide variety of habitat. 

    People like robins and robins behave themselves. So today I'm getting ready to send you something nice.