On American Robins

    This morning I watched hundreds of robins whirling through my district. It was plus 2 C (36 F) and very windy. They were not flying south but spending time eating berries left on trees. 

    Last Sunday afternoon when I was at Heritage Ranch there were again hundreds of robins in the area. They were flying with abandon and eating saskatoons, chokecherries and whatever else they could find. It was at this time that we found the pileated woodpeckers. I also took photos of robins at that time but they were so poor I deleted them.

Pileated woodpecker

   I have noticed some time ago that some people are reporting that their robins had flown south. That got me thinking. Robins nest into the Arctic. It will take them a long time to get to me in Central Alberta. In the high country, mountain meadows above the treeline, the robin is a common nester. The Arctic and mountain robins nest nest on the ground. 

    I'm wondering if the mountain robins come down from the mountains and visit me for a few weeks? I wonder how many of these birds are Arctic robins?

   These birds have frosty breasts with just a hint of color showing through. The black is also much duller.

    I've also said many times that I've seen robins in every month of the year in Central Alberta. 

   So there must be tough robins and wimpy robins. There seems to be a wide pattern in their fall migration. I don't notice this in the spring.

   No matter what , I'm enjoying these joyful robins who are passing through in this October.

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.

Somebody's Always "Gotta" Be The Bad Guy

      Somebody's always gotta be the bad guy. Somebody's always gotta rain on your party. Somebody's always gotta bring you the bad news. So here it is. I still have lots of snow! I was trying not to tell anybody as I thought it would go away. However, my snow is still here. So for all those people with flowers that are blooming and all those people who have green grass I hate to disappoint you with my news. For all the southerners who are experiencing hot weather I apologize. For my Australian readers who don't know snow, I'm sorry I have to tell you about snow.

My front yard

You've seen this before. My ski trail was here.

More of my ski trail.

    Now on a brighter note I saw a robin yesterday. This morning while I was doing snow pictures a robin gave it's warning. It was in a Mountain Ash right above my head. So you say "What are robins doing there with all that snow?" Robins are smarter than you think. They go on the ground and eat Mountain Ash berries that have fallen off the tree. 


     We had 12 hours and 47 minutes of sunlight today. With the coming of long days things develop very quickly here. We may have a late start but we catch up to everybody.