Sometimes reader mail serves as my calendar. For example, it
must be mid winter because I'm getting letters and e-mails about
flocks of robins. Does the appearance of winter robins mean
spring will arrive early, or are these birds just disoriented?
That's the gist of most of the queries. Here's what happening.
Unlike warblers, swallows, and other song birds that migrate to
avoid severe northern winters, robins are hardy and flexible.
The extent of their annual migration is influenced by several
factors, so seeing robins in winter isn't unusual. But even in
years when robins escape detection, some while away the colder
months in the deep woods where few of us venture regularly. Talk
to anyone who hikes the winter woods, however, and you'll hear
tales of flocks of robins every year. Several winters ago robins
were particularly common in the northern United States.
According to Project FeederWatch results from Cornell
University's Laboratory of Ornithology, a woman from Miles City,
Montana reported, "In January,