[va-richmond-general] Fw: [birding] Digest Number 1904

From: "IE Ries" <ieries@xxxxxxx>
To: <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 13:06:52 -0500
Thought I would pass this on since we've been talking about Robins on this list 
a lot lately.

Thanks!

Irene

  Date: 24 Feb 2003 09:10:45 -0000
  From: birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  To: birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: [birding] Digest Number 1904

  Message: 2
  Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 21:48:24 -0500
  From: "Carrie Hampton" 
  Subject: Where are all the robins, you ask?


  ........In Virginia!

  And here's why:

  (from AP source)

  "Gigantic flocks of robins have descended upon central and southern
  Virginia during the past few weeks, possibly waiting for warmer weather up
  north before they resume their seasonal migrations.

  "'I've had 10 or 15 people say, 'What's with all the robins?', said Charles
  Blem, a Virginia Commonwealth University biologist. Blem led a field trip
  this month to several spots just east of Richmond. 'We saw robins in every
  field. I didn't even count them, but it was thousands.'

  "'We're seeing the same thing here,' said Bryan Watts, direct! or of the
  College of William and Mary's Center for Conservation Biology. 'We're seeing
  huge numbers, and we're hearing a lot of comments from other people, too.'

  "The robins, Watts said have been gathering across south-central and
  southeastern Virginia 'in the hundreds of thousands, I'm sure.'

  "Watts is hearing robin reports 'all the way to Charlottesville.' The robins
  that descended on Virginia could be birds that headed north on their spring
  migrations, then got pushed back south by bad weather. When that happens,
  birds moving back south can bunch up with ones moving north.

  "'It's possible these cold blasts up north caused a bit of a retreat that
  has backed them up down here,' Watts said.

  "Experts agree that the robins aren't harbingers of spring. Robins inhabit
  Virginia all year. In winter, the birds migrate from Northern states, and in
  summer, the birds move up from Southern states.
  And then there are the birds just! passing through from both places.

  "That 'harbinger-of-spring business'is a joke,' Blem said.'The first robin
  of spring is here on the first of January. There is always a robin here.'

  "Robins mainly eat worms and insects. If they can't find those foods in
  winter, they switch to berries from hollies and other trees.

  "In winter, robins gather by the millions in relatively warm wild spots,
  such as the Great Dismal Swamp wildlife refuge along the Virginia-North
  Carolina line.

  "Watts said it's possible that the birds began their northward migration
  earlier than normal and got stuck in southern Virginia by bad weather.

  "'You get these kinds of waves, but typically not this early in the year,'
  he said. Blem, on the other hand, said robins always tried to migrate north
  as soon as possible: 'The first guy back gets the good territory, gets the
  female, gets to breed.'

  "Those flocks hover close to the 'frost line', Blem sa! id. For example, if
  the ground is frozen in New Jersey but soft here, the robins wait here. If
  the ground freezes in Virginia -- or gets covered with snow -- they move
  back south or southeast, Blem said.

  "This upsurge of robins occurs every few years, Blem said. 'It's one of
  those things, that if you hang around long enough, you'll see it.'

  "He said to expect plenty more robins if the ground thawed and temperatures
  reached 60 degrees or so.

  "'They'll be here [in VA] and singing in about 10 days.'"

  And soon they will come up to you! Be patient...lol.


  Here's a link about the 'robin watch' across the country. Soon we will all
  be looking for hummers as well. We must be getting cold and desperate for
  Spring! 

  http://www.learner.org/jnorth/spring2003/species/robin/Update021803.html#Res
  ults







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[va-richmond-general] Fw: [birding] Digest Number 1904

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