American Robin Migration Update: April 8, 2003 (Data Only)
Today's Report Includes:
- This Week's American Robin Migration Maps and Data
- Slip-Sliding Away: News from the Northern Observation Posts
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Robins are moving a bit despite cold temperatures here and there. Journey North's Robin Expert Laura Erickson has been seeing them all over in Duluth, Minnesota, since April 1, despite frigid temperatures and the heaviest snowfalls of the year this past week. None of them have been running on lawns yet, but she's had them taking apple bits from a bowl in her bird feeder. And in Northfield, Vermont, we had word that a field ornithology class from Norwich University witnessed an impressive American Robin flight through the Dog River Valley in central Vermont. Based on minute counts over a one hour period in a patch of sky about 200 yards wide, it was estimated that over 31,000 birds flew over in a front a mile wide!
In Pennington County, Minnesota, Jeanie Joppru reported on April
6, "This morning while I was about to make coffee I heard a cacaphony
outside. Thinking it was probably a large flock of blackbirds or grackles,
I looked outside the deck door. Imagine my surprise to find that it was
a huge flock of American Robins all singing together, perched high in
a tree overlooking the deck. It was then, when I opened the door, that
I realized that the "noise" was much more melodic than
blackbirds. A few were doing the alarm call , the rest singing the "cheeri-up
" song. Even then I looked for other birds, thinking it could not
all be robins- but realized it was, when they all took off together and
the sound stopped. I have never seen or heard so many all singing together-
usually the large groups are mostly silent. And these guys were loud-
heard them through the closed deck door! How many? - at least 100.
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How long will things
look this way in our NOPs? Photo by Marc Landry, NOP Observer |
Ute.Keitch, in Ajax, Ontario, one of our Northern Observation Posts, wrote on April 4, "We have had 18 hours of freezing rain and drizzle, and 2 inches of snowpellets. I made it out to the feeders in the morning but now the coating outside is 1 1/2 inches thick. The birds can`t even sit on the branches anymore--everybody is sliding off! The robins are coming all the time. They're letting me stand a few feet away so the starlings don`t get all the currants. In a way it`s funny to watch how they're all sliding in for the landing, but I hope it does not last longer then one more day."
Nancy Seamans in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, heard her robins singing on April 1 (she'd seen her first one March 28). Nancy writes, "What a beautiful sound after a looong winter!" And Mike Sterling in Anchorage sent us a cheerful note on April 7, "This morning I heard my first robin of spring! I ride my bicycle to school. It's a good long trip, and I keep my ears perked for birdsong as I pass along the edge of a wildlife refuge along the coast of Anchorage. This morning I heard the unmistakable territorial warble of a male robin! This is pretty early, and in a year with no winter in our area it almost seems like the robin must have known! There was so little snow this year that, once it warms up above freezing during the days on a consistent basis, we are going to be in serious spring mode. YeeHAW!"
Check your predictions and keep up to date with news from the NOPs here:
The Next Robin Migration Update Will Be Posted on April 15, 2003.
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