Date: 01/23/2005

Number: 1

19 inches of snow on the ground with temps of 15 F in Amityville, Long Island, NY and yet there are hundreds and hundreds of Americans robins in the trees eating holly berries. These robins have been here for the past month and don't appear to have any interest in leaving.

The blizzard we just experienced had winds of 35 to 45 mph with gusts to 70 mph. The storm started around noon on 1/22/05 and ended mid day Sunday 1/23/05. Overnight temps Sunday evening went down to 6 degrees F ...todays (1/24/05) high 22 degrees F. Snow depths on my property are 15 inches with drifts up to 20 inches.

When the storm was in still active on Sunday AM I noticed that the robins took shelter on several hinoki dwarf cypress evergreens along the south side of the house. At one point I counted twenty robins on a single bush. Interestingly, the robins sat on the limbs eating snow. Some of robins would land on the bushes with holly berries in their beaks. They continued to feed during the storm.

My property is located on the great south bay on Long Island. There are a number of 30 to 40 ft American Holly trees on the property and immediate area that are loaded with fruit. The robins are feeding on the fruit.

Today, Monday, Jan 24, 2005 the masses of robins are no where to be seen. Perhaps they are feeding elsewhere or have decided they have had enough of the Amityville weather.

Amityville, NY

Latitude: 40.7 Longitude: -73.4

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