Date: 01/27/2016

Number: 125

For about a month, I've been seeing a-lot of robins here. I forgot to report it until JN sent out a reminder email request to everyone. We have several tall holly trees around and I've seen many of them swooping in to grab berries. They also crowd around my tiny fountain/pond to drink and bathe on warmer days. Sadly, a female coopers hawk has been preying on them and I believe several have been taken. Although I understand that coopers hawks are native and have a right to be here, they and other hawks are increasing and are really taking a toll on the declining songbird population, along with other causes like urban sprawl, window strikes, pesticides and feral cats.

If anyone else is seeing the same, I would encourage them to do what I recently started doing. Feed peanuts to as many blue jays as possible since blue jays will alert everyone to approaching hawks. I have a group of about 25 jays here. Some jays watch in trees while other jays eat. They rotate and during this time, all songbirds benefit. I wish I'd thought of this sooner as many robins might have been spared.

Lancaster, PA

Latitude: 40.1 Longitude: -76.3

Observed by: Christine
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