The robins of winter: Sight not necessarily a sign

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 25 February 2010 11:57

Last week, Sally and I were walking home during the snow late Tuesday afternoon in Ridgefield. It’s a one-and-a-quarter-mile trip that takes us along Main Street and West Lane, both state highways. As we were nearing Ridgefield’s famous fountain, a big state highway plow truck stopped, waiting its turn in traffic.

As we approached the intersection, the plow driver rolled down his window, leaned out and yelled, “I just saw a robin!”

Could the driver have known he was talking to a bird-watching columnist or was he just exuberant about a snowstorm sighting he felt was a sure sign of spring?  Undoubtedly the latter, and he was not alone in his excitement over a robin sighting.

Each year, in the dead of winter, we receive several reports about robins being spotted. For instance, Richard Mueller of Wilton wrote on Feb. 17, “We have two holly trees next to our house and every year for Christmas, they load up with large bunches of red berries, but then in February or early March they are visited and every berry is eaten.

“We are usually at work and come home only to find their branches picked clean. Well, this year my wife and I were both home because of the snowstorm and were given a gift. We actually saw the winged creatures all day long, flying in and out of the trees, eating to their hearts content. I was very surprised because the bird was the red-breasted robin! Is that maybe where they get their color from?!”

Steve Maydan of Ridgefield reports, “On the morning of Feb. 15, there were hundreds of robins flying through the woods and my backyard. They came in two flocks. A lot stopped in the trees for a rest. Others landed and did some ground feeding with the local winter birds — Blue Jays, juncos, and sparrows. It was great to see them. I had never seen so many before in our yard and so early in the season. It seemed like a sure sign of spring.”

That’s a lot of robins. They may have been migrants arriving, but they may also have been members of a flock that was spending the winter in and about the hills of Ridgefield. During the day, resident robins often wander in large flocks, searching for food.

As regular readers of BirdNotes know, robins and bluebirds — whose appearances have long been considered signs of spring — are actually year-round residents of our area. In early fall, some of our robins head south while others gather in sizable flocks to spend the winter here.  Instead of eating worms and insects, they become vegetarians and survive through the cold months by consuming berries, often scouring the shrubs and vines of wood edges and wetlands for fruits. Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports that among their favored winter foods are berries of mulberry, sumac, grape, viburnum, and cedar, but we have seen them eating the fruits of the Bradford Pear — that popular streetscape tree — as well as the evil Oriental Bittersweet vine.

At night, flocks of wintering robins roost together.  A reader named Linda from Sunset Hill in Redding has noticed this. “Since Feb. 12, there has been a robin (about 100 birds) migration from southeast to northwest across our property every evening at 5:30 p.m.  They fly from tree to tree as they make their way. I never see them go the opposite direction, but do assume they are the same birds every evening.” These birds are undoubtedly returning to nearby roosts from their daytime berry-hunting peregrinations.

Thus, while robins in February may not be a sure sign of spring, they can still remind us of warmer times to come.  And frankly, a robin showing off its bright orange breast in a barren tree on a sunny February morning, with snow on the ground, is a treat like few others.  “Robin red breast” literally glows amid all that bleak black and white, showing off color that we rarely see or appreciate in the summer.

Coming up

Field Trip to Edith Read Sanctuary (Playland) and Marshlands Conservancy, Rye, with Bedford Audubon Naturalist Tait Johansson, Thursday, Feb. 25, 8:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., reserve jebecker @ bedfordaudubon.org or 914-232-4806.  bedfordaudubon.org

The King and the Wanderer, program by Larry Fischer, raptor expert, on the Great Horned and Northern Saw-whet Owls, Thursday, March 11, 6:30 to 7:30, $12/$10, New Pond Farm, 101 Marchant Rd. Redding, 203-938-2117

Bird House Workshop, bluebirds, wrens, swallows, owls, Saturday, March 13, 2 -3:30 pm Audubon Greenwich, 613 Riversville Road, RSVP 203- 869-5272 x221, Greenwich.audubon.org.

Hummingbirds: Our Feathered Gems, with Gina Nichol, Sunday, March 14, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Audubon Greenwich, 613 Riversville Road, 203- 869-5272 x230, Greenwich.audubon.org.

Connecticut Ornithological Association annual meeting, four top speakers on all things ornithological, Saturday, March 20, 8 to 4, Chapman Hall, Middlesex Community College campus in Middletown, ctbirding.org

Saturday Morning Bird Walks with Luke Tiller, Feb. 27, Stratford/Milford Tour; to register, sunrisebirding.com/walks.htm; 203- 453-6724, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

First Sundays, birding at Greenwich Point with Meredith Sampson of Wild Wings, and other guides, 203-637-9822.

Copyright 2010 by Jack Sanders. Send sightings or comments to: jackfsanders [at sign] yahoo.com, or to Bird Notes, Box 1019, Ridgefield, CT 06877; or call 203-438-1183, extension BIRD (2473), and leave a message with your report, spelling your first and last names and telling us your town. If you need help identifying a bird, try your local nature center. If you find an injured bird, call wildlife rehabilitator Darlene Wimbrow of Redding, 203-438-0618, Wildlife in Crisis of Weston, 203-544-9913, or Wild Wings of Greenwich, 203-637-9822. The columnist’s website is www. sandersbooks. com.

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