A HERD, I tell you! As we were preparing dinner tonight, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a HERD of Robins! Usually I’m the last of our family to see the return of the robins, and usually I only get to see just one at a time. There must have been a dozen birds at the very least, and maybe twice that. They were in the herb garden, beneath the truck, in the black walnut and apple trees, and the shrubs near a bunny. They have a very distinctive run and hop, and were easy to identify, and they were fluffed up in defense of the cold.
Spring just HAS to be around the corner, despite the fact that we are supposed to get several inches of snow over the next 24 hours. Surely the robins wouldn’t be back if it wasn’t time, right??
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
NO MORE SNOW…..NO MORE SNOW…..
I’m crying real tears. Okay, not really….but I want to…and I probably will if we get hit with another mountain of snow. It’s been such a delight to actually see some grass emerge under melting snow and to have the roads and streets expanded to their full size from all the melted mounds along their sides. ENOUGH!!!!!!
It seems to be slowing down, Joy. The snow is coming in smaller amounts, and there’s more time between the snow storms. I think it’s possible we may be rounding the bend.
On the bright side, we haven’t had the 146 inches or so that one New York town has measured. You have to be hearty to live in upstate New York off the end of the Great Lakes, or in New Hampshire, where Bogie is frequently snowed in.
Do robins migrate to your area? I just ask because over here we get them all year around. In fact they are such popular and traditional birds they are often to be found on our Christmas cards.
Um…Adele…what you call a robin is not the same species that we, in North America, call a robin. Our bird was named after yours, but bears little resemblance to my eye. The site at http://www.pbase.com/naturepics/birds_of_north_america has a beautiful photo of the American robin.
Robins are one thing, but Joy has seen grass? Grass? I haven’t seen any of that for so long that I almost don’t remember the color – LOL!
Robins migrate here in the states. In NH, we have robins in the summer and fall, but not during winter and they only come back fairly late in the spring (compared to everyone south of us).
Here, the poplular birds for Christmas cards are Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Doves and Cardinals. The Cardinals are a bit misleading, as they too migrate (although they are hardier than robins and can be found not too far south in the winter).
(laughing at Bogie)….I can understand that GREEN might be a little more important to you, given the pictures I’ve seen of your place this month.
Adele, Bogie has done a good job of describing our robins. They do migrate. We usually see them in mid to late March, when they can get to worms and such in the lawn. I was surprised to see them so early, when we still have a fair amount of snow cover. I have no idea what they will be able to find to eat until things warm up.
I’ll have to see if I can find a picture of the English robin. As usual, Cop Car was a font of information on this subject, but the only thing she left out was a link to the picture. (hint, hint)
I looked up that picture of the American robin and thought “that’s not what we British think of as a robin”. A picture of ours can be found at http://preview.tinyurl.com/38d75j. That image of a robin is seared in the memory of we British.
I’ve no idea what happened to the other comment I made here about 10 minutes ago but just to say that a picture of our robin can be found at http://preview.tinyurl.com/38d75j
Adele, We’re operating on a new version of Moveable Type, and for some reason the program requires that I manually accept comments for SOME of my visitors. You and Bogie and Joy seem to fall into that category. You comment should be posted now.
Thanks for the link to the English robin. I’ll go check it out now.
Ah….it’s a beautiful little bird, but quite different from our “robin” *S*