American Robin

[Glen Moore]

Please excuse my ignorance, this is the first time I've tried to submit a photo.I have used this shot of the American Robin in Grimsby this January as I think it is one of my better pics.

[tom mckinney]

Oh the memories...

Meeeeeeemories do do do do do Moooooooooonlight

...can't remember the words to the song.


Beautiful picture - actually one of the very best I've seen of it!

[Glen Moore]

Thanks Tom, I was quite pleased with it if I do say so myself!!

[k.k.stevenson1]

Hi Glen great shot. The robin was there for weeks .I think a Hawk got it.Agreat loss.

[Michael Frankis]

I saw it the day before it was re-identified as a Sparrowhawk's insides

Michael

[tom mckinney]

I saw it 5 times cuz I was working around the Hull area at the time. Not one single decent photo or video grab...

Does anybody know who got the video footage of it being decapitated and eaten?

[Glen Moore]

I think it was Quentin Tarrantino

[Bill A]

What was it doing there? Do you get such vagrants often? Long, long way from home. Or have they been deliberately introduced to the UK? (Got to be careful with that--look at our problems with g****mn European starlings!).

Bill A

p.s. Great picture!

[Bluetail]

Hi Bill. It was a genuine vagrant (as far as anyone can be sure, at any rate). In fact, two turned up last winter - the other was in Cornwall. American Robins remain exceptionally rare over here, however. There are other American birds that turn up more regularly; we get at least one Red-eyed Vireo most years and in a good year they can reach double figures. Warblers also turn up very occasionally, most often Blackpoll and Yellow-rumped. American shorebirds, gulls and ducks are much more regular, though. Pectoral Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Ring-billed Gull and Ring-necked Duck aren't even official rarities any more!

If you peruse the official British List -
http://www.bou.org.uk/recbrlst.html
- you'll notice a good number of American birds on it that have shown up here at one time or another.

[Bill A]

Bluetail--

Very mind-blowing to think of them getting all the way to England! Equally mind-blowing to imagine them as an "exceptional rarity," since as you know they are common as mud here.

Best,
Bill

[Bluetail]

Hi Bill

Yes, it's pretty mind-blowing to watch an American vagrant and think of how far off course it is. Some probably hitch lifts on ships, but the ones that turn up in fast-moving Atlantic depressions must get here under their own steam.