was hiking near Maitland and south Maitland river on Saturday afternoon Jan. 14. Saw a flock of robins, a bald eagle in flight, a raven in flight. Not very surprised about the bald eagle or the raven (but they're both pretty good birds in my opinion, where I live), but was surprised to see robins this early in the year. The time was mid afternoon around 15:00 eastern daylight time.
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Surprised to see a small flock of robins in my area, a first for me in January (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter btrussell
- Start date
Robins are pretty tough and it has been an abnormally warm winter thus far. Still, think you're getting a look at the hardiest and most obstinate of the lot.
A nice early addition to your year list.
The weather where I live so far this month has been warmer and more snow-free than I can remember, ever. I suspect the 'warm' weather this year is totally unprecedented. But I did move away for 8 years from 2005 to 2013, that's a big gap in my weather memory. It would be nice to know if a flock of robins has ever been seen by anyone in January in my part of my county (Huron) in Ontario. As far as I can tell, the nearest Christmas bird count to where I live is about 40 -50 miles south, so that' not too helpful. My bird books which are mostly about 15 years old show the winter range of Robins ending not very far south of where I live.
Norm_Toronto
Member
Reporting from Toronto, I saw a large flock of Robins in late December and another flock about 10 days ago. On other days I see individual birds still in various local parks. They certainly have been hanging around here so far this winter.
Best regards,
---Norm
Best regards,
---Norm
I haven't seen any robins in or around the town where I live, but was in a very birdy area near the confluence of two rivers (Maitland and south Maitland) about 5 miles north of town (Clinton, Ontario) where I saw this small flock. It would be nice to know if robins are observed here nearly every winter or if this is an exceptional occurrence where I live. I feed backyard birds, and haven't noticed anything unusual this year.
Norm_Toronto
Member
Well, I don’t see any reason why Robins wouldn’t hang around there too? According to this Ottawa Citizen article from 2014, they even hang around Ottawa all winter.
Ottawa’s robins of winter
I think they’re likely to congregate anywhere there are trees and bushes with berries for a winter food source. That’s where I’ve seen flocks at Colonel Samuel Smith Park and at High Park in Toronto.
Ottawa’s robins of winter
I think they’re likely to congregate anywhere there are trees and bushes with berries for a winter food source. That’s where I’ve seen flocks at Colonel Samuel Smith Park and at High Park in Toronto.
Interesting! Ottawa's winters are considerably colder than winters where I live, so if they'll hang around Ottawa, no reason why they won't hang around here either. Just never seen any around here in January. But it now appears likely that Robins have been in this area in January before this year. The locality where I was birding does have a large variety of vegetation of all sizes and species, incl. berry bushes.
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