I saw my first robin of spring today as I was driving into work. It was a fat little guy. Wherever he wintered must have been very good to him.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much either. We’ve had some record warm days lately but the weatherman says we’ve got a return to winter on the way. An arctic blast is moving in from Canada.
But back to my little robin. Do they actually migrate? A couple of years ago when I was frantically running around trying to complete a 365 day challenge (A photo a day) I ran across a tree full of robins in the middle of a snow storm. Had they just come north too soon or do they stay in the area all winter?
In an effort to get some answers I looked it up on the internet. (I know you can’t believe everything you find on the internet) but I found this information in several different places. Apparently robin’s migrate for food reasons, not temperature. They are big berry eaters until spring thaws the ground when they switch over to bugs and worms.
Some robins will go as far south as Texas or Florida while others will only migrate as far as necessary to find their beloved berries.
As an interesting side note, the articles I saw mention that robins sing when they arrive on their breeding territories. Some may sing in winter flocks but most wait until the breeding season approaches and they have reached their “territory”.
So maybe the old adage about the first robin being the harbinger spring should really be the first SINGING robin.
