Robin Report and Some Spring Silliness

They're back!!!

My husband and I saw our first American Robins of the year on March 10th, as we were driving along our road about 3 miles south of our house.  The next morning on my walk, I kept watching and sure enough, there were two at our place.

One of my field guides says "This species is one of our most familiar birds".  As it is with familiar things, they can be easily taken for granted, so I decided to see if I could learn more about Robins.

First, I went to two of my favorite books. 

Yes, they are children's book, and no, that is not the silly part... I really do like these books!

Both books had this interesting piece of information about Robins:  They can eat 14 feet of earthworms a day! What an engrossing tidbit.

Almost everyone has probably watched Robins eating earthworms in the warmer months, but what are they eating this time of year?  The ground is still mostly snow-covered and frozen here.  Worms don't seem to be readily available!

The answer is... they eat berries and fruit, like this one is doing.  He was eating the hips from a multiflora rosebush.

He didn't look quite as comfortable doing this as Robins usually look when they are hopping along on the ground, but he was getting the job done.  (I say "he" because the males are usually the first ones back.  There is not too much difference in the appearance between male and female Robins other than the females are a little paler.)

One thing I learned about Robins that I didn't know was that they have an expandable esophagus they can store food in.  So on a cold winter (or even spring) afternoon, they can stuff it with extra berries or fruit to eat when they need the calories during the long night.

Last March, our Robins were eating apples that had made it thru the winter.

Wow, that would have been a lot to fit in an expandable esophagus!

This morning I saw more Robins... a flock of 13, in fact.... on Friday the 13th!  Thirteen might be a lucky number for them, since the oldest recorded Robin lived to be 13 years and 11 months old.

Here are some of the flock from this morning:

If you'd like to learn more about our American Robins, including why they are named that, you can read about them by clicking here.

Of course, you know that Robins are thought of as a sign of Spring.  I would agree, but the birds of my childhood that meant spring had arrived were Red-winged Blackbirds.  We had a small creek that I walked by on my way to our school-bus stop.  I would be excited when I saw the first blackbirds there each year.   Even now, many years later, I still listen and watch for their arrival... and this morning was it!

I was out feeding the birds and some Blue Jays were making a racket, but I thought I heard a different voice... sure enough, it was the "O-ka-lee" of a blackbird.  The photo above shows one Blackbird (there were 2) and one of the robins.  

I already know that by mid-summer, when our swamp is full of Red-winged Blackbirds, their singing will be causing me to think: "Please be quiet so I can hear the other birds".  Such is the fickle human heart!  But for now, mine is happy they are back.

Some other birds I actually wasn't expecting back yet were in the swamp, too.

Our first-of-the-year dates for Mallards are typically in March... but, after there is more open water!

There was a tiny bit of water on March 9th, the date these photos were taken, but not much.  In the photo above, you can see the top of the head of a Mallard drake (slightly to the right of the hen standing on the snow).  He was in the water, and that's how high the snowbanks were on each side.  She seemed to express her displeasure in this situation by taking flight.  "Those silly drakes said it was time to come back here!"

She didn't go far on that flight, but I haven't seen the three ducks since, so I think they decided to go somewhere else, at least for the time being.  I don't blame them-- this is how the swamp looked that day:

Since then, we've had a bit more water open up...

and other critters are taking advantage of it, like this muskrat:

I watched him for quite awhile late Wednesday afternoon.

He was eating something, and then seemed to be taking a bath.  Seriously!  Well, maybe that's silly, too. 

Off he goes...

It was so nice to be able to go for a walk after supper (a good thing about day-light saving time) and enjoy the warmer temperatures.  The sun was going down and making a shadow of our house, and palm trees (just kidding, but they do sort of look like that, don't they?).  A strange person is waving.  You can also see the muskrat if you look closely just above the peak of the roof shadow to the right.

I hope you've seen some signs of spring (and that you are so happy about it that you can be a little silly, too).