Hello, tweets.

American Robins are quite nomadic in winter, traveling around the
countryside in small to large flocks and stopping where they find
fruiting trees. Where there are plantings of hollies, for example,
they come in great numbers. I have a cotoneaster in the back yard in
full fruit, and it's empty of birds most of the time, but every once
in a while from one or two to as many as 10 robins will drop into the
yard, gorge themselves on berries, and then leave. this may take only
5 or 10 minutes, and if I wasn't watching, I would be sure there were
no robins in the neighborhood.

I've seen big flocks in the area to the east of the Seattle Audubon
Society office, off 35th Ave. NE in Seattle, at times in winter, and
I think there are a lot of hollies there. You also see such flocks
feeding, presumably on worms, in plowed or grassy fields with
Killdeers. A good percentage of our robins clear out of their
breeding territories in wooded habitats to roam with these flocks.

These American Robin flocks could contain thrushy visitors from
Siberia, like the Redwing that visited Olympia last winter, so it's
worth checking them out for that possibility in addition to the fun
of seeing large numbers of birds feeding and interacting.

Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382

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