Hi Kelly and Tweets

I hadn't been birding very long and made a trip back to Massachusetts to
visit a birder friend. He took me out at an ungodly hour for their local Big
Day. One of the first birds we saw when it got light was a male American
Redstart. Made quite an impression on me. When I got up here to Washington,
I went out one spring to try to see the American Redstarts that are usually
at the county-line ponds up along SR20. Not only did I get to renew my
acquaintance with the redstarts, but got to watch them visiting the nest.

For me, the ubiquitousness of Robins is their unique characteristic. I have
seen them in almost every habitat I have visited, and often in large
numbers. When I lived in the Sacramento area there were always huge flocks
around during the winter - it could be difficult to count them sometimes
during the Christmas Counts. But one winter we actually had more Varied
Thrushes around than Robins. Most unusual. They also seem to personify
curiosity in birds, poking around everywhere and checking it all out, and
vociferously telling all the other robins and birds what they were
discovering.

Brian Bell
Woodinville Wa
mailto:bellasoc at isomedia.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly Cassidy" <lostriver at completebbs.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 12:46 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Birds of the Week:


> After a long hiatus, the Birds of the Week are back.
>
> This is your opportunity to post personal anecdotes about the featured
> species. If you like reading other tweeter's story, post one of your own
> every once in a while. If the same four people are the only posters every
> week, I'll assume a general lack of interest and drop it.
>
> Birds for this week are:
>
> American Redstart - A bird more familiar those tweeters from the eastern
> US
> or Canada than most Inland Northwest residents. No story from me about
> Redstarts.
>
> American Robin - One of those rare birds that does well in cities and in
> habitats far from cities.
>
> Robins: Most of the memories I associate with robins seem to involve
> robins
> as prey items. A young robin being carried away by a laboring Kestrel,
> trailed by a crowd of distressed adults. A baby robin being passed from
> adult Great Horned Owl to an owlet. Robin carcass remains in the yard
> year-round. Blue robin eggs on the ground in spring. Hapless
> newly-fledged
> robins falling victim to dogs. It's a good thing robins have a lot of
> offspring, because they aren't the most brilliant of birds.
>
> I do remember the time, about 8 years ago, when Mike Smith and I were
> wandering around the south end of San Juan Island, hoping to find one of
> the
> last of the Sky Larks there. We heard a long meeeew call. Thirty minutes
> of searching, later, we realized it was a robin with a worm in its mouth.
> I've since heard the same call many times, usually from robins with
> youngsters.
>
> Dr. Kelly Cassidy
> Curator, Conner Vertebrate Museum
> Washington State University, Pullman, WA
>
>
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