Subject: AW: [Tweeters] Have You Ever NOT Seen a Robin?
Date: Sep 14 17:48:48 2008
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Carol and Tweeters,

Although I think that robins have eventually turned up on my day list just about every day lately, there are certainly far fewer of them around lately where I go birding. Some days, I visit ten or fifteen birding spots, and robins show up at only two or three of them, and in small numbers. There are only a very few robins showing up in my yard now. I am not seeing robins on lawns very much in Lyman or Sedro-Woolley. When I do see them these days, they are often in flocks of ten or so, foraging on forested paths or along quiet roads. Dusk and dawn seem to produce far more robins than daytime.

Here is a silly statistic. American Robins are my number-one most often sighted bird, with Eurasian Starlings second. However, every year around late August, the number of starling sightings in my database starts to grow quickly, as robins taper off. Usually by February, the robins take over as "most often seen and heard," before the number of starling sightings can catch up to the robin sightings. This statistic has nothing to do with quantity seen, though--starlings are way out in front on that score.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?


--- Carol Riddell <cariddell at earthlink.net> schrieb am Mo, 15.9.2008:

> Von: Carol Riddell <cariddell at earthlink.net>
> Betreff: [Tweeters] Have You Ever NOT Seen a Robin?
> An: "Tweeters" <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Datum: Montag, 15. September 2008, 1:39
> Hi Tweets,
>
> A bird walk at Edmonds Marsh, Willow Creek Fish Hatchery,
> and the
> Point Edwards public path this morning uncovered some nice
> birds but
> there wasn't a robin in sight! I can't recall the
> last time that
> happened to me. Seems like every day's list starts
> with robin and
> then moves on from there. This walk was part of Puget
> Sound Bird
> Fest at Edmonds. We started at the Marsh at 7:45 a.m.
> Here are the
> birds we saw:
>
> Virginia Rail (seen and heard)
> Common Yellowthroat (1 juv.)
> House Finch
> European Starling
> Song Sparrow
> Marsh Wren (seen and heard)
> Barn Swallow
> Glaucous-winged Gull
> Mallard
> Killdeer
> Wilson's Snipe (1)
> Western Sandpiper (1)
> Green-winged Teal
> Black-capped Chickadee
> Cedar Waxwing
> Anna's Hummingbird
> American Crow
> Cooper's Hawk (1)
> Pine Siskin
> American Goldfinch
> Belted Kingfisher (male & female)
> Rock Pigeon
> Steller's Jay
> Northern Flicker
>
> There were a couple of Pine Siskins feeding with a large
> flock of
> Goldfinches at the far end of the Point Edwards public path
> where
> fireweed and thistle have gone to seed. As we came back
> down the
> hill to the hatchery we saw probably 10-15 Steller's
> Jays fly across
> the road and into some tall conifers. Some American
> Wigeons were at
> Shell Creek (one third mile north of the Edmonds ferry
> dock) later
> this morning.
>
> Carol Riddell
> Edmonds
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

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