Winter Robins

 

There are a lot of robins around my place today! Click on this photo to enlarge. See five? They were among a few dozen that were feeding on fallen holly fruit amid a noisy flappy fluttering of wings. 

 

There were more across the street under another holly tree, also eating berries. I estimate that I saw about 100 robins on my morning walk.

Contrary to popular belief, our robins don't all fly south for the winter, nor do they all suddenly return in spring. They do disappear from our lawns when worms and insects become scarce. They switch to dry fruits and berries. Some may fly to other locations seeking food. Want to read more about it? Click on this sentence to go to an earlier blog with lots more details. And do not worry, spring will come. Fifty-two days and counting.

The Midpoint of Winter

 

We just passed the midpoint of winter, February 1, which is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Yay! If we were ancient Celts we would have just celebrated the holiday of Imbolc.

And if we were celebrating Imbolc, we might have checked around to see if any snakes had come out of their burrows to predict the duration of winter weather in accordance with the legend. 

Wait -- we still do that on Groundhog Day, but with groundhogs instead of snakes, right? Turns out that they are equally good at meteorological prognostication. The 2024 groundhog did not see it's shadow. That foretells a smooth path to an early spring. The National Weather Service is predicting the same thing. Let the gardening begin! 

Also, February 2 was Candlemas Day for Christians. The holiday occurs 40 days after Christmas and according to some marks the end of the Christmas season. One of the nice things about Candlemas is that there is a high probability of being able to eat pancakes or tamales.

These winter-blooming snowdrop flowers are also known as Candlemas flowers. They are winter-hardy early bloomers that will push up through snow and frozen ground to appear in time for Candlemas. Mine are always on time. Click to enlarge.

Also note that there are crocuses blooming in my yard right now. Local sunset will be at 5:23 today and 5:24 tomorrow.

So, even though it may have seemed like an uneventful week, it was not.

Snow!

 

It snowed! Click to enlarge.

 

The snow reminds me of this stanza from In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti: 

 

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

 

Bleak indeed. No bugs or worms to eat, only dry berries.

More Daylight

I invite you to think back to the winter solstice on December 21, 2021, about two and a half weeks ago. On that day the sun set at 4:42 (in Philadelphia). Click to enlarge.

Now fast forward to today, January 9, 2022. The sun will set at 4:57. That's 15 more minutes of daylight! We are making steady progress through the winter.

Spring is waiting in the wings.

A Special Robin Appears

I took a socially distanced walk yesterday. Saw lots of robins on lawns. This one is our standard robin model for today's blog.

Good looking, right? Then the one below came along...

It has white feathers all over its head and a white patch on its back. Not your standard robin. It's leucistic; it has a genetic condition that causes pigment processing failure in some of its feathers. Note that it's not an albino, which would be colorless with pink eyes. Click to enlarge.

It's a good look, right? I see a couple of pale splotches down near the tail. I hope this bird hangs around for the season. I'd like to see if it has spotted chicks.

Interesting!

A Spring Day

I saw this American robin with wings stretched out soaking up sun in the park. My camera click disturbed him  and he folded up and flew away. It was a great day to appreciate spring with blue sky, warm sunlight, and soft breezes reminding me of this poem by Billy Collins. (Click the photo to enlarge.) 

Today

If ever there were a spring day so perfect, 

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw 

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, to rip the little door from its jamb, 

a day when the cool brick paths 

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants 

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

And here's a picture of my neighborhood to prove it! A path to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade with the skyline of lower Manhattan across the East River. 

Almost Spring

This is how it was around here last week -- all insects in crocus blossoms and the tossing off of overcoats. Click to enlarge. 

The birds were singing and making plans. This robin looks particularly ready and eager. 

But instead of more of this...

This again!
On Tuesday Philadelphia and New York City are expecting as much as a foot of snow, and possibly more. This calls for a poem. 

While yet we wait for spring, And from the dry 

by Robert Seymour Bridges

While yet we wait for spring, and from the dry

And blackening east that so embitters March,

Well-housed must watch grey fields and meadows parch,

And driven dust and withering snowflake fly;

Already in glimpses of the tarnish'd sky

The sun is warm and beckons to the larch,

And where the coverts hazels interarch

Their tassell'd twigs, fair beds of primrose lie.

Beneath the crisp and wintry carpet hid

A million buds but stay their blossoming;

And trustful birds have built their nests amid

The shuddering boughs, and only wait to sing 

Till one soft shower from the south shall bid,

And hither tempt the pilgrim steps of spring. 

First Snow

We had our first substantial snowfall in Brooklyn this week. I am always impressed at how well the birds endure the cold winter weather; see how the sparrows on my fence puffed up their feathers for maximum insulation. Click to enlarge. 

I provided a breakfast buffet for the birds the next morning. There are always European house sparrows like these around happy to accept a handout. 

This extra cold looking mourning dove had some seeds, too. 

And my favorite -- a winter robin -- ate some raisins. We'll see more of this guy in the coming months. He looks great on a white winter background, doesn't he? 

A Downy Woodpecker

This cute downy woodpecker, Picoides pubescens,  landed in a tree near me while I was taking a walk earlier this week. He sat in this vertical pose, typical for a woodpecker, just long enough for a quick photo. Click to enlarge. 

Woodpeckers have a few special features that help them sit upright clinging to the sides of trees, and also to climb up, down, and sideways on tree trunks while pecking for insects. First, like most woodpeckers, this downy's feet have two toes that face foreword and two that face back. It's called a zygodactyl foot. And second, he has a few stiffened tail feathers that act like a prop for support. He can sit quite comfortably in an upright position on the side of a tree or vertical branch. Click here for a close up of a downy woodpecker's foot. 

Most perching birds have a different arrangement of toes -- like this robin. Notice how three of his toes face foreword and one faces back. It's called an anisodactyl foot and is the most common kind of bird foot. 

Happy New Year... 5777

The Jewish NewYear 5777 begins today. I'm relaxing and thinking about what kind of sweet dessert to make. I'm pretty sure it will use apples and brown sugar and I'll borrow some raisins from the supply we bought for the birds. These days two and sometimes three robins show up on my porch every morning for a breakfast of raisins, so we use them up pretty fast. The robin above is hanging around hoping for a few. 

The female cardinal pictured above is usually waiting in the morning, too,  and she brings a begging baby; she hops over to the window sill and looks in if I'm not there soon enough for her schedule. She says "CHIP!" to get my attention and I give her a peanut, which she breaks into small pieces to feed beak-to-beak to the baby. I can't show a photo because they let me watch them but both grab their peanuts and fly away when I point a camera at them. Click to enlarge. 

So for dessert I think I'll stew tart apples in butter with brown sugar, pie spices, and a few of the robins' raisins, and then pour it over yogurt. Sounds good, right? We can eat it while watching the birds outside the window having their own feast of raisins and peanuts.

Happy Parents' Day

National Parents' Day is the fourth Sunday in July -- that's today!  Here's an American robin feeding its hungry chick for the occasion. Click on the photo to enlarge. 

Winter Robin is Back!

On Friday afternoon, before the big snowstorm started, a robin showed up at my window. When I opened it to throw a few raisins on the porch for him, he swiftly flew to the work surface on the side of the barbecue grill that's right next to the window.

That's where I fed a winter robin last year and the year before. (I can reach out the window and sweep the snow away to make a landing place. That's important when it's snowing a few inches an hour.) This bird already knew the ropes and did not hesitate to land there, even though it's as close as it looks, about two feet from me. I think it's the same bird I've seen on snowy days in past years -- click here to see him posing for a snow photo in a previous blog. I haven't seen a robin on my porch during 2015's entire warm December. I'm glad he remembered he can always get a meal here when the pickings are slim elsewhere.

He came back several times during Saturday's storm, always with his feathers puffed up for warmth, and sometimes standing on one foot. He was waiting at the window for breakfast when I woke up this morning.

Click to enlarge. Click here for a little more about winter robins.

Spring

I took this photo on Saturday, yesterday, the first full day of spring.
That's three inches of fresh snow.  Click to enlarge.

It's cold outside and winter is stubbornly hanging on in the northeast. But there is hope. All winter long the robin in these photos has been coming to my porch to eat raisins and he has been very quiet.

For the last few days he has been getting noticeably more vocal. He is not singing yet, but he is making calls and sweet whispery sounds that presage songs that will come soon.

In anticipation, here is a quote from the Song of Solomon,  2:11-12.

...behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 

Defender of Raisins

Some American robins fly south in winter, but many stay north. Their diet changes from worms and insects to dried fruit and berries. They seem to go away but they have just left the lawns for other foraging grounds. Click to enlarge. 

Here is one of my winter visitors from last year. 

One day last week there was a mockingbird perched outside my window in the cold, first thing in the morning. I opened up and threw some raisins on the surface of the snow. The mockingbird was eating when all of a sudden a robin appeared. The robin flew in so close that the mockingbird had to hop out of the way fast to avoid a collision. Then the robin spread its wings and rushed at the mockingbird. There was a brief fight during which they tumbled in the snow with wings flailing. The mockingbird ducked out from under and flew away. Then the robin ate a few raisins and flew to the fence where he sat with his chest puffed out for a while and then flew away. Shortly after, the mockingbird came back and had some raisins anyway.

That afternoon, I looked out and noted the subzero temperature reading. There were sparrows on the fence, looking cold as the wind ruffled their feathers. All the raisins from earlier were gone so I tossed out a handful. A robin flew down and was eating when, to my surprise, an identical robin flew in and attacked. It seems that I have a couple of different winter robins visiting me for raisins, and one of them thinks my porch is his feeding territory and is trying to defend it.

That's what robins do. In winter, when they rely on dried fruit and berries for food, some individuals defend a good food source alone while others form flocks and work together to defend a good spot. On a recent snow day in New York City, I trudged down to Montague Street, the main street of downtown Brooklyn Heights. Staring out the window over lunch I started noticing robins in a tree. It slowly began to remind me of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, as I saw a second robin, and then more, and finally realized there were 10 of them in the same small tree. It was a fruit tree of some kind and they were eating the dried fruits. When the food is depleted they will search for another spot -- maybe they'll find the boundless cornucopia of raisins at my place.

Four of 10 robins guarding their fruit on a cold day in January.  (The tree is on the north side of Montague between Hicks and Henry.)

More Raisins, Please

An American robin, Turdus migratorius, collecting food. 

A robin stayed in my Brooklyn garden all last winter. Click here to see him all puffed up against the cold. When spring came, a mate arrived and both of them came regularly to my porch for grapes and raisins. Every visit, each robin ate three or four raisins and then left. They had a predictable pattern.

That changed yesterday. One of the robins landed on the porch with a worm in its beak and started picking up (but not eating) raisins, one after the other, as many as it could carry. Then it flew away. All day yesterday the robins gathered raisins by the beak full.

A closer look. Click to enlarge. I count four raisins. 

I haven't found their nest yet, but I'll bet there are some robin nestlings nearby -- sated with raisins and worms.

Another trip. 

Spring in New York City -- finally

Crocuses! 

Daffodils!

Robins are finding things to eat in the thawed soil. 

Pigeons seem to be copulating more than usual. This pair stopped when they saw me. Click to enlarge photos. 

House sparrows are fighting over nest cavities. This one is perched at the entrance to a nice natural tree hole. 

Yay, spring! 

An excerpt from Atalanta in Calydon (1865) by Algernon Charles Swinburne:

For winter's rains and ruins are over, 

And all the season of snows and sins;

The day dividing lover and lover,

The light that loses, the night that wins;

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.