The last month has seen something extraordinary: a lack of American Robins on the property. I simply haven't seen the winter shift in some weeks. They arrived on schedule, but soon afterwards vanished. But today I observed at least one pair working both the suet feeder (well, to the extent a member of the thrush family can) and the yard itself. In fact there is a section of the yard in the southwest corner that seemed particularly interesting to this robin: I spotted it several times during the course of the afternoon in more or less the same location.
So where were they? Experts tell me some species "micro-migrate" and may move anywhere from a few miles to a hundred or so miles. And there's no telling what prompts such a movement. I am definitely used to this phenomenon with American Goldfinches. But hitherto robins have been much more consistent. And our open space seemed perfectly satisfactory to the needs of this species. So now that they're "back", will they stay? We shall see.
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