Robins rest up in Brevard in preparation for return trip north

[Donna]

The local hoppin' and a-boppin' spotted from treetop to birdbaths are winding down as American robins prepare to rock on out of town.

For the past few weeks, the beloved creatures have been sighted countywide in great numbers. Mentions of large flocks of robins are plentiful online, from Facebook to Journey North, a website where wildlife migration and seasonal change can be tracked. One Merritt Island woman recently wrote on Journey North: "Large waves of robins in about a 2-mile radius for two consecutive days."
But those for whom the bird is the word say nothing unusual is going on -- rather, nature is taking its course as feathered friends start heading home.

American robins spend time here every winter as they escape the cold of the North, said Dorn Whitmore, supervisory park ranger at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Sometimes, they push even farther south in response to bad weather -- as in, say, the cold Space Coast winter of 2010.

But as the days get longer and weather warms up, all that changes, Whitmore said.

"You'll see lots of robins this time of year, staging for their migration back to the northeast part of the United States," he said. "When they come to Florida, they amass in large groups, and that's what everybody's seeing now."

Doug Stuckey of Titusville has been a field observer of birds on the Space Coast for 43 years. He said this winter, he's seen "more robins on a regular basis, in bigger numbers," than he has seen in at least 15 or 20 years. "It was so miserable up north this winter, I think more of them came farther south," he said. Sunday, he saw "an unbelievable number of robins" in his yard, but that number was down about 95 percent by Monday.

Ken Collins is an officer of the Space Coast Audubon Society and an avid birder. This area is a major migration flyway, he said, and for those creatures that headed farther south, a stopover place along the way in both directions.

Merritt Island is a favorite place for robins, with "lots of different berries and nuts they can eat, and places to get worms," said Collins, a longtime educator and "lifetime birder." They know where they've been and where they're headed, too.

"Birds are much more intelligent than people give them credit for," said Collins, who lives in the unincorporated area south of Melbourne Beach.

And the area's full of great spots for birders, from the refuge to the Viera wetlands by the government building, which Collins calls a "hidden secret."

Florida Today