Bob Barrett asked:

"Or do robins eat berries in the winter throughout the continent?"

I don't know about the rest of the continent, but down here in
southwest Florida we have been seeing a staggering number of American
Robins this winter in huge flocks. Some winters we get only a handful
but this winter surpasses the numbers we saw down here in 2005 -- our
last big invasion year for AMROs. Last week, I had an estimated
25,000 AMROs in my yard here in Naples. Many were singing. It sounded
like springtime in Cleveland where I used to live! Some birders have
reported flocks of 500,000 robins in their area! Southwest Florida is
home to one of the three big exotic invasives: Brazilian Pepper
(Schinus terebinthifolius). The other two are Melaleuca and
Australian Pine. Anyway, the AMROs found here this winter have been
gorging themselves on the Brazilian Pepper berries. Last week, when
the 25,000 were in my yard, they completely denuded the Brazilian
Peppers surrounding the development where I live. I went outside to
photograph the phenomenon and it was literally "raining" pepper berry
seeds! You could actually hear them dropping on the ground and they
would stick to my exposed arms, etc. Undoubtedly, there will be an
increase in this invasive exotic plant in the coming years due to the
AMROs. Mixed in with the American Robins were far lesser numbers of
Cedar Waxwings. I keep looking for a Bohemian among them, which would
be the first record for the state if one were to be found. No luck so
far, but it will happen sooner or later I'm sure. . . .

Vincent Lucas
Naples, FL
[log in to unmask]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leppyone/
http://www.caloosabirdclub.org



______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]