I am joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for her "Reconnecting With Nature" series. As we bloggers sit around connected to our computers, it is a great way to force us to step outside and maybe notice something new in the natural world or just appreciate something that we see every day. Read more about the Reconnect with Nature - one photograph at a time idea here.
Everybody (at least in the Northeastern part of the US) knows that seeing a robin is the first sign of Spring. People make a big deal about it because it means that the birds that migrated south in Autumn are making their way back north, and robins are the first birds to return. Or are they? The whole "first robin as a sign of spring" belief is actually a myth because not all robins migrate! They can spend the entire Winter in the Northeast, without migrating at all. Some do, some don't. But this myth is so ingrained in our culture that we probably have even seen robins in the Winter without even noticing them.
I learned several years ago that they do not all migrate and that the saying was not true, but I still thought they were solitary birds and that is why we saw "the first robin of spring", not "the first flock of robins". Just last week I had this discussion with my husband who said that he had seen flocks of robins. I disagreed saying I had never seen them. Then, lo and behold, today I saw a flock of robins! I was in my office and just happened to look out the window and there were several birds having a grand time looking for insects in the pine needles and grass. I realized one was a robin, then another, then another, and all of them were robins!
When I was doing my researching, just to confirm that yes, robins do stay here all Winter, I found this really good article. It goes into a little more depth about the robin as a sign of Spring myth.
So not very exciting pictures this week, but at least you learned something new. If you live in a cold climate, hope you are seeing some signs of Spring! It is on its way - I saw my flock of robins! :)