The American Robins in the photo were near the nature center at Maumee Bay State Park in late January 2007. Because December 2006 and January 2007 had little snow, robins were easily found around the Toledo area. Once the snow and cold came in February 2007, the robins retreated to more forested areas.

Mar 23, 2008 Thurbers Thoughts blog posting : First Robins of the year!

I saw several American Robins in a berry tree along Bancroft just up from Maxwell's Brew back in late January or early February of 2008, but I wasn't thinking that spring was springing in Toledo. While it's true that you normally won't see robins in your yard in the Toledo area until March, you can find robins in the Toledo area all winter.

In December and January, American Robins flock together in groups that can number several dozen. These Toledo winter robins are birds that most likely nest further north. In other words, for these robins, Toledo is their Florida.

The Toledo winter robins are usually in more forested areas where food is more plentiful. The group I saw along Bancroft in the winter were feeding in a small tree with red berries, and they were with a group of Cedar Waxwings. The tree was across from Ottawa Park.

A few years ago, I saw several dozen American Robins feeding in small berry trees in downtown Rossford in early February with the temperature below zero.

Robins begin migrating through the Toledo area in late February or early March. The robins poking around your yard in late March or early April could still be migrating birds, but since it's now early April, they're probably birds that will nest around your home. Robins have been singing just after 6:00 a.m. each day for a week or two. It's a nice sound to hear with the window up a little and the outside temperature in the 20's or 30's.

Even though it's early April, we still have Common Redpolls coming to our backyard feeders. These redpolls are a sub-arctic finch that rarely make it this far south even in the winter. Some winters, the redpolls don't even make it down to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If food is plentiful, the redpolls stay in Canada during the winter.

I birded the Michigan U.P. in February 2004, and redpolls were everywhere. I birded the U.P. again in February 2007, and I didn't see any redpolls. But their food source had some sort of crash in summer/fall 2007, so a lot of redpolls made it to Ohio this winter. A rare treat for many birdwatchers this season. But I'm thinking that spring has not begun until these cold-weather birds have headed north.

Common Redpolls on a small thistle sock in our yard.