The weather may be confusing them.

Back in the day (so old) only a few Robins in town but now not uncommon all year at the farms.

Some robins are known to stay in Ohio year around and/or winter farther south (Ohio) than where they came from. Some migrate farther south where the ground is less likely to be frozen and covered in snow. In the past, I've seen flocks come into Central Ohio around mid-January to early February and eat the fruits of my decorative crab apple tree bare. Around the same time, groups of starlings that lingered from the summer stuff themselves with the red berries of yews and juniper landscape bushes. Car owners really don't appreciate the acid red/black poop applied to their cars forcing a trip to the car wash when there is crappy changeable road conditions.

Last summer I saw very few robins and doves even in season pecking worms in the golf-like greens between our units (perhaps contracted landscape maintenance mgmt have changed weed herbicides/pesticide?) - Note, that we did have a fair number of predator youngsters learning to hunt last summer. (Peregrines and Cooper/Redtail Hawks). So, perhaps the larger songbirds were not as likely to be out in the open.

Last week, I saw one lonely robin calling out and picking from a nearby decorative pear tree, but temps have continued to be springlike instead of snowy and cold, but no associated group and it flew away elsewhere. Robins don't eat seeds; they prefer bugs, worms, and meaty fruits like varieties of apples and berries.

I too have seen fewer varieties songbirds this past year and very few, we're talking single digits, honeybees, but the retainer ponds are full of geese and wild ducks who usually tend to get frisky as the daylight lengthens into spring, so I'm watching for other factors they seem to know about their ponds even if we don't...like diminishing fish, well, we did/do have had cormorants, cranes, and heron feeders on the pond; also 9 domestics that cannot fly away, so the threat of predators is real.

Bird watcher groups in Central Ohio on FB also seem to think something's up as they have also reported fewer numbers of songbirds and were excited to see a few rarer birds for Central Ohio that included egrets, Snowy Owls, and nesting American Bald Eagles w/babies.

Awaiting the arrival of my usual three hummingbirds sometime mid-April to May.

And that's the bird report!!! LOL.

I knew some robins winter over, and I usually see some the end of January. One of my friends in town said she had seen a lot of robins in her yard. Comforting. I haven't seen as many cardinals this year. We usually had 8 or 10 pairs. I've seen a male and a female, but not together. I'm just not seeing the number of birds I used to. I haven't been seeing a lot of insects the last couple of summers. Or toads.

I did see 2 American bald eagles recently, on the way into town. The road follows the Ohio River, and we have had eagles nesting and hunting on the river for many years. This was the closest to my house I had seen them.

I put fruit out when I have it. The robins, mocking birds, others, and squirrels like oranges cut in half. One year, one of the squirrels cached all of the orange halves high up in one of the sweet gum trees. It looked so weird! I'll put out some grapes now and then. And apples.

I only had one hummingbird this year. My neighbor had cannas and other showy plants and I think they preferred those to my feeder. I'm going to try hanging my feeder in a quieter spot next spring.

Happy new year!