Do we usually have Robins in Central Ohio in December?  Wintertime in Columbus, Ohio has a gorgeous picture of a Robin at the Ohio Statehouse in December.

I noticed the dead Robins on the street the week before I read about them in the Columbus Dispatch in an article by Dean Narciso.   The day I noticed them was  February 10, 2007..  I did not see them in the areas mentioned in the Columbus Dispatch article, Muirfield or near the intersection of Frantz Road and Longbranch.  I noticed them in streets near the northwest Columbus neighborhoods of Riverside Green, Olentangy Highlands and in the Linworth area of  Worthington.  I saw them dead in the streets and came home thinking they had come back early.

HUNGRY, DYING ROBINS
Missed flight south leaves birds in cold
Warm January kept many of them in Ohio
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Dean Narciso
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A Robin in Winter - Columbus Ohio the photos in RobKin's slideshow are all pre Christmas it looks like.  Including a beautiful Winter photo of  Robin in a tree with berries but no leaves.  A winter tree.

Narciso's article says the Robins never left Central Ohio and suggested " urging residents to provide suet, diced apple or other fruit and fresh water — away from traffic."

Further North the town of Hinkely Ohio has another Harbinger of Spring... the buzzard.  And today March 15 is the day they come back to Hinkley. This is the 50th Anniversary of the town of Hinkley celebrating the buzzrds returning on the 15th of March.   Clevelander Carole Cohen saw buzzards in nearby Independence a day or so ago... but today's the day they come back to Hinkley.

Robin's are much better looking than buzzards.

Spring......

Copyright 2007 Discover Columbus and Maureen McCabe