Ive had a couple wayword robins hangin around all winter before,cold and snowy but today 45degrees,no snow a gaggle of robins show'd,10 maybe more tearing my compost site up scrounging for Insects i suspect.,guess we're over the hump? After next week forcast temps in the 50's guess ill spool fresh line on long rods as ice out may occur (wishful thinking)
I hope you're right. Robins seem to have a penchant for getting ass slammed. I think maybe it's because their genetics haven't caught up with climate change (natural Earth wobble). When I was growing up the river through town would sometimes have idiots cavorting on snowmobiles.
In '83/84ish a pard & I drank a pint of JD one night on a literal (trout holding) creek: Two miles up and two miles back. Thinking of this both gives me the "piss shivers" and amusement as we were drinking whiskey on a creek and ended up a rock's throw behind a state senator's house. We got real quiet and giggled like a "transgender" squatting to piss in the girl's locker room. The lights were off.
Ruffed grouse were once called "fool's hens" because when they were spotted they could be dispatched with a stick. The wild turkey suffered a similar fate.
Point being: The ones which flew away or ran passed on their genes. The spruce grouse in this current "change management" likely because it tastes like shit. I've seen the meat on TV. Sharptail don't have a lot of interface with "pine". I can't imagine the "shit" if they did.
Anyways: The river now only gets a skiff of ice once a year and the creek never shows intention. It's not due to NASCAR.
That is all.