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Outdoors: Robins, wildlife on the move

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  10/25/2007 8:29 am

Although the temperatures were in the 70s last weekend, the natural world knew that it was time to move.

A walk out in the woods at our cabin in Crawford County revealed a mass of robins in the trees. They were at the top of walnut trees, which lost their leaves long ago, and were flitting among oaks and white spruce trees, with a constant one-note call.

This was not the normal number of robins that one might see during a walk, but bird after bird after bird was a robin; hundreds of them.

Karen Etter Hale, executive director of the Madison Audubon Society, said that robins actually flock up in anticipation of migration.

"Many people don't realize that robins migrate, although depending on the severity of the winter some will stay around all winter, but most head south," Etter Hale said. "Often people think that robins just disappear, but they are flocking up and if you find a flock it is often very large. They normally begin tapering off in November."

Etter Hale said that an avid birder in Monroe County lives near a roost that robins use annually during their fall migration and counts the birds using the roost as they fly in around sunset.

"He normally counts several hundred robins, but during the middle of October he counted upwards of 1,300 robins flying into the roost," Etter Hale said.

Robins are widely distributed across North America, and Wisconsin Birdlife -- population and distribution by the late Sam Robbins, Jr. lists robins as an abundant migrant and an abundant summer resident in the state. Their fall migration date is normally between early September and mid-November.

The robin, most recognized as the state bird, is often seen on lawns and fields during the summer looking for worms, grubs and caterpillars. But when weather turns cold they move south while those in the northern climes make use of ornamental plantings and cedars in residential areas to find nuts and berries.

Someone who wants to put out food for robins during cold weather can try meal worms, raisins and other dried fruits and berries according to Wisconsin bird expert Laura Erickson.

The other noticeable movement was woolly bear caterpillars. They were all over the highway crossing from one side to the other.

Woolly bears are the caterpillar stage of the Isabella tiger moth, which is found throughout the United States.

Phil Pellitteri, entomologist with the UW-Madison Department of Entomology, said that woolly bears belong to the tiger moth family.

"A common trait of the tiger moth is that they all over-winter as a full-grown caterpillar," Pelliterri said. "They do not spin their cocoons down until they have been cold shocked. It's interesting that on these nice days they begin moving around and if we see another 65-degree day this fall we see woolly bears all about."

The caterpillars are not migrating, but probably looking for some sheltered place to spend the winter. They are looking for places under rocks, logs or holes in the bark of trees to spend the winter and then in the spring will spin a cocoon and emerge in May or June.

The adult moths are relatively short-lived, and after a couple of weeks lay their eggs and the resulting caterpillars will emerge in July or August.

Other phenological events that normally take place within the next couple of weeks, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are that white-throated sparrows will be migrating south and black bears will begin to go into den sites. Waterfowl populations should peak in the state, and the last flocks of sandhill cranes will be migrating southward.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  10/25/2007 8:29 am