The Robins are on their way to St. Petersburg!  In what has become the largest winter roost in North America, St. Petersburg is eagerly awaiting their American Robin winter visitors. Audubon of Florida friend and supporter Lorraine Margeson has been featured in an article by the St. Petersburg Times that highlights this special area of the world:

"There were 10 robins the next day, then 100, then 500," said Margeson, 52, who owns a computer networking company with her husband. "By the end of the week, we were seeing 100,000 or more every day."

They would fly out in the morning, just before dawn, heading south. In the evening they would come back, heading north. Eventually, it took more than two hours for the entire flock to pass overhead. "The whole sky just blanketed with red bellies, a wave rolling across the rooftops."

By the end of February, when the National Audubon Society co-sponsors its annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Margeson and other Tampa Bay birders had recorded 1.45 million robins over a four-day weekend — the largest winter roost in all of North America. In the rest of the U.S., only 400,321 robins were tallied.

So if you live nearby, keep the look-out for these red-bellied visitors and take advantage of this unique opportunity to enjoy these wonderful birds.