Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
If you want to know when spring is going to arrive, don't look out for robins. Watch for turkey vultures.
"They work almost like clockwork," James Townsend, Tippecanoe Valley Audubon Society, said today about turkey vultures. "When you see a turkey vulture," you know spring is on its way.
He said they usually return around March 15-20. Turkey vultures are big black birds with a naked head.
He said if you see one or two robins, it doesn't necessarily mean an early spring. "If you see one or two robins, it means they're stupid because they didn't go south."
The robin seen in the United States is actually not a robin. "The robin we call a robin in the United States is actually a thresh," Townsend said. The real robin is European. When the Europeans came to the United States, they saw birds that looked like their robins and called them robins.
There are two or three different "robin" populations in the United States. Townsend said some don't migrate and live in the area year-round. Other populations migrate from the south to this area. And a third type migrate north to south and stop in this area on their way.
"We do have robins year-round," he said. "I don't know what they eat in the wintertime, but they do survive."
To keep themselves warm, robins will sit on chimney tops and end up with black soot all over them.
"Generally, in the springtime you do see flocks of them, usually 20 to 30," Townsend said.
One characteristic of a migratory bird, he said, is that the bird will be searching desperately for something to eat. However, they don't stay long before flying off, only to be replaced by another bird for a short time.
When birds migrate in the fall, Townsend said, you'll see the same pattern with the robins.
"The flocks aren't very big. Not more than 30 birds," he said.
Townsend also said there are some bald eagles in Kosciusko County, though he's not sure if they are here year-round. An immature bald eagle was spotted on New Year's Day a couple miles east of Da-Lite Screen near the Warsaw Airport.
"There are usually a couple of (bald eagles) around in the county," said Townsend. An adult bald eagle was spotted last year between the towns of Pierceton and Sidney.
