Think things aren't changing? We're finding Robins in Alaska in the Winter!
Bethel Receives an Unusual Winter Visitor – A Robin
A rare winter robin has been spotted in Bethel and it has folks wondering what exactly it means. Locals and a biologist say they think it has to do with climate change.
Angstman says the robin was eating bird seed because the bugs it would normally feed on are nowhere to be found in the winter. He adds that in his 40 years of living in Bethel, he’s never seen a robin in the middle of December.
“It’s always really spring before they get here. They don’t show up in the end of winter at all. It’s usually May sometime, usually late May I think, but it’s usually pretty warm out when you see your first robin,” Angstman says.
Sowl says she’s received a flurry of calls and emails from people who saw a robin in Bethel over the past few weeks. She even spotted a robin herself on November 22nd. Sowl says the wildlife refuge does not have any documentation of a robin sighting in mid-December in the Y-K Delta. Ever.
Besides robins, Sowl says she’s also getting reports of more pine grosbeaks than usual, downy woodpeckers, white-throated sparrows and even bald eagles hanging around Bethel for the winter.
Bethel Alaska Native elder Peter Atchak says he’s noticed that some summer birds are staying for winter.
“A couple of years I’ve been spotting one or two you know every now and then but not as much as we seen now. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind you know the birds of the summer time usually are starting to hang out in our area. And animals they know what the weather is going to do,” said Atchak.
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