Thunder Bay robin hasn't flown south

Connie Hartviksen was admiring the array of winter birds flocking to her feeder on Monday when she noticed a peculiar spot of orange.

"My gosh.  It's a robin," she recalled thinking.

Indeed, an American robin, a bird far more commonly associated with spring, has been making itself at home in her yard for the past several days. 

"Usually by now, they are long gone south because they're insect eaters or invertebrate eaters and they need water, and so usually they're very much south from here in order to find food," explained Hartviksen, who is a photographer and member of the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists.

Hartviksen noticed the bird was eating Mountain Ash berries from an arrangement on her steps.  She's since supplemented its diet with raspberries and meal worms, she said. 

"It's hard to know why the bird is here.  It shouldn't be but it is, and I won't let it starve," she said. 

If it's still in town when the lakes and creeks freeze, Hartviksen said she'd put water out in a heated bowl for it.  

Hartviksen recently heard of another robin sighting in Timmins, and people have shared stories on Facebook about robins that stayed in Thunder Bay longer than usual during previous winters, but it remains incredibly rare, she said.

"It's exciting.  We're huge fans of nature and all sorts of animal life and wildlife and so it's just one of those little gifts that came to us at Christmas and it looks like it's going to be here to enjoy New Years with us too," she said.