Right now, every night, thousands of American Robins stream up the canyons of the Jemez Mountains from the surrounding shrubby lowlands. This is part of their overall Autumn migration. As the estimated 300-400 million robins in North America move south each year, they seek out trees to spend the night in if they’re not actually flying south that night. In our area, robins prefer the forests of the Jemez Mountains to the shrubby pinyon and juniper in the surrounding areas. If one watches 1-2 hours before sunset, they can see thousands of robins moving uphill to find a safe forested area to spend the night. Local birders are conducting informal counts of this migration, and on Oct. 25, a high count of 8,081 robins was recorded between 3:45 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., from the Walnut Park overlook, covering only three of the many canyons in our region. This photo and the one below show an individual American Robin and a small group of migrants from the many thousands. These numbers should begin to taper off as winter approaches, though some robins will stay in our area over the winter. Photo by Michael Smith

A flock of American Robins flying during migration. Photo by Michael Smith