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For the past few days, robins have been seen playing in the yards and flitting from housetop to housetop in our neighborhoods. Long considered a harbinger of warmer weather, the robin’s seasonal movements are surprisingly complex, writes bird expert Kenn Kaufmann.

The old wives’ tale is that a robin is the first sign of spring, but American robins are an adaptable lot. Some migrate, and others don’t.

They do seem to disappear in winter, but they may just be flocking to nearby wooded areas where they’re protected. Then, as the weather warms, these flocks split up and our local robins emerge, looking for food and mates while they unknowingly pollinate flowers and control pests in my garden by munching on insects and eating berries.

In reading some of former STAR Editor Fred Behrend’s columns from years ago, he wrote: “If you’re looking for birds to forecast the coming of spring, keep an eye out not only for robins, but for warblers and other neotropical songbirds, stopping over in your yards as they travel. ‘These beautiful birds are referred to as neotropical because they are returning to North America for their breeding season after spending their winter in Central and South America, which sounds like a good place to keep warm!’” Behrend wrote.

Freddie, as he was affectionately known, was a birdwatcher and wrote a weekly column about birds. I only knew Freddie for a short time, as he retired the summer after I came to the STAR. But I counted him as a dear friend and enjoyed the many talks we had. Often, if it was a warm afternoon in the spring, he would announce he was taking four hours of vacation time to head out to nearby Lynn Mountain or to Roan Mountain to look for the first birds of spring.

At that time, people, when they spotted the first robin of spring in Elizabethton, would call the STAR to tell Freddie about their sighting, and he would type up a short story about the arrival of the various birds spotted.

Now, the fact is that robins don’t always migrate south and sometimes stay deep in the woods and come back out to yards and fields when it gets warmer. So, some robins do fly south while others stick around because they are a hardy bird and can survive our winters. It’s just that we usually don’t see those robins who stay because they keep to the woods. Yet, it is a nice old adage from way back when that robins are the first sign of spring.

And, true to form (even though we have had some very cold nights), this week is supposed to be very warm, with temperatures getting up to 60 degrees. And another old adage, “If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb,” Saturday is not forecast to be the warmest day of the week, so that means we may be heading into more springlike weather by the end of the month. Let’s hope.

Also, according to Freddie, other prognosticators of spring are trees budding (something we hope doesn’t happen right away this upcoming week as maple producers are getting in their crop), spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) chirping their chorus at dark as they emerge from hibernation, and, of course, the butterflies and the bees.

Like the Old Farmer’s Almanac at www.almanac.com also says, “For centuries, farmers and sailors—people whose livelihoods depended on the weather—relied on lore to forecast the weather. They quickly connected changes in nature with rhythms or patterns of the weather.”

So, down through the generations, seeing that first robin (whether it was just emerging from the woods or returning to its northern home) was the earliest sign of hope that warmer days ahead are coming. Those birds and springs bring happy memories of Freddie Behrend.