More robins wintering in Vermont

BURLINGTON  — Some robins have always wintered in Vermont — but they’re doing so in greater numbers than normal this season.
Mark LaBarr, the conservation program manager at the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington, says the Christmas bird count within a 15-mile radius of Burlington was a record high 2,191. The count’s been held for 64 years.
LaBarr tells the Burlington Free Press (http://bfpne.ws/z7vNXa) a lack of snow cover and a good crop of berries on some wild trees and bushes are contributing to the higher number of robins. He says robins are more likely to stay in Vermont or stop on their way south from Canada if they encounter a lack of snow and a good food source.