New Holland's Wintering Robins

     On the afternoon of February 5, 2015, I was driving around the New Holland, Pennsylvania area when I saw about 200 American robins in a field just off the road right outside of town.  It was a warm, sunny afternoon and I supposed at the time that the robins were looking for invertebrates in the sun-warmed soil of that field.  At any rate, I mentally noted that probably was the biggest single group of wintering American robins I ever saw.
     A few days later, on cloudy, cold February 9, I noticed several American robins flying across the road from a park in New Holland.  I looked in the direction the robins came from and saw several of them on the ground under three crab apple trees loaded with dull-red fruits that were about the size of grapes.  I drove fairly close to those trees, stayed in my car so to not scare the birds away and spotted them with 16 power binoculars.  There must have been about 200 robins there, most of them ingesting crab apples off the ground under the crab apple trees, but a few were eating fruit from the trees themselves.  Those on the ground ran and stopped, ran and stopped, as robins do, between picking up and eating crab apple fruits.  I figured these probably were the same robins I saw in the field nearby on the fifth of February.  But because the ninth was a colder day, invertebrates would not be active and so the robins turned to eating fruit. 
    The robins and crab apple trees were in an open complex of a public park, a small golf course and the grounds of a public pool, all having short grass and varying sized, deciduous and coniferous trees. The crab apple trees, like all the trees in that open area, were planted for their beauties.
     The robins had handsome plumages that varied a little.  Males had more vivid colors than females.  Every few minutes, many of the robins flew away as if in panic, but I couldn't see anything that was scaring them.  But they soon came back to their food supply and continued feeding.
     Interestingly, there were a few cedar waxwings among the robins in the crab apple trees.  The waxwings, too, were consuming the fruits of those trees.
     Some flocks of American robins stay north all winter.  Those birds feed all winter on berries and roost overnight in the needled, sheltering embraces of coniferous trees.
     On sunny February 11, I again saw an estimated 200 American robins on an extensive lawn on the edge of New Holland, near the crab apple trees and the field they were in on the fifth.  Again I thought these must be the same birds I've been seeing all along around New Holland this winter.  The robins ran and stopped, ran and stopped across the short grass, probably in quest of invertebrates in the soil under the short grass.  
     The day after a three inch snow on February 16, 2015, I again saw the robins back in the crab apple trees to eat some of their fruit.  They resorted to fruit again because the ground and invertebrates were covered by snow. 
     The flock of about 200 American robins in New Holland seemed to be getting along quite well this winter.  I had seen flocks of wintering robins in this my home town before, but not in such large numbers.  It was exciting to see so many of them this winter.