Perhaps food source run out,..I'm thinking about berries etc. is it too dry?
You're right, this year with the several heat waves in Canada and US the season has pushed ahead.

That is probably the most logical explanation. We had a bad dry spell that ended late July/early August. Have had decent rains in August - lawn is nice and green again, veggies doing great, and flowers recovering. They hung around through the dry July but that may have been because they still had inexperienced juveniles with them. I had a bunch of bird baths out and kept the water fresh and the robins used them often.

Strange thing is that the robins are always the guilty party in destroying my grapes if I do not cover the vines with protective netting. I did not net them this year and just two days ago I harvested an excellent crop of undamaged grapes.

Come to think of it, I have not seen the orioles or grosbeaks for some time as well. Still have lots of non-migrators around the feeders though.

-Tom

I'm in north central Texas and have been noticing flocks of unknowns heading here like an early migration. I figured that it was the drought that so many are experiencing this year. My area has had record rainfall this summer.

I've been seeing robins here too hanging out at the birdbath. That's odd, they are usually here in winter and away in the heat.

pkponder - Thanks for your post, very interesting information. We have been getting our cooler September weather in August. One night last week the temp got down to 48 degrees, which is very unusual for August. Leaves are changing color on some trees.

I fear we are in for a long, hard winter this year.

I agree with the posters regarding the weather/early migration -- I have been hearing the geese moving at night for several weeks, something far more common in September.

There will be some that think the unusual weather pattern is all part of 'global warming', but my personal belief is that we are just seeing the results of our 'man-made calendars' aren't matching nature's true calendar (adding a day every 4 years isn't helping!). Nature knows when to move and does not rely on calendars to tell them when fall is coming, when to return in the spring, etc. But we humans are stuck with calendars that are not matching up with nature any longer -- and then we equate it to man'e effect on the weather patterns! It's always about 'us'. :-)