By Staff
Sorry about no column last week, I was on forest fire duty up north. It's been a really weird spring, too hot, then too cold, too much rain but intermittent dry spells causing red flag forest fire danger. Everything seems to be in the extreme. This hasn't seemed to phase the migrant birds, though. They are returning right on schedule. I think weather has little, if any, role in the timing of migration.
Take, for instance, the very earliest arrivers, robins, bluebirds, red winged blackbirds, phoebes and such. They show up in early March no matter what the weather's doing. Oddly, most of these are insect eaters yet they often arrive during snow squalls when there is no hope of finding a bug. Granted, most of them aren't above snacking on seeds now and then but it's weird that they would be the first in when their preferred chow is nearly always absent. They also dive into their family duties with no regard for the weather. I was amazed a month ago to find bluebird eggs in one of my nest boxes even though it had been cold and snowy.
The next regiment to arrive is the swallows. They show up here around the first of April. Swallows, whether they be tree swallows, barn swallows, rough-winged swallows or purple martins, are some of my more favorite birds. I love to just sit and watch them perform their aerial acrobatics. Their sort-of-early arrival is equally strange. They eat insects exclusively yet when they first arrive it's almost always too cold for any significant amount of bugs to be flying. I wonder how they survive during the inevitable cold spells. I have noticed that in this early time when the weather turns cold and sour the swallows totally disappear. As soon as it breaks, though, they're right back. I can't imagine that they fly back south to better weather. Where do they go?
The last wave of migrants is just now hitting town. These are our most showy visitors pulling in from their far away homelands of Central and South America. About a week ago the first one to show up at our feeders was an indigo bunting. The books say these flashy blue boys don't frequent feeders but this guy must not have read that. He's doubly thumbing his nose at that wisdom by favoring the thistle seed feeder, the plastic tube type with tiny access slots below the perches. Theoretically gold finches are the only ones that can hang upside down and pluck seeds from the slots. The bunting doesn't continually hang down like the finches. He just takes a quick flip down, grabs a seed and returns upright.
Last Friday the first rose-breasted grosbeak showed up. As always, he took up residence on the sunflower seed feeder and has been pretty much a permanent fixture there since. He, too, tried his hand at the thistle seed feeder. He must have taken lessons from the bunting for he does the one flip bob as well. I suspect his beak is too large for the slot, though, for he has since resumed his dawn to dusk sunflower seed pig out.
Tuesday morning the first oriole showed up at the feeders. Alas, I didn't have any oranges or the oriole feeder out. He perused the buffet of thistle, sunflower seeds, mixed bird seed and suet, found none to his liking and bugged out. I quickly hung the oriole feeder but it wasn't until the afternoon that he came back. He also brought a buddy. One did his best to empty the sugar water while the other ravaged the suet block. I'd better get the hummingbird feeder up, too. I've yet to see any warblers coming through but they shan't be long.
One final note of bird interest, a local birder reported to me he has found a pair of nesting bald eagles here in Cass County. Wintering eagles show up in these parts occasionally but I've never heard of any taking up residence. Sorry, to ensure their privacy as well as avoid trespass issues it's best I not divulge the location. Carpe diem.