Category: spring weather
Spring Migration Nearing its Peak
This has been a very late Spring. The migration of the birds was much later and slower than normal. Some birds that were early last year, such as the Eastern Bluebird, came later and in much smaller numbers than expected. Other birds, such as the Zonotrichia Sparrow, were more or less on time, and very well welcomed by us and other birders.
The Warblers have started to show up all over the place, even if not in the numbers we would hope for. The highlight for us would be the Cape May Warbler. We don’t get them every year so they are always welcomed. Some of the best birds this Spring have been birds we haven’t gotten good photos of or any photos at all. We saw a Black-billed Cuckoo a few days ago, no photo. Shawnne heard a Golden-winged Warbler, no photo.
Baltimore Orioles have been numerous and noisy. Always welcome here. We’ve been getting Pine Warblers at our suet feeder, the bugs must be in short supply. The top photo is a Bobolink. They have just started to come in and we should see them all summer. Most of the photos were
Lovely to see you again
There is a Moody Blues song with this title which is so appropriate at this time of the year, more so than usual this year. Last year Spring came early and some birds, like the Red-winged Blackbirds, never left for the Winter. This year Spring has been very late, some birds, like the Bluebirds, that we expect to see in numbers have barely appeared. Real Spring weather started to arrive this Friday, when we hit a high of 64. We have taken advantage of the change to drive around and look at all the birds we have been missing. We have had 14 birds make their first appearance of the year. Below is a list of the birds and the dates for each:
White-throated
House FinchWe keep waiting and hoping to see sings of Spring. In particular we are hoping to see the Spring birds come in. A few days ago we saw a few Red Crossbills, but nothing else. So, it was with particular pleasure that we had a male House Finch at our feeder yesterday afternoon. We had last seen one November 19th last year. Usually they come in March. In 2008 we saw them as early as March 2nd. Last year which had an extremely early Spring, they came in on March 13th. Today on our drive we saw Wild Turkeys and Horned Larks. We still wonder why we never saw them before. They can blend in with the vegetation but they are so active it is almost impossible to miss them. The Turkeys we seem to find in the same place on the back roads on our way to Little Falls. (Love the manure smell, another less pleasant reminder of Spring and the coming planting season.) May 2012 Summary
May was a fantastic month for birding. We identified 99 different species, 84 of them on our own street. We had 2 days where we identified over 50 birds and the average per day was 39 birds. In short a very busy month and a very good month. Most of that success is due to the fact that we simply spend a lot of time outdoors looking for birds. We are also more systematic about it. We have a printed spreadsheet of possible birds that we use as a checklist each day. We use our database to estimate what birds we should be seeing. We have a digital recorder so we can listen to songs of birds that we didn't quite identify in the field. We also have had the good luck to be looking when a few fantastic birds stopped by (it was purely luck that had us out looking when the Yellow-headed Blackbird appeared).
If we have a favorite from May it is either the Canada Warbler or the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Panorama Theme by |