Full Moon Bird Migration!

Spring has finally arrived!  The warm weather and the full moon brought in a lot of new migrating birds yesterday.  They're all a few weeks later than usual, but we're so happy to see them.

 

 

Lots of birds migrate at night, especially during a full moon.  The light of the moon guides their way.  And they're protected from most predators at night.  

 

We know they migrate at night because we see them and hear their songs in the morning, where they weren't there the day before.  Plus, those who study bird migration have long-known about night-time migration of many birds by capturing birds in nets -- primarily at night -- for monitoring and banding.

 

After last night's full moon, we've heard and seen Brown Thrashers, Tree Swallows, White Throated Sparrows, White Crowned Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows and Bluebirds!  These have joined the really early migrants that got caught in our late spring snowstorms in April: Red-winged Blackbirds, Fox Sparrows, Grackles and Robins.

 

Here's a photo of a Brown Thrasher taken last evening. It was trying to get suet out of the feeder.  They're hungry after a long flight to get here.

 

Brown Thrasher
 

 

The male Brown Thrasher has a beautiful, long and variable song that doesn't seem to have a definitive beginning and end. It sounds a lot like a mockingbirds type of call. Some describe the call with the words, “plant a seed, plant a seed, bury it, bury it, cover it up, cover it up, let it grow, let it grow, pull it up, pull it up, eat it, eat it.” So, lots of people know it's time to plant their gardens when the hear the Brown Thrasher singing!  I like that idea.

Here's a video we took last year of a male Brown Thrasher singing in our garden:


We're always so happy to hear the twittering of the Tree Swallows as they fly like dolphins in the sky around the pasture. Pairs of these acrobatic birds go from birdhouse to birdhouse as they establish their territory, renew mating bonds and claim a nestbox.  They line their nests with feathers.  If you're patient and lucky, sometimes you can offer them feathers by throwing them up in the air.  They'll swoop in a grab the feather in their mouth and fly off. It's an amazing experience -- try it!



A Tree swallow on a nest box

Another beautiful bird that nests in birdhouses in the pasture is the beloved Bluebird.  They have a sweet, faint call that reminds me of a Robin call. Actually, they're related!  These birds really need our help, so providing nest boxes really makes a difference in their population.  Be sure to keep the box protected from predators and monitor them throughout the summer.  They'll raise two clutches of babies each summer here in Wisconsin.

Bluebird

We've also heard the first Chipping Sparrow.  I got a glimpse of him this morning as he was announcing his arrival.  They nest in our rose bushes and make a grass-lined nest a few feet off the ground. They'll also nest a few times each summer and raise batches of babies.  We regularly check the nests for Cowbird eggs to ensure that the little "Chippies" don't end up raising a parasitic Cowbird instead of their own babies!



Chipping Sparrow

And one of our favorite migrants is the White Throated Sparrow. It stops at our gardens for about two weeks each spring and fall on its migration north and then south.  I can't wait to hear their song, which sounds like "Old Man Peabody, Peabody, Peabody." 



White Throated Sparrow

We highlighted this sweet little bird in a posting last year: White Throated Sparrows. 

To learn more about bird migration and the birds we've highlighted on this posting, be sure to check out All About Birds at Cornell University. It's a great resource for those who want to learn more about their backyard birds!

Where's Spring?!

Winter just doesn't want to let go of it's grip on us this year.  We got another snowstorm last night and today it looks like January instead of April!

Here's what our gardens looked like last year on April 2, 2012:

We've had four weekends in a row with snowstorms in late March and through April.  Spring just can't make any headway here in Wisconsin.

So, what might be causing this "stuck" weather pattern that we're in?  One theory for this is called "arctic amplification."

I first heard about this from meteorologist, Paul Huttner in his blog.  His quick explanation of arctic amplification is that it works like this:

1.  A warmer Arctic reduces temp contrasts between the poles and tropics.
2. Less temps contrast = slower jet streams.
3. Deeper, more "amplified "Rossby Waves" (that change weather patterns) get stuck in place for longer periods.
4. Stuck jet streams = fewer changes and more persistent droughts, floods, cold outbreaks, etc.

Next time you watch the weather report, take a look at the maps showing jet streams and fronts. They're always in curvy, wavy lines.  So, the longer and wider the curves of the jet streams, the slower they move, apparently.

As gardeners, we set our gardening patterns on the weather patterns for planting, pruning, harvesting and enjoying.  Who knows, maybe this arctic amplification theory is right?  Or maybe it's just one of many reasons to explain the late spring we're having.  Either way, I can't wait to see the daffodils again!

If you'd like to learn more about arctic amplification, here's a really good and fairly easy to understand video by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University.

Fox Sparrows and April Snowstorms

A Fox Sparrow in the snow during an April snowstorm in Wisconsin

This spring has been tough on the early migrating birds.  We had a brief warm-up in early April, which brought in the first of the early migrants: Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles, Robins, Song Sparrows and Fox Sparrows.

And then winter returned.  We've had blizzard-like conditions the last two weekends that dumped another 6 inches of snow on the gardens.

As a result, the bird feeders are really popular with lots of frantic bird activity.  We've never seen birds in such a hyper-active mode at the feeders as they gobble up the seeds and suet.

But, this has given us a chance to see migrants up close and in flocks. We usually see only one or two Fox Sparrows, but this year, we're seeing flocks!




Fox Sparrows are larger than most sparrows and they have an orange-color to their feathers.  They like to scratch around in the dirt for bugs and other good things to eat.  You'll see them kicking their legs back and forth as they forage for food.

And, they've been singing!  We've had lots of opportunities to hear their beautiful call.  To hear the song, go to the Fox Sparrow All About Birds page (Cornell University).

We're on the migration path for these birds from their winter homes in the southern U.S. to their breeding grounds way up in Canada to Alaska.

The snowstorms and cold weather had us worried about these migratory birds.  Imagine having to fly hundreds of miles and then land in the middle of winter with little food to recharge your energy!  We're glad that they readily ate the black-oiler sunflower seeds at our feeders.  We hope that helped them get through the late snowstorms here in Wisconsin.

They'll be leaving for their summer breeding grounds soon -- if our weather ever warms up!  Yup, another snowstorm is in the forecast.  Sure hope the snow melts sometime in May!