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The Blackbirds Are Back!

There are many different indications that the spring is coming, from first blooming flower, to first leaf bud, to first spring rain. For birdwatchers, though, spring’s approach is announced almost entirely by the arrival of migratory birds.

As I wrote last week, most consider the first robin of the year to mean spring has sprung, but another of the first birds to arrive in spring is the Red-Winged Blackbird, one of my personal favorites! Once they’re here, they stay all spring and summer, and their loud, familiar song is a frequent sound in the marsh. Naturally, living in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, I see them constantly during the warm months, but during the winter, I can only wait, and wait, and wait until they return, brightening even the most dreary March day.

A young Red-Winged Blackbird, the herald of spring.

And that’s what happened this Tuesday, when I spotted one at my feeder (where they occasionally stop to refuel on sunflower seeds). By the next day, they’d set up in the nearest marsh, their cheerful ‘Ok-la-REE!’ sounding totally out of place in the still-snowy landscape! As always, only the males came, and will have sorted out breeding territories in the cattails by the time the females arrive.

The first Red-Winged Blackbird of the year eating seeds below my feeder.

With these lovely birds came another, less-anticipated blackbird, the Common Grackle. There isn’t a lot of good things to be said about grackles – they have a slightly terrifying stare with their yellow eyes, their song sounds like a rusty gate, they’re one of the biggest avian crop thieves among farmers. and they sometimes kill and eat smaller birds (they’ve even been observed drowning them in birdbaths)! No, last summer, surrounded by VERY loud grackles, I was certain I wouldn’t miss them. Still, when I spotted one with some Red-Winged Blackbirds, I was glad to have them back. They do, after all, have some good traits – they have beautiful, iridescent blue heads, they look vaguely like a fighter plane when in flight (think about it next time you see a grackle, you’ll see it too!), and of course, they’re another sign of spring.

Common Grackles are beautiful, from a certain perspective.

So there you have it: the blackbirds are, at least in my yard, back! I hope to spot more spring migrants as spring comes closer (it’ll technically be spring starting on March 19, after all), and definitely see and hear more blackbirds this year!

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First Sign of Spring

This Thursday I was outside for another dull, not-quite-spring birding trip, when I spotted a flash of orange-red above. One of the cardinals who always visit my feeder in the morning? So I thought, but I still raised my binoculars – just in time to see the beautiful orange stomach of the first robin all year! Naturally, I was ecstatic – I’d missed those cheery thrushes brightening my yard. But barely a half-hour later, I witnessed a whole flock of them descending on the crab apple trees! What a beautiful sight, especially during March, when the almost-spring weather makes birdwatchers long for warblers and buntings.

American Robins are associated with the arrival of spring, but if they can find enough of the berries that make up their winter diet, they’ll stay all winter. Last year, I had robins eating hackberries in my backyard at a time when most of their friends were on vacation down south! This year, though, I didn’t see so much as a single robin feather – until now. The flock must’ve been starving from their trip, because they blanketed the little trees, munching on crab apples, until I got the camera in hopes of documenting their appearance and found out they were camera-shy.

American Robin swooping in on a branch full of hackberries.

I’m happy to have my robins back! From now until real spring, I’ll be waiting a little more patiently, glad to be surrounded by these chipper birds’ reminder that it isn’t too far away.

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More Than Just Watching: Befriending the Birds

Certainly, I like all birds and all types of birding. It’s amazing to explore new places and new birds, and I love finding a new species in my own yard. But the ones already there contain a wealth of birdwatching potential, or even a chance at a wild new friendship (you see what I did there?).

This male House Finch liked to relax here last spring after helping his mate with the nest.

It’s always exciting to see a new bird for the first time, and I love to find an unexpected bird in my backyard, but the regulars are beautiful, funny, and interesting to observe over and over. And most birdwatchers begin, over time, to start seeing our most frequent visitors to the yard as individuals with strong, unique personalities. It’s not uncommon, either, to see an especially dedicated birder calling their backyard birds by name. I proudly include myself in that group, whether it makes me sound like a crazy bird lady or not!

To the average non-birdwatcher, this probably sounds really weird – and possibly crazy – but getting to know the birds at your feeder personally adds a whole new aspect of birding. Befriending every individual gives you lots more visitors to watch for than constantly waiting for a whole new species, so for me, it doubles the joy of birdwatching.

These two Barn Swallows are among the several who nest under my deck.

When I point out my favorite birds to non-birding friends (no offense to the non-birding friends, of course), it typically goes like this:

Me: *wild pointing* “That downy usually comes to the suet with his girlfriend, over there! Ooh, and that robin has a nest in my neighbor’s yard!”

Non-birder: *blank stare* “What? Where? What are you talking about?”

Me: *impatient gesture at a little blob in a tree somewhere* “There, see! Isn’t he beautiful? That one’s the funniest little guy.”

Non-birder: “How do you tell him apart? He’s just a bird.”

‘Just a bird’.

For a experienced birder who’s used to seeing these birds daily, they can usually be told apart by slight variations in color and pattern, special habits, and distinctive personalities, but to most people, they all look the same. So pay attention to your birds! Does one have an unusual pattern on their feathers? Maybe they routinely come to the feeder at a certain time? Or perhaps it’s a downy woodpecker – each male has a slightly different red spot on the back of their head. Before long, you’ll have a mental database of certain charismatic birds that visit your yard – and just like that, you have a feathered family!

Here’s some of the members of my own feathered family:

A chickadee I call Hammer, who always pecks on the window feeder when he’s trying to get a seed.

A male Red-bellied Woodpecker named King, who’s rather flighty but an occasional visitor to feeders and a fan of hackberries.

A Northern Flicker called Fluff, who during the winter is fond of perching on a tree trunk, fluffing up until he’s barely even bird-shaped, and sitting there until it warms up a little. He’s made a guest appearance on this blog once already.

Fluff is one weird little woodpecker, but I love him for it.

Honorary Birds:

An acrobatic red squirrel named Copper who appears addicted to hackberries and will go to any length to get them.

Copper showcasing his incredible cuteness as he snacks on hackberries

A grey squirrel with an incredibly long tail (named, naturally, Longtail) who likes to empty my feeders about every ten seconds. I’m too fond of him to hate him, unfortunately.

A raccoon named Bernie who during the summer robs my suet feeder no matter what I do to keep him out of it. The raccoon I think was his wife (who went by Bernadette) got hit by a car last August, but that didn’t stop his life of crime.

I enjoyed sharing my feathered (and not-so-feathered) family members with you. Feel free to comment about your own!

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A Frosty Day

This morning, I looked out the window and saw that a beautiful frost had descended over my yard! Days like this have always been among my favorite parts of winter – not counting the part where it ends!

This Northern Flicker obviously feels the same way I do about winter! I call him Fluff because when it gets really cold, I often see him on a tree trunk, so fluffed up he looks like a ball of feathers.

Winter blues aside, I couldn’t wait to go out and see what birds I could find and photograph against that gorgeous, glittery backdrop! As soon as I could, I dashed outside with my camera.

A close-up of some sumac berries I found, covered with frost.

It was so quiet out there, and everything was white. Tiny flakes of ice were floating in the wind as if it were snowing, even though the sky was perfectly clear and an airy blue. The lighting was excellent for photography, especially compared to how cloudy and grey everything normally is during the winter. I didn’t see many birds, but I could hear perfectly whenever one called, because it was so quiet and muffled by the snow. It was too cold to stay out for too long, but it was amazing to see my yard transformed into this little wonderland, literally overnight! Here’s what I found:

A male Ring-Necked Pheasant that’s been hanging around for a few weeks. This time, he was perched in a crab-apple tree, but flew away before I could get close enough for pictures. Failed to photograph.

An unidentified white/light grey raptor I couldn’t identify (and neither could Audubon Bird ID), soaring overhead. Perhaps a goshawk? Feel free to comment if you have an idea what it could be, I could use some help! Failed to photograph.

A few chickadees. Got one or two photographs, but no winners.

Four Northern Cardinals, three males and a female. Very active and zipping around chasing each other for the most part. Got mostly poor photographs.

Female Northern Cardinal in an icy tree.

A Northern Flicker, zipping past my head. Failed to photograph.

Unknown woodpecker species. Failed to photograph.

A male White-breasted Nuthatch braving the cold to search for lunch on a tree.

White-breasted Nuthatch taking on the frosty day.

Okay, so not very interesting. But still, it was worth the cold just to get out and see all of the beautiful trees and plants, fluffed up with frost! I’m happy that I was able to go out and see it before it all melted, which had happened by ten o’clock. Whether the birds liked it or not, I couldn’t tell. They certainly appreciated me filling the feeders first, though!

Frosty branches give the same old trees that you see every day a magical touch.

In conclusion, a beautiful day to help me enjoy winter while it lasts! I’m still looking forward immensely to springtime, though. Thanks for reading!

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Species Spotlight: Northern Flicker

Nice to have you back again! Today, I’d like to acknowledge one of my favorite birds – the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Flickers come in two varieties: yellow-shafted and red-shafted. True to their name, the biggest difference is the color of their flight and tail feathers – when a yellow-shafted takes flight, you see a flash of yellow, if you see a red-shafted, its wings and tail show red underneath. There are even some flickers with pink shafts, which comes from eating an invasive species of honeysuckle (read more about it at https://www.audubon.org/news/mystery-solved-invasive-berries-blame-turning-flickers-feathers-pink ). The two will sometimes interbreed where their ranges overlap (yellow-shafted live in the east, red-shafted are found in the west), resulting in orangish feathers and a mix of the two types’ features. Here, I only get the yellow-shafted variety, but both are gorgeous birds!

This flicker’s yellow shafts are plainly visible in flight.

Flickers are woodpeckers, but unlike most woodpeckers, who are black and white with the occasional red or yellow, they’re a collage of colors and patterns – brown heads, striped backs, spotted stomachs, black collars, and for males, a red cap and a black (or red, depending on which type it is) mustache.

Northern Flickers, like this one displaying his bright red nape, are beautiful birds, with unique striped-and-spotted plumage.

They live year-round in most of the US, and during the breeding season can be found in most of Canada. You’re most likely to find a flicker on the ground, where they forage for ants or beetles, rather than hitching up a tree like a traditional woodpecker, but they nest in tree cavities like most woodpeckers, and will readily move into a nest box.

Northern Flickers are very similar in appearance to Gilded Flickers, but their range is much larger – Gilded Flickers only live in the Sonoran Desert. Unless you live in that area, you shouldn’t have much trouble telling this unique species apart from the other local woodpeckers!

Most people in the flicker’s range have probably seen one, as they’re very common, and if you have, you’ll understand why I love this amazing, unusual bird!

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Enjoying Winter Birds

Welcome to the debut post of this blog! I hope to continue it for many years as I expand my birding skills and experience all sorts of new things in the pursuit of birds! I’m Sydney, the MN Birdwatcher herself! Welcome to my brand-new blog abut my adventures in birding here in central Minnesota – I can’t wait to share them with you!

House Finches, though not native to the eastern US, are a common bird in Minnesota.

My yard certainly doesn’t look like a very interesting place to go birding right now; outside my window there’s snow, ice, and not much else. But my feeders have a steady stream of common birds a lot of birdwatchers might be tempted to ignore- dozens of Black-capped Chickadees; foraging House Sparrows; the occasional flock of American Goldfinches, colorful Northern Cardinals, or American Tree Sparrows – it can seem dull at first glance, but when I have the patience to sit, wait, and observe what there is, I remember how fascinating the winter residents of my yard are. Though they aren’t as flashy or colorful as the spring migrants or summer nesters we all remember so fondly around this time of year (forgetting, remarkably, about the rain, heat, bugs, and whatever else tries to prevent us from going out and birding for most of the year), I love my winter birds!

American Robins may be associated with the arrival of spring, but some may stay up north all winter, if they can find enough food.

For example, whenever I come out to fill the feeders, a flock of chickadees will start to make noise around their favorite feeder, and one or two will remain while I fill it. When I’m done, the rest of the chickadees will all swoop in as soon as I’m a safe distance away, and dig in!


And that’s just one example of the wonderful birds I share my yard with, even in winter. I’ve also been seeing a Brown Creeper (a cute brown bird that climbs around on tree trunks, like a nuthatch – I recommend looking it up online if you’ve never seen one) on the trees in my yard for the past few days, which is great because not only do I love watching them, I also didn’t know until then they even lived here during the winter. I also saw a pair of Yellow-shafted Flickers (my favorite woodpecker!) eating hackberries from a tree in my backyard yesterday. It seems like all sorts of birds love those – I’ve seen cardinals, robins, and Cedar Waxwings, as well as Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, and even Pileated woodpeckers eating them in the past. I’m happy my yard can be a safe home for so many amazing birds, summer and winter!

I occasionally see huge Pileated Woodpeckers, like this hungry female, snacking on hackberries in my backyard alongside more regular visitors.

Thanks for reading! I’m so excited to continue sharing stories from my backyard and things I’ve learned well into the future!