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New Arrivals!

Here in my yard, it seems like spring is finally arriving! I’ve been seeing birds carrying nest material, new migrants almost every day… This is my favorite part of the year, when something’s going on in my own back yard every second.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are so photogenic!

I’ve been seeing Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Terns, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Tree and Barn Swallows… I even saw a Palm Warbler the other day! And, of course, ducks, robins and blackbirds are still here, making it really seem like spring.

A pair of Mallard Ducks enjoying the water.

The Big Day (when birders all over the world try to submit as many checklists as possible to eBird within 24 hours) is coming up on May 9, and I’m looking forward to participating. I have special plans for it, as you’ll see! Unfortunately, any of the birding events I attended last year and was looking forwards to this year have been canceled due to the pandemic, so it looks like I’ll be for the most part stuck at home this migration season. This is where a big yard with lots of nesting habitat comes in handy – I won’t be denied my birding time, even now!

Beautiful spring migrants like this female Cape May Warbler are a wonderful surprise on a spring day.

For those of you who don’t have a large yard, nearby parks would be just as good, I really recommend that. Go ahead and submit an eBird checklist from your local park or hiking trail on the 9th (for extra points, submit some any day you go birdwatching)!

Visit eBird here: https://ebird.org/home

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Welcoming Waterbirds

It’s that time of year again, when the weather is actually starting to feel like spring, and the lake near where I live has finally melted! This change was immediately heralded by a swarm of waterfowl, like always; and this year I’ve already seen Common and Hooded Mergansers, Ring-Billed Gulls, and American White Pelicans on the lake. Yesterday, I took a canoe trip to see all the birds on the lake, and this is what I found!

First, I spotted a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a male and a female. We went right along the shore then, and I saw lots of very loud Common Grackles, a pair of Mourning Doves, and a very nice squirrel, before I turned my attention to an enormous flock of gulls – probably all Ring-Billed – settled on the water.

This enormous flock of gulls resting across the lake was pretty noisy!

Moving on, we spotted a pair of beautiful Common Mergansers, four more flying overhead, and another Hooded Merganser couple. This was followed by a mystery waterbird, which I originally thought was a Common Loon – which I’d had yet to see this year – but realized while scrutinizing the photos I’d collected that the markings didn’t quite line up. The beak was too long and thin, and the chest was much too dark.

What could this mystery bird be?

Then, we passed a female Common Merganser, noticed a mixed flock of Common and Hooded Mergansers across the lake, saw one male Mallard (which I suspect was a decoy, not a real duck, but can’t be sure), and watched a rather flamboyant male Northern Cardinal for a bit.

Finally, with our trip drawing to a close, came the most exciting part. We spotted a large flock of some sort of duck, and drew our canoe in as close as possible without scaring them off. I took as many photos as I dared (my camera is pretty loud), hoping this would be what I thought it was. They appeared to have a crest… their markings weren’t recognizable as any bird I’d seen before… When I got home, I looked the pictures I’d taken over carefully, and it was! A Red-Breasted Merganser, the only Merganser missing from my life list! They only pass by Minnesota during migration, so I was excited to have caught these.

If you look closely, you can see the distinctive ID marks of the Red-Breasted Merganser – brown chest, spiky, disheveled crest, and thin red beak.

With this wonderful highlight over, we headed home after watching one last flock of Common Mergansers. It was an incredible trip, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the spring, in hopes I’ll see even more beautiful waterbirds!

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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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Spring Has (almost) Sprung! Get Ready for Nesting Birds

March has finally come, and I, for one, am ready for spring! It’s not coming for several weeks still, but with days getting longer and weather warmer, it’s time to get out the birdhouses and prepare your yard for the flocks of nesting birds that will soon be arriving!

Step One: Birdhouses

If you want birds to nest in your birdhouses/nest boxes, you need to get them up ahead of time. Clean them out, adjust them to best suit the species you’re targeting, and mount them in an ideal place. For more info about different species’ needs, visit NestWatch’s Right Bird, Right House page at https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/right-bird-right-house/. (Hint – don’t hang birdhouses, as in my experience the only birds that will nest in a hanging house are House Wrens, who are very interesting, charismatic birds but tend to be aggressive to nearby nesters).

Prothonotary Warblers are the only warbler in the eastern US who will nest in birdhouses.

Step Two: Nest Material

I’ve never actually tried this one, but it sounds like a great idea to help out nesters! Just fill a mesh bag or make a pile with twigs, moss, human hair, pet fur, dead leaves, bits of string, grass clippings, spiderwebs, or feathers. Hang the bag from a branch, or if you prefer to leave it in a pile, put it in a visible and accessible location. If even that sounds like too much work, you can always just make a small mud puddle somewhere in your yard – the robins will flock to it, and before you know it there’ll be muddy robin nests popping up all over your yard! Easy for the birds, and even easier on you!

This female House Finch took a bit more nesting material than she could carry!

Step Three: Predators

This one is incredibly important – If you invite birds to nest in your yard, then failing to do everything you can to remove predators is like luring the baby birds into a death trap. True, you can’t just get rid of snakes, raccoons, and other wild predators, but you can install baffles to any birdhouses that are on posts, and keep cats indoors. Also, unless you’re a certified NestWatcher and following their Code of Conduct, avoid visiting the nest. You might enjoy watching the baby birds grow up, but any predators who follow your scent trail right to the nest will enjoy eating them for lunch even more.

Opossums, like this one, are cute to humans but a serious threat to baby birds.

Bonus: Nest Cam

The best way to keep an eye on a nest without leading predators to it is putting a cheap camera inside the birdhouse (make sure to do this before anyone nests there!) Then, you can watch the goings on inside from your own home. Learn all about it at https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/installing-a-nest-box-camera/.

Now, armed with these tips, you can easily become the most popular bird landlord in the neighborhood this spring!