It started a couple of years ago. The first wave that I can remember was on Sept. 11, 2017. Eastern Bluebirds, Yellow Rumped Warblers, Palm Warblers, and Flycatchers rushed our backyard that evening. They were in the Highbush Cranberries; they perched on the cable line, they darted into and out of the wildflowers.
A week or so later, we had a similar wave of birds. And again the same last year.
Like spring migration just in the opposite direction. These birds have spent summer eating, nesting, and now they are regrouping and ready to head home. For the juvenile birds, it will be their first migration. They'll need to fly back to places like Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
It's a Sunday. And it's raining. Always raining. It'd been raining since late on Saturday night. When it's not raining; it's misting.
Sitting, eating cinnamon rolls and drinking coffees; there were first the year-rounders: House Finches, Morning Doves, American Goldfinches, and our juvenile Cardinals.
Each time the rain let up, the insect eaters came out. Small birds, smaller than the leaves on our Redbuds; birds about the size of the leaves on the Highbush Cranberries. Jumping, flitting, hawking to catch tiny insects.
Ruby Crowned Kinglet in our Redbud.
Yellow Rumped Warbler in our Highbush Cranberries
Palm Warbler - yellow under the tail is the give away
Common Yellow Throat in our wildflowers.
This is probably the last of these little guys we'll see this year. The weather this week is expected to get colder, and fall migration always seems to be a bit shorter than spring migration. With a lot of luck, they'll return to warmer places safely and find their forests or wetlands still intact and ready to sustain them over the winter. In about 6 or 7 months time they'll return to Wisconsin just as the leaves are first starting to appear. And we'll be here watching to welcome them back.
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