2018 Spring Migration Comes to a Close

This morning, I still arose at 5:30 am. I quickly showered and dressed. The windows were open to help the house cool off, it's still a bit early for air conditioning. And the yard was fairly silently. Spring migration has come to a close. After 2 + weeks full of birds and regular rain storms at night (and often during the day), the boom time for birding in my backyard came to end.

This spring's weather was lousy. I consider the height of migration to be mid-April through mid-May and I am particularly vigilant about watching for birds and topping off feeders. The mid and late April snows followed by almost constant rain in early May certain impacted the birds' migration. We saw a ridiculous numbers of birds some mornings and they made quite the commotion.

The yard was frequented by Orioles both Orchard and Baltimore, both pictured above. The highest count at one time was 8 male Baltimores and 4 Orchards. I had a very difficult time keeping oranges and grape jelly at the feeders. They arrived on May 1st and as of today, I only saw two this morning and none this evening.

Warblers like the Yellow Rumped Warbler pictured above also came calling in numbers like we hadn't seen before. Common Yellow Throats, Black Throated Greens, Tennessee, and even this Chestnut Side Warbler (pictured below) all made debut appearances in our yard.

Thrushes have often been visitors to the yard during migration, we usually pick up a Gray Catbird or a Brown Thrasher, or a Swainson's Thrush. This year we had them all, and a new visitor, a Gray Cheeked Thrush (1st image below). The Thrushes made regular visits to our shrubs (Highbush Cranberry, Staghorn Sumac, Pagodoa Dogwood) from which they'd launch hopping assaults on our backyard compost. For a couple of days we had two Gray Catbirds who were also making trips to our Oriole feeders (2nd picture below, in shrub, not the feeder) and we had two Swainson's Thrushes in the dogwoods just yesterday (3rd picture below)

Our previous record count for bird species in a single year was in 2015 with 47 species identified. For 2018, we are at 55 species and we still have the rest of summer and fall migration to go.

We also started spring with nesting pairs of birds using our nest boxes as of mid April. Chickadees in one, and Eastern Bluebirds in the other. May has changed this situation entirely. The House Wren evicted the Black Capped Chickadees and some mystery has happened to the Bluebirds. The male hasn't been seen in 2 or so days, the female has been around. They had a single egg in the nest which was intact yesterday but as of today was broken. It remains unclear what happened, but it is possible that this will be the first time in four years that Eastern Bluebirds fail to nest successfully in our yard.

Post Crane Count Snow

As I detailed yesterday's Crane Count in a post, the snow fell. It continued to fall through the night. It's continued to fall as I write this post. And it's expected to continue to fall until evening.

The plows are not out.

And I have not shoveled.

I did however refill the bird feeders this morning.

This has supported the usual suspects, and for most of the day, we've had American Goldfinches, House Finches, Morning Doves, Dark Eyed Juncos, Black Capped Chickadees, and American Tree Sparrows.

It is to the best my recollection, the first time I've seen the male Goldfinches in full yellow mode during a snowstorm. During the fall and winter they are a more drab brown like the females. As spring returns so does their bright yellow plumage.

More interesting to watch has been the American Robins. They had already polished off the remaining berries in my Nannyberry Viburnums and my Highbush Cranberries during our somewhat cold March. They scouted the shrubs this morning looking for any remaining.

There were none.

And so I had a couple try something I hadn't seen before.

This Robin had been digging in the safflower feeder.


And this one appeared to be trying to eat sunflower seeds.

For as miserable as yesterday's weather was, I'm glad the Crane Count was yesterday and not today.

March Weekend of Birding in Wisconsin

This past weekend provided sunshine and a temperature over 40 F. So I knew going into the weekend, that it'd be a good time to get back out into some nearby parks to see what migratory birds were making their way back into the neighborhood.

Certain visitors had already made their way into our yard. On my 2018 species list, I'd already documented: Common Grackles, American Robins, and Red Winged Blackbirds. My goal for the weekend was to find some of the feathered travelers who I didn't necessarily anticipate seeing in my backyard.

The Madison area is full of great places to bird. If you are looking to spy waterfowl, there are a host of lakes and parks with open water. Other birds species can be found in abundance as well: there are nearby state parks, conservancy lands, and the varying habitats at the UW Arboretum. I chose none of above.

To avoid the cold and the dark on Saturday, I opted to go birding in the afternoon rather than in the early morning. An odd time to be sure, and I wasn't certain how much fruit my venture would yield. To my surprise, the Goose Lake area and Quarry Ridge Recreation Area (managed by Dane County and the City of Fitchburg) made for an excellent afternoon of birding.

The first thing to catch my eye was this lone Bald Eagle.

Beyond this, the trip involved a number of the usual suspects: Herring Gull, Ring Billed Gull, Canada Goose, and of course the familiar Mallard.

Amongst the ducks and geese, I spotted one swimming alone. This Northern Shoveler.

I decided on Sunday to bare the cold. It was just below freezing and still some what dark when I headed out into the Sugar River Wetlands State Natural Area (managed by the WI DNR and Upper Sugar River Watershed Asso.) in Verona. This marsh yields regular sitings of Sandhill Crane, Red Winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Song Sparrows, and later in summer: Yellow Warbler, Common Yellow Throat, and even Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.

This chilly March Sunday morning did not disappoint. A number of the usuals were present: Song Sparrows and Red Winged Blackbirds in abundance. A single Eastern Meadowlark I could hear but not spot. 5 Sandhill Cranes wondering the property, two walking down the mucky trail just like me.

As I turned to head back to my car, a large black bird swopped through the stand of oaks at the south of the SNA.

While nonmigratory, this Pileated Woodpecker really made my day.

Regardless of where you live, get out a map. Find some local parks. They don't have to be state parks or designated conservancy lands. Local and county parks, or scrub land along a bike trail. These call can make for unique birding experiences. Get out there and enjoy the early spring weather, after all, winter is only 9 months away.

Spring is Here: Robins, Red Winged Blackbirds, Grackles, Killdeer, and Cranes Return

I've only managed to photograph American Robins in our nannyberries but as of today, we took a walk this evening and saw Red Winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles. We also hear Sandhill Cranes and Killdeer today. Generally I declare Spring to have sprung when I've seen the Red Winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and American Robins which is typically closer to March 10th. When I have some good photos I'll share them here.

The Robins have been busy picking away at the berries left in our nannyberry viburnums.


The blackbirds like the Common Grackle have been looking through the leaf litter we didn't rake or remove last fall.

An Understory Story

Those who have had a chance to read The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy, are aware of the importance of layers in a landscape. The book breaks landscape into a essentially 4 layers: Canopy, Understory, Shrubs, and Herbaceous.

Many backyard landscapes have a Canopy (a tree or two) and a Herbaceous layer (your flowers and grass). The current state is that a layer in between the two may be relegated to some evergreen bushes planted up against the house. It's possible to create a more diverse and interesting Understory.

Many plants fit somewhere between the category of Shrub and Understory. Two of our neighbors have large Maples (ie Canopy) along these sides of the yard, we decided to plant an Understory of Eastern Redbud, Pagoda Dogwood, Allegheny Serviceberry, and Highbush Cranberry. Our Understory provides excellent white and pink color in the spring and in a few weeks, we expect to have vibrant fall colors.

Most importantly, our Understory provides cover and food for wildlife. Early in the summer the Serviceberries provide fast food for our Eastern Bluebirds who found competition from American Robins. Now at the end of summer, the Highbush Cranberries are red, the Dogwood and Sumac fruit is ripe. The ripe fruit has brought back our Eastern Bluebirds, attracted a pair of Northern Cardinals, and yesterday a Brown Thrasher came to visit.

This part of our yard is popular with the Eastern Gray Squirrels, the Black Capped Chickadees, Jays, and Thrushes.

Swainsons Thrush visiting in the Spring


Serviceberries in bloom with white flowers.


Highbush Cranberry Viburnum fall color.


Hermit Thrush paying a visit.

First Flowers of Spring 2014 - False Indigo, Blue Lupine, and Columbine

After three years, our great backyard experiment is really starting to pay off. We started off the spring with cool, rainy weather, and we finally saw warmer weather in mid-May. The first plants to add color to the yard were the Serviceberries and the Eastern Redbud. These flowering trees and shrubs are regularly the first to bloom and add a splash of color. The Wood Violets also flowered, but while the ornamental trees and violets flowered, the garden plants grew tall and green.

Our Redbud seemed to be particularly pink this year.

We've had a recent warm streak, which brought with it semi-regular rain showers and thunder storms. With the warm weather and rain, the plants have grown. Yard maintenance has been relatively difficult to keep up with. The benefit has been each time I head out to weed, mow, trim, mulch or prune, I find something new has flowered.

Columbine has grown wild behind our air conditioner since we moved in. Last year, we put down some Columbine seed near the existing plant in a previously unused flower bed. Two additional Columbines now grow with showy red flowers.

The Columbine which prefers to grow behind the air conditioner.

The flower bed in the front has its first Lupines. Last spring, we planted a half dozen Lupine plugs, but only two of the six came back after the long, cold winter. (We've seen similar results with the Little Blue Stems planted in the same bed.) We've added two more Lupines to the bed for now and noticed that some may have seeded themselves as some really little guys are also popping up.

I would have been very sad if none of the Lupine had come back. This one is a fighter.

After multiple years of rabbits chewing back the False Indigo, the fence has paid off, and we have some tall, attractive purple flowers in the main garden. So far, we have 3 of 5 flowering, and the Bumble Bees seem to e enjoying them.

A small victory!

These plants are well ahead of the other plants in the garden. It will still be awhile before the Purple Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, or Butterfly Milkweed flower. The Columbine, Lupine, and Indigo add visual interest to the yard by providing dashes of red, blue, and purple. They also provide a food source for pollinators. We have seen Cabbage White Butterflies, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, and Large Carpenter Bees, and it's just the start of June. We're hoping to be able to report a record year for pollinators this year, and we'll be trying to focus on capturing each visitor digitally.

How are your gardens doing this spring? Anything growing particularly well?

The Sounds of Spring Arrive

While taking our dog for a walk this evening around the neighborhood's pond, I heard four distinct sounds of Spring which I felt I should share:

• American Robins
• Red Winged Blackbirds
• Sandhill Cranes (9 of them flying North)
• Mallards (7 of them pulling up when they realized the pond is still frozen)

Signs of Spring checklist, updated, Red Winged Blackbirds spotted. Unfortunately my lawn still has about three inches of old dirty snow.

Forget the Equinox! Five Signs Spring is Officially Here

One can certainly define Spring as the season which starts with the upcoming Equinox, but in the Upper Midwest it's certainly likely to be a season which starts after said event. It is however also possible that Spring may come early. What are the signs that Spring has sprung and that Winter has loosed us from her frigid grip?

Here are 5 signs that Spring is officially here:
1. Male Cardinals fighting over territory and breeding rights. It's the closest thing to Bison rut I expect to see in my backyard.
2. Robins calling early in the morning to welcome in the day, as if to say "Hey we're back! Pay attention and wake up!".
3. The evening Red Wing Blackbird chorus letting us all know it's time to go home.
4. Rain. Just rain. Not freezing rain, not wintery mix, just rain. And without the promise of subsequent snowfall as temperatures drop.
5. The last of November's and December's snow has melted away to reveal grass which hasn't seen light in 4 months.

If these five signs are in fact reliable indicators that a new season in upon us, then in Wisconsin we aren't quite there yet.

Checklist so far:
1. Spotted on March 9 at 7:00 am near our Striped Sunflower Seeds.
2. Spotted on March 10 at 7:45 am in an oak tree near work. Saw 4 Robins by 9:00 am.
3. Heard on March 15 at 5:00 pm -ish. Blackbirds spotted at neighborhood pond.
4. It rained today (3/11) but they warned about the potential for snow.
5. Most of the yard is still buried. Only about 3 or 4 more inches to go in most spots.

It may not be Spring in Wisconsin yet, but we'll see which comes first: Spring or the Equinox.

What are the signs you count on to know Spring is here?