Spring has finally come to the upper Midwest. Bulbs are blooming and trees finally have leaves.
I am a bird watcher and we have several different types of feeders out. Two days ago, we had our first Ruby Throated Hummingbird at the feeder. We also saw our first Baltimore Oriole and have them in bunches to the Jelly Feeder and Orange wedges. We even had one at the Hummingbird feeder. They will be here two weeks or so to get rested and fed from their long migration.
It is great fun to watch the birds come back. Besides the feeders, we have Wren houses scattered about the yard and the Wrens are back and inspecting the available housing and making a lot of noise. We also have had the Rose Breasted Grosbecks show up. They are eating jelly and seeds. Most of the birds tolerate each other but now and then a fight.
Nice to see the mating colors at full vibrance. We get about 4-5 variety of orioles and a few different grossbeaks. The ones I miss are the Inca doves, haven't seen any in a number of years ever since the eurasian collared doves invaded.
We too are seeing all of our normal residents back, we Winter over a lot of wrens, and finches, but we now have back all of the showy ones. We keep our Downy and Redbellied woodpeckers all year, but our occasional Pileated Woody has made some appearances lately. A lot of Cardinals, Doves, and Robins stay around most of the year. For about 2 weeks we were getting hit with a pair of Mallards, sometimes with heavy rains they think our drainage ditch out back is a creek, and we have to chase them off from trying to nest there, but this is the first they are actually at the feeders, or at least on the ground under them, eating scatter that gets knocked out of them. Of course our resident Coopers Hawk, keeps a close eye on the action. I think it feeds primarily off of the many birds we attract. We have a lot of Redtails, and some Kestrels too, but they like the mouse action. A friend a few miles away has 2 Bald Eagles that poach off their feeders though. I figure easy pickings, they don't need to look, just fly by, and pick which one do I want now. Not far away we have a site with several nesting pairs of Baldies, the locals keep the position hush hush to keep the lookie loos away.
We also have a Rookery close by where about 80 Great Blue Herons roost, and nest, it can get pretty wild around dark there. They won't put in a cam, again to keep the idgits who think they have some right to stomp all over private property to go look. I personally like the No Trespassing, survivors will be prosecuted signs. :-)
Never have had the Pileated Woodpecker but the Hairy, Downy and Red Bellied. They are constants on the back porch. We have a pair of Cooper's Hawks that come each spring and nest somewhere close. We love watching them. The next major thing will be the return of Monarch Butterflies but need the Milkweed and flowers to grow. We normally capture and raise the caterpillars and have a high success rate.
I think the key to seeing a wide variety of butterfly's is how you do your yard. We embrace every weed and dandelion in the yard, so many of the neighbors act like they live in the burbs, and spray their yards with a ton of chemical, and by extension kill off all of the plants that all of the pollinators need to have, to do their thing. I know from years of experience of not spraying, that if you have a few acres, you can also have a huge safe zone for all the pollinators, which I would much rather see in my yard, than green grass, and no weeds.
That Pileated comes in, he makes himself known, Monster bully bird, he takes what he wants, and even the Blue Jays who are usually the bullies back off when he's around. I've never seen her, but my Wife has a few times, his Female other, but unlike him, shes pretty blandish. While both have the red shock top, his is alive, and being Male he also has the red cheek patch, and hers is dark, plus he is pretty big, and she is smaller, at least compared to him. I imagine I will see them both some day. For some reason they have been around more than normal this year. My Wife always has a cake out for the peckers, both the Pileated, and the Red Bellies love that, while the Downies like a suet cake a lot more. I hate to think of what our bird food bill is. :-)
Our pair of Mallards are visiting the ground under the feeder every day now. I'm not sure where they are coming from, but I would bet they are a nesting pair and Momma needs heavy protein, and some fats to feed the chilluns. He stands like a statue, keeping guard, and neither of us have seen him feeding, but she is like a threshing machine, and seldom takes her head out of the grass, where she is gobbling down as much as she can. If we are outside, they will tolerate us a very short time, and fly off, but the entire time her head is down, there is also a low throaty feeding call coming from her as she acts like a harvester.
Not sure if we will, we don't know for sure where they are located, and if the young take flight, they will probably move on the a larger wet spot, safety, and security is in a larger body of water. The biggest risk they take is when they nest, often on, or near dry ground, usually along a creek, which we have an abundance of around us. Fox, Coyotes, and any other killers of young birds, or even grown waterfowl are easily snatched off a waterway bank, in the middle of a lake, or even a large pond, not so much. But then again, after almost 50 years of feeding birds, I've never had ducks come up, and feed on the ground scatter, so maybe Momma is a lazy food grabber, and will bring them all around to eat? She is here every day right now.
