Spring Bird Migration

Although the Common Grackle is considered a nuisance bird, they don't seem to be as destructive as a similar looking bird, the Starling. I always know that spring is really going to start when in mid March huge flocks of grackles congregate in the tops of the big trees as the sun sets. I believe that they ride north along the strong air flows from the Gulf of Mexico that precede the first big lines of thunderstorms of the year.

I decided they sounded like rusty hinges but apparently I'm not the only one as you'll see in the notes on the Cornell Ornithology Lab site where you can hear the song for yourself. We seem to have mostly the "purple mixed race".

That rusty hinge sound also brings back happy memories of late spring and early summer when I would be outside sitting in the grass while my mom hung out the laundry or when I went with her to pick out bedding plants at the local greenhouses.

Though I don't see them in town as a rule, their domain being the cattails and grasses in the ditches along the country roads, I hear them. They seem to blow into town with the Grackles. (listen here)

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning up sticks in my yard under the trees and I saw a bright flash of red on the ground. I couldn't imagine what it could be. On closer inspection it was a half eaten red winged blackbird. There was a hawk feather nearby so I guess that one of the hawks that have been hanging around town this winter got it.

Normally robins start showing after the first warmish spring rains in March and the ground is soft enough to get some earthworms. This year, however, I saw flocks of robins in the dead of winter when the temperature was below zero. I read about similar reports across the country. What's going on? Is it global warming?

At any rate, I love the musicality of the robin's song. (Listen here.) They are in the Thrush family and that's evident when you compare the sound of the hermit thrush and the robin. Sometimes the robin slips in a hermit thrush type sample. They are also a good indicator that rain is on the way. They start singing what's typically their evening (or dawn) song just about the time I can smell the rain in the air.

The only time I get annoyed is when they start singing at 3:30 or 4 AM at the height of summer. I think to myself, "really?" It's like the robins are drill sargeants telling everybody it's time to get up.

On a silly note, the latin name for the robin turns out to be turdus migratorius. If you've ever had your car bombed by a robin after it's been eating mulberries (well anytime really, but especially then), I think you'll agree it's the perfect name.

Also known as a canary because of their warbling song (listen here), these happy little birds stay year round but are most noticeable and vocal in the warm weather months. In the winter the males lose their bright yellow feathers and blend in with the background.

In the early spring they congregate in the trees for a few days and sing their hearts out. I call it a canary convention. I suppose it could be a big party where they are matching up to breed.

They love to eat thistle seeds, which is commonly known, but they also will hang on cornflowers and coneflowers and pull out the seeds. I have accidentally grown some safflowers (which are a kind of sunflower) and in the fall they will hang on those and pull out the seeds while chattering away. Like the white throated sparrow their song never fails to cheer me up.

One late summer day I was out riding horses with a friend in some pasture that was filled with wild thistles and we were accompanied by goldfinches flying in their roller coaster type style from flower to flower. They are just so dang cute! What's not to love?

I see a trend here. I love birds with sweet songs. What's fun - to me, anyway - about the PeWee is that it's call actually sounds like peee weeee (Listen here.) Pretty easy to remember. I think I heard them more often when I was a child in the 1960s but during the DDT era (when they sprayed DDT everywhere for mosquitoes, especially) I would only hear them in the woods. In the last few years, though, I regularly have one in my back yard and I just heard another a couple blocks from here. Again, it's another bird that just makes me feel good to hear.

Note: The photographer wasn't able to identify for sure which kind of bird this was, but using my handy Sibling Bird Guide I was able to clearly identify it as a PeWee.

The white throated sparrow is distinctive not so much for it's white throat but rather it's bright yellow eyebrows. These sparrows are great at blending into the background with they're ordinary brown sparrow coloring so they aren't always easy to see. I believe they are a little bit smaller than a regular house sparrow.

What I love about them, though, is their sweet warbling whistle. If you click here you'll find some examples of what they sound like. The first sample in the "calls" category is my favorite song. I only hear this for a couple of weeks in the spring and then they either move on or have settled down to nest.

The kinglets don't stay in Iowa but their migration pattern has them here for about a month in mid Spring. I haven't really known what their song was until I was making this lens, but now that I know what it is I know I've heard it. (Listen here,)

I know the kinglets are here when I see a lot of flitting about up in the trees by a tiny bird, smaller even than a Goldfinch.

One time I was very lucky. I was walking on a trail through some woods near where I worked on my lunch break and on a branch at eye level, not more than a yard away (maybe less) sat a very friendly little kinglet. I was walking with a friend and the little bird obliged us by sitting there and letting us talk to it for a few minutes. It was an awesome experience. We even got to see the little ruby strip on it's head flashing as seen in this photo. Normally it's kept hidden under olive green feathers.

Late in April I'll hear the chattering, scolding song of a house wren. (Listen here.) It's a male who has come north two weeks ahead to scout out a good nesting spot. Another adorable little bird, I love the way they flit their tails up. They will happily nest in a house you provide for them if it's small enough to keep other birds out.

I have whole families of them zooming through my low growing juniper bushes in the summer. It's fun to have little flying companions like that. The down side is that they like to be close to the ground and sometimes they aren't very fast and so they are easy prey for neighborhood cats. I hate that! More than once my parent's cat brought a young wren into the house and set it free.

Sometimes I hear a Carolina Wren passing through. They have a very different song, more like one of the warblers that migrates through. (Listen here.)

This picture isn't the greatest for seeing the whole bird, but this is exactly how I usually see a Nashville Warbler. They stay high up in the trees eating insects in the tree blossoms. But I can definitely hear it. For a few days each year I hear this bird's insistent song (Listen here.) with the volume turned up to 11. They are a late spring arrival, somewhere around Mother's Day.

Just about the time the wild columbine start to bloom in my flower beds the little hummingbird will show up. At the same time the honeysuckle begins blooming at my mom's house which is another hummingbird attractor. They are only visible for about a month and then they disappear, perhaps reappearing a little bit in the fall. I don't think it's just the food source as my neighbor tries to put out a feeder for them, but they still disappear. Maybe they're nesting.

In any case, they are the ultimate magical bird to me. There's nothing like having one fly up in front of you and hover a few feet away at eye level. The buzzing sound they make (listen here) tickles my ears and makes me smile.

Another late spring arrival, the Ovenbird has an unmistakable song. (Listen here.) Although they blend into the background I can usually find one if I listen for the song and also listen for somebody to be flipping old leaves around underneath my trees.

One year I found one lying dead under one of my trees. I called the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History because somewhere I had heard that they were interested in collecting specimens. I delivered it by hand to someone there.

According to the Cornell Ornithology Lab site Flickers live here in Iowa year round but I see and hear them mostly in the spring and early summer. (Listen here.) They do migrate, too. I think they are one of the clowns of the bird world. They will find anything hollow and start hammering on it with their beak. One year I had one rat-a-tatting endlessly on the metal chimneys on the houses in my neighborhood. We have other woodpeckers in the area but none of them are as insistent as the Flicker.

They also are big ant eaters and will enjoy a leisurely walk through the yard looking for ant hills.

I love the song of a hermit thrush so much I have it as my ringtone. (Listen here.) There is something about it that makes me think of fairies and moonlight. It sounds like it has the reverb turned way up, too.

Like the Ovenbird I sometimes hear them scratching around in the leaves under my juniper berries. They don't usually come through until the end of May, about two months after their cousin the American Robin comes to town. They do look similar to an Ovenbird except they're more brown, a little bigger, more spots on their chest and rounder.

Another late spring arrival, when I start hearing "RB's" song I know that summer is just a breath away. They will come to feeders for safflower seeds which they love. Their song is very similar to a robin's only sweeter and more warbling like. They have a sharp "chk" sound that let's me know for sure that it's a grosbeak and not a robin. (Listen here.)

Like some of the other birds here, the Grosbeak must have suffered during the DDT years because I didn't see them during the 1970s and 1980s. It wasn't until the late 1990s that they started showing up in town.

Although the males have the obvious bright coloring, the females look like large, striated house sparrows with thicker beaks.

The Cedar Waxwing looks like a brownish yellow cardinal with a black mask. (A cardinal's superhero alter ego?) I first them high in the trees just before Memorial Day. They may be eating the seeds out of pine cones because they seem to especially like evergreen trees. They definitely like berries. Their song is a high pitched "screeeee" that my mom always asks what IS that, every year, it's so annoying to her. (Listen here.) I've seen them so intent on eating the berries out of a hedge in the fall that they didn't care how close I got to them.

When looking for a photo for this bird I found the cutest baby bird picture by Audreyjm529. Had to share!

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When I hear the Baltimore Oriole song and am sure that it's not the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (because their songs are somewhat similar), I look high up in the tall trees for a flash of orange to confirm that it's an oriole. (Listen here.) It's another bird that comes to Iowa to nest before going back south for the winter. Many people put out pieces of oranges to try and entice them for a closer look. They seem to be compatible with the Grosbeaks. And they, too, let me know that summer is about to burst out.

One afternoon I came home from work and was out in the yard with my border collie. I happened to look up to see this very large, very strange looking bird in the top of a tree. I was able to identify it as a Black Crowned Night Heron. I think his GPS system must have gone awry because I've never seen one since. I have no idea what brought him (or her) to town.