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The Full Flower Moon, which peaks Friday, shows spring buds, which likewise suggests spring bird migrations to summertime breeding premises.
Thursday night was huge for warblers, a songbird quickly determined by its trills. This is among their single biggest migration nights of the spring, and the Roaring Fork Valley is home to countless warblers in warmer months. Warblers, discovered in a range of colors from earthy tones to brilliant colors, are a few of the very first migratory birds to get here in the Roaring Fork Valley come spring.
Migratory birds fly at night, with the stars and moon assisting in migrations patterns. Hence, a moon shines the brightest course.
Julie Bielenberg / Aspen Times
“It’s an exciting time of year for wildlife in the Roaring Fork Valley but especially for bird enthusiasts,” said Greta Brown, the marketing supervisor at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES). “Species we haven’t seen since the early fall are returning in droves, and it’s a constant, thrilling air show if you’re willing to look up,”
BirdCast is a website that offers real-time forecasts of bird migrations: when they move, where they move, and how far they will be flying. The website showed high migration patterns today.
Created as a cooperation amongst the EPA, the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Clemson University Radar Ornithology Laboratory, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and GeoMarine Inc., the website provides localized data, although mountainous surface can disrupt their information collection.
Courtesy of BirdCast
ACES is already alive with spring migratory bird life — at all 3 websites.
“The first hummingbirds arrived about a week ago, and the Great blue herons are back,” said Jim Kravitz, biologist programs director.
