A Baltimore oriole is proven at Barr Lake State Park close to Brighton, Colorado, in a 2020 file picture. Maine Audubon obtained a number of reviews of Baltimore orioles at feeders after final weekend’s ice and snowstorm. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
What occurs to migrating birds in snowstorms?
Last weekend’s storm was devastating when it comes to the harm to property and challenges from energy outages, and it additionally had some fascinating results on wildlife in Maine. We fielded a ton of questions in days following the snow and ice accumulation and thought readers can be all in favour of a few of the fascinating highlights.
First, bear in mind when everybody was satisfied that one thing was incorrect with all of the birds since there was no exercise at their chook feeders final fall? Well, that definitely wasn’t the case within the days following the storm. There are so many blackbirds and sparrows within the state, and plenty of of those are southern migrants that had been returning within the weeks main as much as the storm. They have been completely happy to show to readily available meals at chook feeders. This is actually the alternative of the dearth drawback final fall, when mast 12 months circumstances made numerous naturally occurring meals straightforward to seek out all throughout the panorama (and with no snow protecting it) in order that birds didn’t have to go to chook feeders.
One species particularly effectively represented after the storm was the fox sparrow. This massive and boldly marked sparrow winters simply south of us, primarily in southeastern states, and nests throughout the spruce forests of Canada, with a couple of spending the summer season on mountains in Maine. Their peak migration by means of Maine happens in late March and early April, so the overlap with this storm brought about a lot of them to point out up in backyards, and we obtained numerous “What’s this bird?” emails prior to now week.
In the identical vein of fox sparrows being pressured to chook feeders, it is usually fascinating to see how detections of uncommon birds additionally enhance following these storms. Not solely are extra birds pressured to feeders, however having extra individuals trapped at home watching their feeders additionally helps. We obtained a number of reviews of Baltimore orioles at feeders, which me as a result of these would have been birds wintering regionally somewhat than returning migrants. Baltimore orioles are simply beginning to go away their wintering grounds in Central America and making their trans-Gulf migrations, so these reviews are of birds which have efficiently survived a Maine winter, in all probability aided by feeders and fruit-bearing timber, but additionally the mildness of this winter.
One of my colleagues noticed a dickcissel, a small chook that appears like a cross between a cardinal and a sparrow, at his freshly stuffed feeders final Sunday. This is one other chook that extra doubtless overwintered somewhat than migrated again early, and would usually be present in grasslands of the Midwest. A closing rarity got here from the MAINE Birds Facebook group, with a publish of a diverse thrush in a York County yard. This is a local of the Pacific Northwest and is a considerably irruptive vagrant to the northeast.
Many inquiries got here in about woodcocks. The early spring circumstances this 12 months noticed an inflow of those humorous inland shorebirds over the previous few weeks with reviews from all around the state of individuals seeing them doing their aerial mating dances within the evenings. Let’s hope these woodcocks are capable of finding sufficient various habitats till fields and forests open again up. In the times after the snow, numerous reviews got here in of woodcocks seen alongside small open streams, and even in freshly plowed walkways.
It is manner too early to attempt to quantify any of the results of this previous storm on wildlife, and it’s an excellent reminder that readers ought to all the time contribute information. Backyard chook observations can go into databases like Cornell’s eBird and sightings of different wildlife can go into iNaturalist. It will likely be fascinating to check when my yard groundhogs re-emerge. Or see how the frequency of fox sparrows change this spring: they’re being reported on greater than 11% of all checklists in Maine over the last week of March (for the reason that storm), up from a historic common of three.3% for a similar time interval.
Do you’ve a nature query for Doug? Email inquiries to [email protected] and go to www.maineaudubon.org to study extra about birding, native vegetation, and applications and occasions specializing in Maine wildlife and habitat. Doug and different naturalists lead free chook walks on Thursday mornings, 7 to 9 a.m., on the Gilsland Farm Audubon Sanctuary in Falmouth.
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