Bird migration

I know this is a bit out of our “Adirondack range” but I wanted to show you how bird migration looks from a weather radar station in Key West, Florida. And the fascinating part about this is that these birds are flying at night(it’s safer). This radar is showing movement from around 8PM to 10PM Monday eve.

Watch as the birds(that bluish blob moving north off of Key West) work their way toward the mainland of southern Florida.

Now to relate this to our neck-of-the-woods….these birds should be in the Adirondacks sometime around mid May:-)

We wish them a safe journey.

Birds and butterflies in this “early” spring

We have come to expect the normal Adirondack spring consisting of cold spells with snow, followed by some melting, followed again by a cold spell with sleet or something miserable like that.

However, Spring 2010 is fast becoming the  most enjoyable to many “spring-seeking” outdoor enthusiasts. The record high for Saranac Lake on this date is 74 degreesF set in 1989…we were just 4 degrees shy of that today.

Seems this warm spell has set into motion many winged migrants taking to the airways. I saw my first mourning cloak butterfly today. Fascinating to think that this butterfly(in adult stage) can hibernate through a wicked Adirondack winter! What a pleasure to see it floating through the air.

Looking at all the internet reports of bird sightings these past few days reveal that bird migration has gotten a bit of a jump with this warm air from the SW.

I saw my first great blue heron, eastern meadowlark, eastern phoebe, eastern bluebird(do you sense a direction pattern here?), and my first merlin(small falcon) all today.

While working in St Lawrence County recently, I’ve spotted many daffodils just beginning to poke out of the warming soil in many front yards. Also noted today….very small, dark brown spiders that were floating in the air on the ends of silken threads that they released into the wind. They will float on the wind until the threads catch on to some object…usually my head!

Keeping track of spring sightings(a.k.a.: Phenology), or any season for that matter, has become a favorite activity for many naturalists, and birdwatcher alike. Get a few field guides for your library and hit the trails.

Here’s to “earrach”…. “spring” in the Irish language.

Photo credit: Eastern Meadowlark-Brian McAllister

This just in…

Dotting most of the eastern states including Canada and Mexico are gatherings of birdwatchers that sit (or stand, or lean) for hours a day looking up towards the deep blue skies overhead. They’ll carefully scan the horizon in search of tiny, flying black dots that move across the sky in a northerly direction…hawks are in migration.

The excitement builds just about this time every year as we all wait in anticipation for the coming of the hawks to our Adirondack woods, and fields. We birders are getting goosebumps from the latest reports of hawkwatchers in Texas and Mexico. They have just reported their first sighting of a migrating broad-winged hawk…break out the champagne!

What’s the big deal?? Well first we need to look at the travels of hawks to see just how remarkable the journey of the broad-winged hawk really is.

Most hawks we encounter during the summer months in the Adirondacks are not that remarkable in their migration length. Most red-tailed hawks go to the southeast US and some wintering hawks come down from southern Ontario or Quebec.

The broad-wings start their immense northward  journey down in the tropical regions of Central America and northern South America where they spent the winter… OK, maybe the peregrine falcon has the longest flight at 7,000 miles from S. America to the Canadian Tundra, but falcons don’t migrate in the awe-inspiring numbers like the broad wings are often seen doing.

So as our colleagues count the hawks coming up into Mexico they like to send out word that the “broadies” are en route. And as we North Country birders get wind of this we rejoice in knowing that spring is not too far away!

There are several hawk watching sites in NY but the one that gets the most attention for having big numbers of broadies fly by is Derby Hill Hawk Watch site…located in, of all places, Mexico, NY! Here you can find “counters” carefully counting each hawk as it flies by.  These hawk counts can give scientists a better idea of hawk populations, and migratory movements, as well as providing valuable education to the public.

Broad-winged hawks are fairly prolific nesters in the Adirondacks. Sometime in mid to late May keep an eye out for nests being built in sugar maples, black cherry, yellow birch or sometimes white pines. Then from a distance, admire their daily workings and life history.

You’ll soon hear the corks popping as we get word of the first spring arrival broad-winged hawk in New York!

Illustration: Broad-winged hawk-wikipedia

The word of the day is…..

Zugenruhe-German (pronounced…tsooken-ruha).

In the biological world this word is defined as the “restlessness” that animals feel prior to, or during migratory times. Many scientists have explored this biological phenomenon in birds specifically. By experimentally altering(increasing) the length of daylight upon a bird, scientist see a noticeable change in behavior. Birds begin eating much more, fattening up, and exhibit more movement(or restlessness) than normal.

I bring this word to our attention because bird activity is on the rise now in the Adirondacks and will be over the next 3 months.

Migrating birds are arriving as we speak! On a recent drive through St Lawrence County farm country I saw thousands of Canada Geese in flight, Red-winged Blackbirds & Common Grackles cavorting in the treetops , Killdeer calling from fields, and general merriment in the avian world.

Our first arrivals are usually those birds that don’t travel all that far, on a continent-wide scale that is. Many of the birds we see arriving now have traveled from the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. But soon enough others will join in. It should also be noted that many birds are just “passing through” our area while on their longer flights into Canada. Bon Voyage!

There is a feeling of zugunruhe currently being felt in the humid, tropical regions of Central and South America…by the birds of course! Once a good stiff south breeze picks up in the jungles, the birds destined for the Adirondacks take advantage of it and take to the airways, thus beginning their northward journey’s. Stay tuned for more migratory updates as the season progresses.

On another front…we hear that the latestNY winter Bald Eagle count has revealed some pretty cool numbers. And to think that not too long ago this bird was once facing near extinction in the east. Hurray for all the biologists who care!

In the very near future I’ll be posting a wonderful weather map that will show you big-blobsof-migrating-birds flying over the US under star-filled skies.

What birds are YOU seeing? What signs of animal “zugunruhe” are you seeing? As a birdwatcher I think I’m getting that zugunruhe feeling….

Photo credit: Canada Goose-Wikipedia