Movement North Continues in South

The migration across Texas Wednesday night is setting up an air of anticipation here in the north. All those birds heading up should be here in a week or so. It is interesting to note that the gulf coast of Texas looks like it is lacking in birds. I brought up the Houston radar image below.


Instead of a donut shaped ring around Houston the image is lopsided. This indicates that the distribution of birds is concentrated more to the north of the city than along the waterfront. My guess is that the birds already present are moving out and there is not a flight moving into the area from over the gulf yet. I would love to know what the species are that are moving. I suspect a lot of them are warblers.

Around school today we are starting to see new migrant species showing up and the general activity in the area increasing. My students were able to find 4 species of sparrow just sitting watching our feeder station. Also got to see a gorgeous male Yellow-rumped Warbler.

The first Minnesota Youth Birding Festival is being held this Saturday at Carver Park Reserve in Victoria, Minnesota. I'll be out there setting nets and trying to a birds into each participants hands. Nothing else hooks the kids quite like that.

Much Needed Rain Gets in the Way of Birding

Family obligations kept me out of the field on Saturday and heavy off and on rain did the same on Sunday. Birds have been pretty quiet today due to the weather but I still have a pair of Pine Siskins coming to my feeders and I suspect they may be nesting in some nearby pines.

Folks south of here are reporting the appearance of many new first of year birds including early warblers, grosbeaks and hummingbirds. Once this rain passes those birds should be heading my way.

Fun little bird quiz from the Illinois Ornithological Society. It won't be long before we're in the field trying to figure out all those LBJs (little brown jobs).

Migrants Cover Entire Eastern U.S.

The strong warm front dominating the eastern U.S. with it's associated strong southerly winds has really got the birds moving. The heaviest concentrations of birds are the locations where the dark blue circles have a greenish center. This is approaching the heaviest concentrations seen in migration. Lots of birds moving north tonight.


This image shows movement over the Caribbean of birds coming out of Cuba and heading over Key West, Florida. Cuban Radar at Casablanca is showing movement tonight off the north coast of the island.


The movement along the gulf coast at Brownsville, Texas has been very consistent the last couple of weeks and tonight is no exception. An attempt to look at images from Tampico and Cancun, Mexico were not successful as these Mexican radar stations are not working. I have no idea what trans-gulf movement may look like tonight.

Images like these could be seen off and on until the end of May possibly.

Happy Earth Day!!!

"GO DO SOMETHING FOR THE BIRDS!"

A Disappointing Saturday

I had such high hopes for our banding session on Saturday... warm temps and lots of newly arrived migrants but when you work in the natural world, things don't always pan out. While we had a good day of seeing birds, the winds were a constant problem and it was still early enough in the season that none of the vegetation was "greening up" yet. Put those two factors together and our day was filled with chickadees and red-winged blackbirds. The totals are as follows:

Black-capped Chickadees - 6 new and 4 retraps
American Goldfinch - 2 new
Chipping Sparrow - 2 new
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 new and 1 retrap
Red-winged Blackbird - 8 new

Total Species = 5
Total Individuals = 24

The plan was to try banding on Sunday at my school until I woke up to 40 degrees and rain. The temps are supposed to be warming over the week so NEXT weekend those migrants better be ready to wear some new jewelry.

Take -off

Here is a pretty cool animation of the migration lift-off a couple of nights ago.

Things are really started to change on a daily basis around here. Juncos are becoming less and less numerous and migrants are showing up in larger numbers. The morning chorus really is wonderful right now and even the Chorus Frogs are getting into the act.

This weekend should be a great time out and about!

A Big Move

As predicted, the strong southerly winds that have dominated the middle of the country the last couple of days have got the birds up and moving. Check out the Texas gulf coast! The next few days should be great as far as new arrivals into the area (actually, into lots of areas) and I'm really looking forward to the banding session coming up on Saturday.

Another highlight is that I'm going to be working with my son to get him comfortable taking birds out of nets and helping at the banding table scribing (recording data). I'm bound and determined to get a helper out of this.

The winds have blown in a rare visitor to Minneapolis. A Sage Thrasher is being seen near one of the lakes in south Minneapolis and is being very cooperative for birders. Some nice photos at the MOU Recently Seen Gallery. If time allows and the bird sticks around I might try to chase it this weekend.

Warm Weather - Finally!

Nothing gets me more excited for a day than driving into the school parking lot where I teach and seeing my first of the year Tree Swallow sitting on a bluebird box and then having a Trumpeter Swan do a low pass over my car as I park. Today we may hit 70 degrees for the first time this spring and everyone is in a noticeably good mood.

Another first for the spring was the first dandelions in bloom yesterday at the west end of our building. They were in a little "microclimate" at the base of a west facing wall. This is the place I always see our first flowers in bloom. Native wildflowers that should be up soon include Skunk Cabbage and Bloodroot.

With the warm weather we are noticing our first appearance of insects including some early butterflies and moths. When the bugs are in the air can the warblers be far behind?

I got a nice note from Joyanne Hamilton and her class in Shageluk, Alaska so I'll pass on a quick hello. The next time the Iditarod goes through town say hello to our friend Martin Buser. He spoke at our school graduation a few years ago so we cheer him on from down here every March. I hope you are also following "Journey North", a website that tracks spring migration and blooming dates of flowers all over the lower 48.

Our next banding session is scheduled for Saturday and it sounds like the predicted rain will hold off until later in the day. I hope we get some "good" birds for some photos. Until next time, keep looking up!

A strong low pressure system moving through the eastern U.S. has put a bit of a halt to any migratory movement. On the backside of the low this mornings radar image shows some movement in the Great Plains. You can almost draw a straight line going north from Brownsville Texas to the North Dakota/South Dakota border that shows most of the movement in the U.S. over night.

Compared to the image from a couple of nights ago, the numbers of birds moving is probably not as impressive as the movement that brought migrants like Purple Finches, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Song Sparrows, Brown Creepers and a variety of waterfowl into the upper Midwest. As conditions stabilize before the next front moves through we may see more movement later in the week.

Strong winds from the south/southeast are causing migratory movement all over Minnesota, Wisconsin,and especially Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Should make for some very interesting birding on Sunday and Monday.

Finally Some Movement in the Upper Midwest

The image above shows some pretty good movement in the far western Great Lakes region and the eastern Great Plains. This is the best movement I've seen this spring so I'm expecting some species to be gone or in much reduced numbers tomorrow, for example Redpolls and Juncos. In their place I would expect (and hope) to see new spring migrants like Hermit Thrushes, Eastern Phoebes and waterfowl who will be finding many of the lakes open now.


Images from individual nexrad stations like Minneapolis show the classic "green donut" which is the shape produced as migrants pass over an area. However, there are conditions that will cause the images to vary.


This image from Brownsville, Texas shows migrants passing over the area but because the city is on the coast and birds don't fly over water unless they have to, the image is "half a donut". The migrating flocks follow the shoreline but don't venture out over the gulf. It also appeared like there might be some movement along the gulf coast to the east behind the strong storm front that produced the strong storms in Alabama and Georgia tonight.

Morning in Texas

Posted radar images from last night (below) showed lots of movement in Texas and Oklahoma. This morning radar is still showing lots of movement in east Texas and now a bit in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Tonight might be a heavy movement night also, along with a full moon. If sleep is an option, it could be fun to set a spotting scope on the moon and see if you can detect birds moving across the face of the moon. This is the kind of migration study done before radar.


If you're too busy to go birding, you're too busy!

A Bird Stampede in Texas, Turkeys Up North

A high pressure center over the Gulf of Mexico and a cold front moving through the southeast have shifted the migration into Texas and Oklahoma. The south has had abnormally cold temps the last couple of days but the winds behind this high are out of the south and are pushing birds north.

As the pressure center moves eastward the southerly winds will also shift toward the east and there should be a pick-up in migratory movement along the gulf coast. Now if we could only get the warmer weather here in Minnesota. Snow from the last storm on Sunday is finally gone but not before I got some photos of wild Turkeys in trees behind my school.


Kids are still amazed when they see turkeys in trees and flying around. They assume all turkeys are big, white and stupid. When they find out how well adapted these guys are to the forest they gain a little more respect for them but will always prefer their turkey on a platter.


Having this flock around our building they become pretty bold. I was able to get relatively close to them. Turkeys have nested on our property for several years now and it's exciting to see such large critters so close up.


One of the spots where you can see these guys regularly is on the large manure compost heap the zoo has down the hill from us. Apparently the best way to feed the turkeys is to give grain to the zoo animals (if you know what I mean).

Big movement in southeast and a little in California

A few of us did some banding this morning ahead of the predicted lousy weather that is on it's way. We had a busy time with a new catch for the year, this handsome little Fox Sparrow (photographed by Amber Burnette).

It looks like a lot of his friends may be moving north tonight in the southeast.


There is a strong winter storm spinning across Iowa and southern Minnesota but the winds out of the south ahead of the low appear to be helping migrants all across the region. The storm will head basically straight east with cold northerly winds coming in behind the low. This will probably stop any more movement into the upper midwest for a few days.



It appears like there my be some movement in California tonight too. I don't know west coast topography as well as I should but it looks like the movement is essentially up the coast and central valley. I'm not sure what the bulk of the species will be in this movement but folks out west should check their yards Sunday morning.

Waterbirds in Arizona

I had a chance to get some nice close-up photos of some waterbirds while I was in Arizona. Now, if I wanted to try to really impress everyone I could make up a story about how hard it was to get these great shots and how I suffered physically and emotionally because of my quest for the "perfect shot". However, truth be told, I made these pictures while eating a snack at the Phoenix Zoo. They have a nice lake that was covered with birds who had all learned that humans are a source of food. All you had to do was walk to the edge of the lake and they made a beeline to your feet.




In spite of that, I do like the detail in the shots and plan on using these photos with my students in their annual "What bird is this?" test.




We have just started to see ducks moving into this part of Minnesota in numbers recently. Lakes are beginning to open and the next 2-3 weeks should be very good for waterfowl viewing.



One bird that we rarely see here in the Twin Cities area is the Common Moorhen. It's close relative the American Coot is showing up everywhere right now.



Finally, this is a Neotropic Cormorant (thanks Sean!) whose cousin the Double-crested Cormorant we see a lot but I always get a kick out of their wing drying behavior. It reminds me of when my boys were young and they would run around the house with a towel around their neck as a cape. There has to be some kind of superhero reference in here somewhere...

Exciting News!

My friend Mark came over to the house with a bit of good news last night. His (our) banding permit has been modified to include color marking Purple Martins at colonies around Minnesota. We have been working over the last few years with a couple of people who have martin colonies west of the Twin Cities by banding young in their colonies just prior to fledging. Because the adults are so hard to retrap, we have only been able to check for returning adult birds by seeing bands on legs as they perch. What we don't know for certain is whether these are our bands or someone else's. We believe they are our birds but we'd have to get them in hand to be sure.

This summer we will be placing colored, numbered bands on all banded young martins along with a standard USFWS band. For Minnesota the protocol is that the colored bands will be red. This will allow us to get a little more information about martin movements. I'm most curious about whether the martins at the colonies we work with disperse to other nearby colonies. This marking will also allow us to possibly find out where Minnesota martins winter.

What I find most exciting is that we've talked about doing this type of project for a couple of years and it is finally going to happen. If you'd like more information about Purple Martins conservation check here.

No Foolin'

Today being April Fool's Day there is a great temptation to try to be funny. I am going to resist that urge and make a promise that today's post will not contain any jokes.