Migration time

Check out the lineup of starlings sitting on the split rail! They're chockablock as if they don't want to get their feet wet. I've been putting out mixed seed recently, with corn and millet in it. These birds today have joined their blackbird buddies the red wings - who arrived here a week or so ago in groups of first a pair, then 14 then 30.

They appear to be the bird version of gourmands - piggy-type birds who need to keep their energy high with the cold that followed the warm air we experienced a week ago. And with voracious appetites. The mourning doves that have been about recently appear to have moved on, though two or three try to edge in for a quick mouthful.


As kids we used to worry about the robin that arrived before spring really started and was threatened with March and early April's traditional big snowstorms. Since then I've learned to provide the birds with enough fatty seeds and suet to help them get through the icy nights. I suspect if the snow continues this large group of blackbirds will join the 100 plus goldfinches and their pals the red polls who have decided that Barbara's diner is a good place to rest up for the next leg. Sort of like a bird version of Tim's?

The video shows many of the little birds, joined by others of their size, chickadees, nuthatches, American tree sparrows, who will mostly move north when it turns hot. The sound when I'm outside - of the little wings fluttering around is mesmerizing. I hear it in my sleep sometimes.

Meantime the hungry hordes await the next serving - noon perhaps? Goodness this could get expensive!

But it's fun to watch. I've noticed migrating ducks on the river, pairs mostly, buffleheads and a couple of mergansers. Canada geese heading north fly high in the sky with only an occasional cry in the evening to let me know they're passing. Two ravens have been hanging about and crows continue to assure me that regardless of the snow, spring is in the air. Hope that you are enjoying some sort of "wild" activity in your neck of the woods.

Overflowing rivers

A few days ago I was driving along the valley road and had to stop at this point to take a photograph. The river has overflowed it's banks and you can see the bend in it to the right of the small bush lot.

Three days prior to this there was no land showing in the little spit that has created a lovely long bend. It has been full of geese, ducks, gulls and all manner of ice blocks and dirty water as the melt from warm temperatures sent water hurtling down the sides of the hills we lovingly call "mountains" here.

This day many of the geese aren't in this picture but I wanted to show the low lying levels. There are four houses to the right of this picture whose backyards and basements I'm sure regularly flood. What a sight to have in your backyard! The high water moves so quickly, but the geese and other migrators as well as our resident populations seem to float in one spot and hang about resting up and dabbling for food where the water has soaked the land freeing up all kinds of grubs and vegetation.

Even when it's gray as it is so often this year, it's a stirring sight during migration. Many hundreds of waterfowl stop on their way north and south. But even if there are only a few, it's worth stopping for a minute just to admire the way that nature continues on despite climate change, human interference, anything - the endless cycle repeats.

Enjoy your day - and may something wonderful repeat for you this spring week.

Tiny migrant

This tiny creature delighted me last weekend, when it caught my notice in the yard by landing with its scarlet body and wing marks on an echinacea seed head. I searched the internet for information on dragonflies.

Apparently it might be a skimmer - Ondonata family - and possibly a migrant. The photograph doesn't do it justice - it's body was brilliant crimson in the sun - and the flashers - what I call the markings on its wings similarly red and shiny. It did not appear to be afraid of me for when I got within about a foot of it - it just twitched its eyes looking back at me - when I would move its eyes would follow the movement. Needless to say I was fascinated.

National Geographic has done a story on dragonfly migration and there is tons of information. There are some 400 members of this species, but not all of them migrate.

From National Geographic: Only about a dozen of the approximately 400 known dragonfly species are believed to migrate, journeying from the northern U.S. and southern Canada to the southern U.S., the Caribbean, and Mexico each fall. Scientists believe these migrants' offspring then return north. 


To get the details, a field team has been fitting green darner dragonflies (Anax junius) with radio transmitters. The National Geographic Society funds the work, which is being led by Martin Wikelski, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Wikelski and colleagues attached the first tags in September. The field team is currently tracking the insects as they make their flight south along the Atlantic seaboard.

The transmitters—which weigh 0.01 ounce (0.3 gram) and are about 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) long—are glued to the insects' undersides. A single wire antenna runs the length of the abdomen, and a tiny battery powers the device for up to a week.

Wikelski has a receiver that picks up the transmissions within a range of about one mile (one and a half kilometers) on the ground and five miles (eight kilometers) in the air.

As a pilot, Wikelski is able to put the receiver in his plane and follow the insects.

"It's important to do it from the plane, because they move so much," he said. "From the ground it's almost impossible to follow them."

Now I don't know about you - but I find all this quite fascinating. Then yesterday when walking the pups in a field to the north east of my place, I saw about a dozen of these little red insects flying around, protected from the wind and settling on top of centaurea seed heads or alfalfa blossoms in the hay. These ones however didn't wait and watch as my friend in the garden did... they quickly flew away. So I guess mine was either tired, or friendly. Whichever, I wished at the time I'd thought to take video of its eyes moving around - obviously watching me. Amazing what this blog is teaching me about nature.

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(Please forgive the delay in getting this posted - my computer or my "high speed" have been playing tricks and I've not been able to post anything for quite a few days... most frustrating. Then when it was finally ready yesterday somehow I hit the wrong key and the entire site disappeared. I gave up at that point.)

Chasing the Monarch

The Monarch butterflies have begun their migration south. While I haven't seen masses of these beautiful creatures recently, I have seen quite a few more than in previous years, which is, I feel a good sign for poor old Mother Earth.

I have spent a lot of time trying to photograph at least one this year and usually find myself without a camera when they are nearby dancing around each other in intricate ariel manouevres. This particular evening a few days ago I was more successful.

Because the insect didn't halt on a plant and pose nicely for me I ran around the back yard, the side yard, the front yard, into the paddock and then the pasture following it hither and yon. These aren't particularly good shots, but perhaps the best I can do this time round. The second one, shooting into the sunset looks a bit surreal to me - as if I'd pasted a picture of the butterfly on the photograph - or "Photoshopped" it.

Wikipedia says: The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamilyDanainae), in the family Nymphalidae. It is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies. Since the 19th century, it has been found in New Zealand, and in Australia since 1871 where it is called the Wanderer.^[3][4][5] In Europe it is resident in the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira, and is found as an occasional migrant in Western Europe. Its wings feature an easily recognizable orange and black pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 centimetres (3½–4 in).^[6] (The Viceroy butterfly has a similar size, color, and pattern, but can be distinguished by an extra black stripe across the hind wing.) Female Monarchs have darker veins on their wings, and the males have a spot called the "androconium" in the center of each hind wing^[7] from which pheromones are released. Males are also slightly larger.

The Monarch is famous for its southward migration and northward return in summer in the Americas which spans the life of three to four generations of the butterfly.