Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Warblers in an April "Winter Storm Warning"

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Sunday's weather was perfect - sunny and warm.  Yellow-rumped Warblers filled the leaf-less trees along the Lower Chippewa River in Durand.  Phoebes hawked insects and a Belted Kingfisher was back on the utility wire down by Little Bear Creek.

Chipping Sparrow

The Tyrone property on RR 107 was full of Chipping Sparrows and Lark Sparrows.  Barn Swallows skimmed over the prairies and Blue-winged Teal joined the puddle ducks in the bottom lands near Meridean.  We spotted Common Loons and Double-crested Cormorants down at Silver Birch Park.

But a day later, everyone's talking about the weather - the winter that just won't let go.  The sky started spitting snow around noon.   It isn't sticking, and as long as I don't have to drive anywhere, it's okay with me.

But what about the insect-eating birds that arrived this weekend?

How do the phoebes and warblers survive a couple of days of cold, wet weather? 

Migration is full of perils - weather, cars, window collisions, tower collisions, predators.

They find insects on buds and tree bark.  They eat fruits.

And some, like the Yellow-rumped Warblers, visit suet feeders.  At 7:47pm this evening, with the temperature hovering just above freezing, this male Yellow-rump discovered the peanut butter suet feeder in my back yard!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

No comments:

Post a Comment