Guest Post by Barbara Duerksen
What a delight to welcome back the birds we have not seen for
months! There’s music in the air – honking geese and calling swans flying to
the northwest, robins, blackbirds, and cardinals singing in the morning, and
the loud, rattling bugle calls of Sandhill Cranes.
Sandhill Crane photo by Dave Franks
When the ice goes out, the ducks come in. They might stay for
a day, sometimes longer, as they make their journey from the southern states to
their nesting territories. A few of the
duck species like Wood Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, and Mallards, stay in our area
to raise their broods, while most of the other ducks head for farther north
wetlands. I find Hooded Mergansers
particularly elegant and fun to watch. The males are black on top with white
stripes in front and back, brown sides, and a black and white head that looks
very large when the crest feathers are raised.
Females are brown and also have crest feathers that can be raised or
lowered. They look a little less elegant
and more like a bad hair day. I have
found Hooded Mergansers in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve in early spring swimming
in the wooded wetland at the junction of Hwy 131 and County P.
Hooded Merganser photo by Jack Bartholmai
Migration is all about food.
Waterfowl need open water to find fish, snails, worms, roots and other
plant food. Insect eaters need warm
enough temperatures to find a good steady supply of insects, and that takes
them far south of Wisconsin. Seed eaters
and some of the predatory birds can find enough food to get through the winter
season, so we’ll see jays, chickadees, cardinals, crows, Cooper’s and
Red-tailed Hawks all winter. Juncos,
American Tree Sparrows, Purple Finches, Rough-legged Hawks, and Northern
Shrikes are among the species that come from way north to stay here for the
winter. They will be leaving soon, and instead
we’ll see Fox, White-throated, and White-crowned Sparrows on their way north,
in addition to other early migrants like kinglets and phoebes.
April brings some notable insect eaters, despite the
possibility of cold weather and snowstorms. Hermit Thrushes, Yellow-rumped Warblers,
and Winter Wrens are all insect eaters that seem to be able to withstand colder
temperatures than others of their kind. Their
diets ae a bit more flexible –they prefer insects, but all three are able to
digest fruits like juniper berries. Cold
spells with deep snow that last too long can be life-threatening to these
birds, as we witnessed with in April, 2018.
Winter Wren photo by Dan Jackson
Winter Wrens are small brown birds with very short tails that
they often hold upright. They are
smaller than the more familiar House Wrens that spend their summers here, and
most of them fly farther north to the forests of northern Wisconsin and Canada.
Winter Wrens have nested in cool microclimates in the Kickapoo Reserve and the
Baraboo Hills, preferring areas with coarse woody debris or tangled roots. Some
older field guides recommend looking for migrating Winter Wrens in stacks of
firewood in the yard. On nesting territory, the male sings a loud, rich,
lengthy, bubbly song. You can listen to
the song here by pressing the audio button.
The colorful familiar songsters like grosbeaks, orioles, and
Indigo Buntings, will show up a bit later, some in late April and the rest in
May, along with many migrating warblers. These are the long-distance migrants
that spend the winter in warmer climates, some—Yellow Warblers and Barn
Swallows, for example—as far south as countries in South America.
Migration is a perilous journey with hazards that range from
bad weather and natural predators, to human-caused habitat destruction, window
strikes, poisoning by pesticides, and predation by cats. How to help? Study up on what birds need, support bird
conservation groups and reserves (like the KVR), consider planting
bird-friendly plants and trees in your yard.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a list of suggestions here: athttps://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/seven-simple-actions-to-help-birds/
American Woodcock photo by Jack Bartholmai
Ready for an evening adventure? Go out at dusk to listen for the American
Woodcock call and sky dance. American
Woodcocks are in the shorebird family, but nest on the ground in shrubby
woodland edges. An odd-looking short-tailed brown bird, they are about
robin-size, plump, with long beaks and eyes positioned high up and near the
back of the skull. In early spring, the males, looking to attract a mate, find
an open area to sit and call a series of single buzzy, nasal “peent” sounds,
and after a while, fly up with a twittering sound in a large circle, descend to
the same area with a slower chirpy sound, and start again to do the call. This
occurs about 20 minutes after sunset. The open area around the Kickapoo Reserve
Visitor Center has been a reliable spot to observe this spring ritual of the
woodcock.
For great reading on the woodcock dance check out these favorites:
Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac, describes the
Sky Dance of the woodcocks on his farm in the April section of Part 1. Frances Hamerstrom, in Walk When the Moon is Full, devotes her April chapter to the story of gong out with her two
children to witness the sky dance of the woodcock.
