Spring Migration is Speeding UP!
As I walked to Carondelet Park from my house this morning, I saw Turkey Vultures, a fast flying Cooper's Hawk and heard so much bird song coming from all directions that I was overwhelmed in that wonderful exhilarating way that only hundreds of birds can rise out of me - an intense joy and rush of wanting to see all of them at once, visit with each one and ooh and ah over each visitor. Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were in all the trees. A Little Blue Heron had finally made an appearance for the first time this spring at our little Horseshoe Lake. Hearing a Pine Warbler singing drew me over to a tree loaded with not just kinglets and gnatcatchers, but a White-eyed Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo, a Pine Warbler and a number of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Other voices beckoned me: a Catbird in a bush, a House Wren in a thicket, a Mockingbird at the bridge, Goldfinch tittering in blooming small trees, a Paurla singing high up an oak, a Black-and-white Warbler furiously making over the trunk of a maple, a Northern Waterthrush chipping loudly and bobbing up and down in a puddle. They led me to more White-eyed Vireos, more Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Field Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Towhees, Thrashers, Swainson's Thrush and Hermit Thrush. Swifts and Barn Swallows flew overhead across the park. Creepers were still everywhere! So were Rusties! Butterflies were on the fly all over as well! Loads of Brown-headed Cowbirds had come to visit, too. A flock of Cedar Waxwings purred overhead and landed in a sycamore. The young Great Horned Owls were being harassed by a Red-shouldered Hawk, but the parents were being super diligent in protecting them. The Red-tailed Hawks were tending the young in their pine tree nest. Phoebes were still present in small numbers. Resident woodpeckers, jays, cardinals, robins, chickadees, nuthatch and titmice were all very busy. An unusual thing for the park was a female Blue-winged Teal hiding out in one of the sinkholes. I forget what that phenomenon is where as you get closer to something, you speed up, but as we get closer to the beginning of May, every day gets so terribly exciting as more and more birds appear and come to rest a bit in the park and millions upon millions of birds stream to the north. They start as a few million in March and are now migrating in the hundreds of millions today, over 200 million according to Birdcast last night. And this is just the beginning of the acceleration of the buildup.
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