Birds, Blooms, and Butterflies

We have to be patient waiting for spring.  These red-winged blackbirds were only babes in a pond in Gambier, Ohio, on July 6, 2013.  I admit they were probably a second brood since red-winged blackbird males  are here in late February and the females arrive in early March.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I was looking at an article in last spring's Birds & Bloom magazine and got inspired to start my own list of my favorite signs of spring, mostly in order as I've seen them so far this year:


1.  A red-winged blackbird coming to my feeders.  (Feb. 23 two years in a row.)
2.  Northern robins visiting my feeders or coming to other yards.  (Feb.23 this year, Feb. 9 last year)
3.  Male house sparrow checking out my bluebird houses.  (This year: Feb. 24, Feb. 22, and a day or so earlier.)
4.  Skunk cabbage sprouting.  (I haven't looked for this but Jim McCormac's blog notes he always sees this in either the first or second week of February, and saw them well along in his yard when he checked on February 22.)


But heck, why limit signs of springs to birds and blooms?  Why not butterflies.  I haven't looked for or seen any yet but I have an e-mail report from a Virginia-Maryland group of a sighting of a mourning cloak butterfly.  I think this is the earliest butterfly in both those states and in Ohio.


I also got an e-mail from an Ohio bird group that reported seeing a lot of robins flying in a mixed flock of blackbirds and others.  I know on my drive to Westerville, Ohio, today I saw a lot of medium-sized bird flocks in the air, too far for me to identify.  With the snow flurries today and increasing cold, I can see why birds would be on the move and flocking together.

Northern Robins Trying to Trick Us?

Cedar waxwings I saw, Feb. 9, 2013,  feeding on the berries of two crabapple trees decorating a lawn.  A northern robin was feeding with them.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I saw two robins today, one as I drove down the road leading to our house in Howard, Ohio, and one in my yard again when I got home.  As I drove into the driveway in late afternoon, I flushed a flock of about a dozen mourning doves feeding on fallen seeds, the biggest flock I've had so far at least this winter.  And the robin was nearby.

After I wrote the blog yesterday and thought about the northern robin appearing in a crabapple tree on February 9, 2013, with a flock of cedar waxwings, I began to realize that part of the reason the northern robins become visible suddenly in Feburary may be because their food sources in the woods are running low and they move over to people's crabapple trees which form berries in February.

Maybe the robin hung out with cedar waxwings in the woods as they fed on holly berries and then moved with them in search of crabapple berries?

It's intriguing, too, to think that maybe the robin in my yard has hooked up with a flock of mourning doves since I've seen her twice in the vicinity of doves.  At least both species are ground feeders.

The cold and wind this evening that ends a brief thawing period makes me also think that weather also plays a role in the sudden public appearances of northern robins in February.  Did the warm thaw period  draw them out of the woods, in addition to dwindling food?

Whatever the case, this sudden appearance of two robins near homes in our development makes it even harder to convince people and myself that these are not our spring robins returned!

A Punctual Red-Winged Blackbird Returns

The red-winged blackbird I saw at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014 did not have the bright patches of this blackbird which I photographed in breeding season in Maryland on April 11, 2012.  The amazing thing is that my first sighting of a red-winged blackbird at my feeders last winter was on Feb. 23, 2013!  (Photo by Don Comis)

I also saw my first robin at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014.  I photographed this robin even earlier last winter, eating berries of one of two crabapple trees along Apple Valley Drive, on February 9, 2013.  I believe these robins are northern robins that spent the winter here and will leave as our real spring robins come back from south of us.  I saw one long ago this winter, at the edge of our yard, near woods.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Talk about punctuality!  I saw my first red-winged blackbird this winter, at my feeders this morning, and last winter a red-winged blackbird made its debut on February 23, 2013, right to the day!


And what a morning after my first zero count yesterday!  Eight species in eight minutes, including a second harbinger of spring, my first robin of the winter.  It seemed fat to me but spent a long time under one of my raised feeders.  It could have been eating dropped seed, but it seemed to be digging for worms and insects.


I know the robin is probably a false harbinger of spring because it's likely one of the robins that migrated here this winter from farther north.  Robins are fairly rare at feeders because they're insect eaters, and northern robins are even rarer at feeders because they're shyer and prone to be in secluded wooded areas away from homes.


Still, my guess is it's still too early for our spring robins to return, so it's probably one of those northern robins with its own bold personality, or just one desperate after all this snow.  We can identify!


All in all a great eight minutes that included a northern flicker.  Birdwatching has many lessons for life, including that no matter how many times you're disappointed, you never know when life is going to give you a box of chocolates.