We holed up this winter and I never really put the cameras out. We were birdfeeding and watching and counting all winter, but we had a lot going on and I just didn’t have the desire to document things here.
But, seasons change and spring is back and the winter doldrums are over. Tilda is back in Barn Hunt training. Many of our spring migrant birds are returning and I love it! This week marked the arrival in our yard of Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Baltimore Oriole, and Rose Breasted Grosbeak. We’ve seen the Brown Thrashers & RBG quite a few times, but just one oriole so far. We expanded our bird fun zone here with more landing places, more feeder zones and looking for a great spring birdwatching season. Took a few videos of one our new landing zones. Camera was out for about 2 hours and this is a compilation of all of the visitors. This was shot with GoPro Hero 9 on April 30, 2022. I’m messing with the settings so some of the clips are in slow mo.
Some things never change. People are already posting pictures of nests with cowbird eggs in them and I’m biting my tongue. Bird flu spread through the midwest in a ton of poultry farms and worry about it has permeated every one of the Michigan backyard nature groups I’m in. We are being cautious here but given that we don’t have any backyard poultry anywhere near us, we don’t have any waterfowl in our area, based on state guidelines we are still presently feeding.
We also are starting to see signs of a good year for the reptiles and amphibians in the area. We turned over a rubber mat on May 1st and observed 2 newts in the red eft phase and a small garter snake. Lots and lots of earthworms. Here’s another video show on the GoPro in super slow mo of the garter snake we uncovered. Don’t worry, we replaced the mat and everyone is secure. Warning about excessive hound barking in this video! Sound down!
