Getting Ready for April

Migration is starting...  Migration is starting.... I say it again because I am so excited.  Migration is coming. All over the state (nation, world, etc) there have been reports of incoming birds and new arrivals.  Waterfowl are moving around with gusto and the arrival of the swallows tells me that we are getting ready for the movement of warblers and other great birds.  At the park I found a great number of Killdeer and Tree Swallows (6~8) and I was excited to see them hunting, eating, and flying about.  Osprey (pics in next post) have also returned.  Their recovery (along with other raptors) have been a great example of how durable nature is, of course, they shouldn't have to dance around us.

My birding at the park was interrupted but I enjoyed the preview of migrants who showed up.  The great number of birds out there has me very excited for the oncoming Warblers and Shorebirds.  Ebird's Occurrence maps mark and display with great drama how birds move across our continent.  New Hampshire's Squam Lakes Natural Science Center has a tracking device attached to an Osprey and you can follow along with Art the Osprey's Migration.  Currently, he's looking at the Caribbean and waiting to move across to get to North America.  Think about these voyages over the next months.  How do birds do and how do they cross our borders and boundaries?  And remember that they do it again and again!  There's so much tying us to our desks and jobs and institutions, yet for the birds, that's no matter.  Well, not much will be tying down in April and May, so I guess the birds got another convert.

Happy Birding!

Link:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/occurrence-maps/occurrence-maps
http://www.nhnature.org/programs/project_ospreytrack/osprey_mapART.php

 Red-Tailed Hawk

 Great Egret

 Red Necked Grebe

 Greater Yellowlegs

Tree Swallow

2013 Year List: 113 (87 to go!)

Red-Necked Grebe (lifer) (Life List total: 263, 37 to go!)

Tree Swallow

Great Egret