The curtain rises on the big show in a week, when the first major wave of migrant songbirds returns to Maine.
Three warbler species will lead the way: palm, pine, and yellow-rumped.
Ruby-crowned kinglets may overwhelm them all, at least vocally. It’s hard to shut ‘em up this time of year.
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers will fly in overnight. At dawn, they will begin drumming on the loudest thing they can find.
I’ve been amusing myself with the antics of our year-round resident birds while I wait. They are also preparing for nesting season.
The mourning doves in my backyard have gone silly. Males are following females around, cooing and courting, bluffing and blustering. Females are pretending not to care. Pair bonds form quickly, but that doesn’t stop unmated males from trying to pry their way into the affections of a mated female.
The morning chorus of drumming woodpeckers is intense. At sunrise, both hairy and downy woodpeckers drum to their mates. Their drumming tapers off by the time I sit down to breakfast, but mated pairs continue to call to each other sporadically throughout the day.
The drumming and calling will get even louder and more frequent when the sapsuckers arrive.
Pileated woodpeckers also drum and call at this time of year. I went out for a stroll last week, and chanced upon a particularly boisterous pair. I hadn’t walked more than a few hundred yards beyond them when another pair sounded off, even more energetically.
I assumed that these obviously mated pairs would dispute territories, so I was surprised to find them so close together. Maybe that’s what all the hubbub was about, or maybe they’re not as territorial as I thought.
I hear brown creepers singing now, everywhere I go. These tiny mouse-like birds are specialists at climbing tree trunks, probing for food. They even build nests in rough bark against the side of the tree. Creepers are silent for much of the year, which makes them easy to overlook.
For several weeks in early spring, they sing their quiet, tinkly song often.
The ice went out on most of my lake last week. For some reason, my end of the lake is always the last to let go. A small sliver of water opened up near the island in front of my house, and I was surprised to see 20 common mergansers lazily floating in it.
With the open-water portion of the lake at their disposal, why did they pick there? My best guess is that they could use the surrounding ice as a place to sit, where eagles couldn’t sneak up on them.
If so, it was a wise precaution. As I watched the mergansers, I noticed eight bald eagles sitting on the ice behind them.
It happens every year. Just before the last vestige of ice breaks up, it melts enough to reveal the remains of any bait and fish guts left by ice fishermen over the winter. For an eagle, a dead fish is much easier to catch than a live duck.
I spent a few mornings playing with barred owls. They have been particularly vocal over the last few weeks, which makes them easier to find. I’ve located three pairs so far.
Barred owl mates hoot to each other, mostly after dark, but surprisingly often in daylight. I find they’re quiet by 9 a.m. most days, but they might start up again in the late afternoon.
I don’t disturb them. I just like to know where they are. Since they’re telling each other where they are, I eavesdrop.
I’m also curious about whether they choose the same nesting cavities every year. I think not. I always have a pair around my house somewhere, but it seems like their hooting comes from a different location every spring.
This year, they’re calling from farther away than usual.
On the other hand, a second owl pair down the road seems to pick the same area every year. It remains a mystery to me.
I’ll share one final observation that makes me giggle. Ring-billed gulls look like a smaller version of the ubiquitous herring gull. They’re all over town right now. While getting gas at BJs last week, there were too many in the parking lot to count.
They are freshwater nesters, and will be heading up to Maine’s northern lakes as soon as the ice goes out there. Until then, if you want to examine the differences between herring gulls and ring-billed gulls, just visit any shopping center.
