Photo by Rasmussen (Wikimedia Commons)
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I tried to keep a close eye on the arrival of the spring migrating birds this year. I thank all of the people who sent me emails about their “first bird” sightings this year, too! Here are our first three “early birds.”
Photo by D. Sillman
Robins:
Robins are still the archetypal harbingers of spring even though many of us, especially if we live near a habitat that has a suitable, winter robin-food supply (berries and other wild and domesticated fruits), have robins all year-round. Holly thickets, crab apple groves, wild grape arbors and dense shrub lands of raspberry, honeysuckle, poison ivy and barberry can all locally sustain flocks of over-wintering robins.
The robins that do migrate may move into nearby, food-rich habitats, or they may fly down to the southern U.S. states or into Mexico or, possibly, all the way down into Guatemala. They can also overwinter on several of the islands of Caribbean.
Prior to European colonization of North America, robins were neither as abundant as they are today nor as widely distributed. The opening of the Midwest and the Plains of the United States to farming coincidentally introduced European earthworms (the classic food for robins!) to these rich soils and have allowed robins to greatly expand their distribution and population numbers all across North America.
Here in Western Pennsylvania the return of the migrating robins comes in waves. This year (2019) robins were seen in some apple trees in New Kensington on February 28 but they did not get north into the Apollo area until March 21. Back in the 1990’s and 2000’s migrating robins arrived in Apollo like clockwork on either February 14 or 15. These mid-February dates corresponded to the yearly, brief, mid-February warm spells that have not occurred in recent years. In 2014 robins were first seen in Apollo on March 13 and in 2018 on March 1. Their arrival is very soil temperature related: they fly in and begin hunting and consuming earthworms. After a winter of fruit, those worms must be delicious!
Photo by D. Sillman
Common grackles:
The arrival of the grackles are, for me, a very important sign of spring! Back in the 1990’s during our severe bouts with gypsy moths, common grackles were the only local bird that I saw eating gypsy moth larvae! The grackles would fly up to my spruce trees, grab gypsy moth caterpillars, take them out to the street and beat them on the asphalt until most of their irritating hairs were removed. They then would gobble them down! A small flock of grackles spent long hours working my trees. Ever since I have put out shelled corn for them in the spring as thanks.
Many grackles spend the winter in large, mixed-species flocks with red-winged blackbirds, brown headed cowbirds and starlings. Flocks numbering in the hundreds of thousands to millions of birds are seen in agricultural fields and marshlands in the south-central and southeastern United States. Some grackles, though, overwinter quite nearby (in sheltered spots in southern Ohio and West Virginia) in much smaller flocks. These “local migrators” typically are the first grackles to show up in the spring and the last to leave in the fall.
The arrival of the grackles is not a subtle event. Suddenly, one morning there will be a dozen grackles on the ground under my bird feeders gleaning the spilled seed. I then go out and spread some shelled corn, and the grackles with all of their posturing and “sky pointing” to assert their respective levels of dominance in their flock hierarchy spend many hours eating the corn and sunflower seeds often after dunking them in the water of the bird bath. When the grackles are here, I need to change the birdbath water every day!
Many people speak unkindly of grackles. They call them “unloved” and “dirty” and “noisy.” They are significant agricultural pests, and, in spite of the protections for most native birds under the Migratory Bird Act, they are frequently targeted for legal, mass extermination by farmers. Farms are the reasons that grackle populations grew so significantly along with the human populations all across the eastern and mid-western United States. Grackles probably were not a very abundant North America bird species prior to European colonization but reached a population peak of 190 million birds in 1974 due to the large number of farms and available grains. They have been declining, though, by 2% or so each year ever since. Their tendency to form large, roosting groups makes them particularly vulnerable to lethal population control measures, and the loss of suitable farm habitats and the reforestation of abandoned farmlands have contributed to their significant decline (61% total decline since 1974: current population 73 million birds).
Here in Western Pennsylvania the grackles have consistently returned from their over-wintering sites in March: March 2 and 8 in 2017 and 2018, March 15 and 16 in 2014 and 2019, and March 25 in 2011, and they almost always bring red-winged blackbirds and the brown-headed cowbirds along with them.
Photo by Pixabay
Killdeer:
Killdeer arrive in Western Pennsylvania with a great deal of noise and frenetic activity. They are the most widely distributed plover in North America and can live in both seaside habitats and also inland grasslands, farmlands, golf courses, parking lots, and even the flat graveled roofs of buildings. Often the first killdeer we see in the spring is either a male who is staking out the roof of the Engineering Building at Penn State New Kensington for his breeding ground or some other male that has chosen a nearby, flat-roofed grocery store for his future nesting site. Killdeer are found throughout North America, Central America, the islands of the Caribbean, and into the northern portions of South America as far south as southern Peru. They migrate out of their northernmost ranges in the fall but are year-round residents in the southern United States and in the remainder of their warm-temperate and tropical distributions. Migrating killdeer often seek out coastal habitats (beaches and dunes) and nearby agricultural fields for their overwintering sites.
Killdeer return to their northern breeding ranges in late winter or early spring. Their arrival in mid-March or early April is often the first appearance of a seasonal migrant, although here in Western Pennsylvania usually the robins and grackles (and the grackle entourage) have gotten here first. From 1998 to 2006, killdeer returned to the Nature Trail on the Penn State New Kensington Campus in the second week of March. They frequently faced very cold and even snowy weather for the next three to four weeks but persevered and found food and shelter. More recently, killdeer have returned to the Apollo area (about 15 miles east of the campus) on March 14 (2019), March 29 (2018), March 30 (2011) and April 16 (2014). This past year Patrick over in Fawn Township (about 16 miles north and west of Apollo) saw a killdeer on March 7!
The loud, screaming cry of the killdeer is a song which announces the eventual possibility of spring’s arrival if not its exact presence. Males along with their later arriving females carry out elaborate, soil scrapping behaviors (and duets of loud calling) within the breeding territory. One of these scrape sites will become the chosen nest site. The nest is a scrape consisting of a 5 to 7 inch diameter shallow concavity in the soil or rocky substrate. It may be completely unadorned and unmodified by the bird, or it may have a few added rocks around its edges or bits of plant material laid upon it.
Killdeer lay on average four eggs in the nest (their clutches range from 2 to 6 eggs). The eggs are a very neutral buff color with a spattering of black blotches that greatly enhance their camouflaged appearance. The eggs are very difficult to see even when you know the precise location of the nest! Both male and female incubate the eggs. The long, 28 day incubation period allows the chicks to undergo quite advanced development prior to hatching. The newborn chicks are fully feathered and are able within an hour or so of hatching to run, leave the nest, and even begin foraging for their own food. The parental birds guard the chicks but take no role in their direct care or feeding. The parents may, in fact, begin their second brood when the first set of eggs hatch. The parents then alternate between roles of incubators and chick protectors until the second clutch hatches.
Killdeer are very tolerant of humans and can live and reproduce in a wide range of human-modified habitats. Their population, like those of robins and grackles, has increased with the increased human presence in North America. Recent habitat destruction, though, and the impacts of herbicides and pesticides, farm and construction machinery, lawnmowers, cars, and trucks have significantly reduced killdeer numbers (47% reduction from 1966 to 2012). Several experts, however, contend that there are still more killdeer in North America now than there were before European colonization!
So these are, typically, the first three summer birds of our spring! All three are tied into human activity and are extremely tolerant of the presence of humans. All three, in spite of some recent declines, are quite possibly more abundant now than they were before European colonization of North America. They are also very welcome signs of spring and summer and help to lift us out of the cold and quiet of winter!