Fish Like a GIRL

Back in the 80s sometime, a band called REO Speedwagon had a song called “Time for me to Fly.” It was a good tune, and still is. If birds could choose any song to sing, this is the time of year they may choose that one. Fall is the time of year birds (and some smart humans, I might add) start to migrate south for the winter. Waterfowl such as ducks and non-resident geese, tundra swans, sandhill cranes, song birds like robins, Eastern meadowlarks and even some birds we might not think of as often such as turkey vultures all prepare to head south for the winter at this time of the year.

As many know, I am a year round bird feeder. I like to watch them at the feeders and see them interacting. I like to watch them playing in the water of the bird bath. It is always interesting to see who picks on whom. In the fall, with migration starting, I think it becomes a little more important to keep those food and water supplies clean and full, so I might take a little extra time to attend to those things. 

One of my feeders, an obvious favorite of the LBBs, as my Mom used to call them, which stood for Little Brown Birds, is usually empty every three days or so. The feeder hangs under the eaves next to a huge hydrangea bush, which makes for excellent cover for those little birds. I have learned to make a good amount of noise before I approach that corner of the house. The birds are little, but when 30 of them take off out of a bush within a couple feet of a person, it is somewhat remnant of Alfred Hitchock’s “The Birds.” I believe that movie is the sole reason it creeps me out so much to have even a pet bird flying around inside the house — even though I have no other memory of the movie other than the birds attacking.

I have a feeder in front of my garage hanging under the eave that seems to be the second most popular. The one in front of my kitchen window and the one between the door and picture window in the living room are not as popular. As soon as the birds see movement inside the house, they fly away from the feeder, other than when the young of the year are just learning to find food for themselves. They do not seem to sense the perceived danger as much, or perhaps the rumbling in their little bellies overtakes their good common sense. As the saying goes baby birds are all… well, digestive system, to put it in a publishable form.

At any rate, even those feeders I pull down every couple of weeks at the very longest. I clean all of them at least once per week during the heat of the summer, but when temperatures start falling in the fall, I might go to two weeks. It depends on the activity and the weather, obviously. 

As for the bird bath, I have not taken that extra step to put a heater in it to keep it through the winter — as of yet, anyway. That might happen in the next couple of years, but for now I am happy with it being a warmer weather pursuit.

I know we have a ton of LBBs in the neighborhood, but I feel like I might be the only person with a bird bath out. I cannot believe the amount of activity I see in it. There are times this summer I changed the water every other day and occasionally every day. I also always keep a stack of the glass squares, the type that a person would use around a fake fireplace type situation, on one side of the bird bath. It is located right by my garden, so there is cover for birds if they need to hide quick. What is fun is that, when I go out to the garden, obviously the birds all take off. But then bees and other insects start to come in. It is like they know it is their turn to get a drink. The fireplace rocks give them a place to land where they can safely get a drink without falling into the water and drowning. So the extra work of the bird bath really is a multi-purpose endeavor. I will keep the bird bath out until the snow flies, even if it means peeling the icy layer off the top so the birds can get to the water below.

For the most part, the species that stick around by me are American tree sparrows and house sparrows. Not exactly pretty, flashy birds, but at least they are something to watch. We do have a few chickadees that seem to stick around the neighborhood also.

Earlier in the year I had several voraciously hungry starlings that would wipe out two or three suet blocks in a day. But I have not seen any in quite a while. That lead me to wonder if those birds migrated. I do know they are not native to the United States. Of course, settlers from Europe, wanting the new land to feel more “like home,” and more familiar, brought with them many different kinds of wildlife, starlings being one of them. I believe tree sparrows are another, but do not hold me to that. I think I read it somewhere. 

But I do find it interesting that once summer is in full swing, I do not see the starlings around anymore. I know some people think of them as “junk” birds. I have heard that term used before, but they are kind of glossy and pretty and, again, it is fun to see them vying for a spot on the suet block, often fighting others off the spot. 

The only bird activity I am not the biggest fan of watching is when the red-tailed hawk comes along and steals the robin babies out of the nest, which has happened twice now. I might try to configure a way to keep her nest safer next year, now that I know where she will likely build it again — maybe some sort of wall or blockade that will allow her easy access in and out, but not allow the hungry hawk in. There are plenty of other critters around for him to eat.

Speaking of critters, I am not one to feed squirrels and those sorts of animals. However, until recently, at least in my adult life, I was not a cat owner, either. The Chaotic Duo, as I call our kittens Cleo and Stevie, love to watch the squirrels come in to eat the bird treat block. They will sit at the front screen door for hours napping in the sun and watching the squirrels eat. They even talk back and forth sometimes, which I find fairly entertaining. So, yes, I did spend $10 to buy a bag of food for the squirrels. This is the most time I have spent watching squirrels since I used to hunt them when I was a kid. As I remember, they were not bad eating, and Dad would occasionally ask me to shoot one and throw it in the septic tank to keep the bacteria in there working properly. I have no idea if that actually worked, but it seemed to make sense back then. So, now I am feeding the entire neighborhood. The bunnies just help themselves to my raspberry plants, so I do not give them anything extra.

But, back to migration. BirdCast is a really cool platform where people can see the number, species, direction, speed and altitude of birds flying over their location at any given time during migration. In the fall, the data is real time from Aug. 1 to June 15. The spring migration window for live data is March 1 to June 15, for those interested. The data a person is accessing is radar-generated from nocturnal bird flights. For instance, at the time of this writing, BirdCast tells me that approximately 10,263,100 crossed Wisconsin last night. That’s crazy to me. The estimated number of birds in flight was 21,922,500. This number is larger because not all birds fly completely across the state in one night, so they are counted in this number more than once. The direction of travel was seen as southeast with an average speed of 24 mph and an altitude of 1,700 feet.

Birds migrate at night, with take off beginning about half an hour to 45 minutes after sunset. The greatest number of birds in flight tends to be two or three hours after sunset. 

The dashboard has a lot of great information. It even includes birds that are likely to be traveling at night during migration in the area in which a person enters to access the data.

This brings up one last point about providing for birds during migration. And this is true with other species, such as monarchs, that migrate, too. We often think about light pollution during spring migration, making sure the outdoor lights are either off or shielding in such a way that they light only those areas we need. But little is talked about in the fall and, truly, we should be doing those same things. Light pollution makes travel difficult for birds. In fact, according to he United Nations (UN), light pollution is responsible for the death of millions of migrating birds per year. 

“Unnatural light-induced behaviors can mean that migratory birds end up depleting their energy reserves, which puts them at risk of exhaustion, predation and lethal collision with buildings and other man-made infrastructure,” the UN website states.

As days get shorter it is natural for humans to want the exteriors of their homes and garages lit as well as walkways. There is nothing wrong with caring for human safety. But it is a good idea to consider proper shielding of lights or to use motion detecting lights that will only come on when a person or large animal is walking through.

Those interested in checking out the BirdCast dashboard to see what might be flying through overhead tonight can check it out at: dashboard.birdcast.info. Users can simply put in their location and learn about the birds coming through the area.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].