I hurried out the door early this morning, excited that I finally had a good amount of time on a morning with some stiff onshore winds to spend seawatching. Or, at least that what the forecast had me expecting when I went to bed last night. But, by the time I got to Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth this morning, the winds were already dying down and thick fog had rolled in. I couldn’t even see the water from the parking lot! So much for that idea.

So, I slowly wandered – rather aimlessly actually – along the coast, waiting for the fog to lift. 9 Brant at Kettle Cove were good to see, and the congregation of 1000 Common Eider, 40 Common Loons, and 30 Horned Grebes in the Pine Point Narrows was impressive. And, the fog finally lifted as the front came through and the winds shifted to the west. I didn’t see too much – just the usual cast of characters - elsewhere in Scarborough Marsh and Cape Elizabeth, but at Portland’s Capisic Pond Park, I enjoyed close-up views of 28 Cedar Waxwings.

Then, I heard it – the chuck note of a Red-winged Blackbird! And then another. It’s impossible to know if these birds were exceptionally late or extremely early migrants, but since they were both adult males, and they were calling from a cattail marsh (breeding habitat) it is very likely that these were SPRING migrants! Plus, there has been a recent flurry of blackbird reports in Massachusetts, suggesting a northbound movement. My first birds of spring!

But, we haven’t even had winter yet!

For most species migration is not triggered by weather. Most migratory and breeding behavior is triggered by hormonal changes, which have been triggered by photoperiod (the changes in the length of daylight). Good thing too – if a flycatcher migrates to Maine in February and we get a March blizzard, it’s in trouble – no flies to catch in a snowstorm. Plus, since that flycatcher is probably down in Central America it isn’t exactly going to know what the weather is like on its breeding grounds (it’s not like they can read weather reports).

Therefore, most things that most birds do are triggered by a yearly constant – the increasing (and in the fall, decreasing) amount of daylight. (Luckily, it’s also one of the few things we humans haven’t screwed up yet). No matter how mild or how cold a winter has been, the sun will still rise and set at the same time each day every year. Some species, however, are more flexible. Waterfowl begin to move north as ice breaks up and open water for foraging and safety becomes available. I would expect to see early arriving waterfowl this year, if the pattern continues, and in fact recent sighting of Northern Pintails and Brant are likely northbound migrants.

Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles are usually our first songbird arrivals of the spring. In a typical winter, our first migrant flocks will begin to arrive by the end of February. However, with this year’s ridiculously mild temperature and lack of snowfall, I was not completely shocked to already see a couple of Blackbirds this morning. A Red-winged Blackbird can tolerate a bout of severe cold, if that ever arrives. They can deal with a snowstorm or two. And, if things get really bad, they can – and will – always fly back south. Being seed-eaters, they can handle an abrupt change in weather. But, why did these two males at Capisic Pond Park this morning take the chance? An ice storm could cover their food, frigid temperatures could burn their fat reserves – they’re gambling a bit by showing up this early.

So why do they do it? Well, like just about everything else in nature, it’s all about reproduction. An early-arriving Red-wing gets to find the best territory, lay claim to it (there’s a distinct home-field advantage when it comes to defending a territory), and - since Red-winged Blackbirds are polygamous – he therefore has a better chance of mating with more females when they arrive in his most desirable territory a few weeks later.