So, I am going to be taking full credit for the glorious weather of the weekend and most of this week. See, on Thursday, I planted 20 bushes in the garden. 10 Blackhaw Viburnum and 10 Gray-stemmed Dogwood (also called Red-panicled), both native fruit-bearing species, have now been added to augment our backyard habitat. The plants showed up on the doorstep last Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon and evening I spent 3 glorious hours in a t-shirt playing in the dirt on a wonderful spring day. I noticed that the long-range forecast was calling for some rainy days in our near future, so that was perfect for tree-planting. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to stand behind the hose, enjoy more sunshine, and keep an eye out for “yard birds!” Could be worse, huh?

Speaking of plants, as everyone who has been on at least one of my birdwalks has noticed, invasive plants are a hot topic with me. My interest in them, and concern about them, was amplified by research that I did last fall for an article for the excellent journal, North American Birds. My friend Marshall Iliff and I authored the Changing Seasons essay for this past winter’s issue. That article is now online, and the PDF can be downloaded here.

The excellent journal - which I cannot recommend enough - collects and synthesizes bird sightings from around the country each season (4 issues a year). The Changing Seasons essay attempts to synthesize this synthesis even further, putting observations into the "big picture." Issues, such as climate change, and how they impact birds and their populations (and birding itself) are often discussed. I wanted to look into the issue of invasive plants and their effects on birds and birding, and admittedly got in way over my head into plant ecology and avian physiology!

However, I think the end product was fairly good, and I am proud of it. In addition to being thought provoking (well, at least the stuff Marshall had to say!), I used a handful of references to Maine birds and locations, and therefore I thought this would be of interest to some. If anything, it makes a wonderful cure for insomnia!

Meanwhile, the dry weather, with temperatures running 10-15 degrees above normal on many days, looks like it is going to persist through the better part of next week! Clear and calm conditions at night should produce excellent daily turnover in migrants.

On Saturday, our birdwalk group enjoyed a glorious morning on our visit to Old Townhouse Park in North Yarmouth - with a quick stop at Yarmouth’s Sligo Rd Property - but, it didn’t produce as many migrants as I expected. I hypothesized that perhaps the nocturnal migration overnight saw more birds leaving than arriving. Upon an analysis of the radar, it doesn’t seem that there was a whole lot more leaving than arriving, but it was overall just a fairly light flight.

The 12:00am, and 4:00am radars, respectively, for example:

It might just be that our continuing beautiful weather is allowing migration to proceed unimpeded, and birds aren’t getting “backed-up” by inclement weather. In fact, after a delayed start to the spring, according to my personal notes, many migrants are now running a bit ahead of schedule.

On Saturday evening, I led my annual “Woodcocks Gone Wild” walk at Pineland Farms. 23 happy woodcock-walkers were treated to 3 displaying American Woodcocks. One was extremely well seen, calling and displaying on the ground, a mere 25 feet or so from the group. It was close enough to see his shivering wings and erect posture as he shouted his “peent” calls. We also were treated to two close winnowing Wilson’s Snipe, plus a cacophony of Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers. A singing Savannah Sparrow, an American Kestrel, and a few migrants passing through the full moon rounded out the show.

Overnight, birds were once again on the move, but the radar seemed to suggest that more birds departed than arrived. Here’s the 10:00pm and 4:00am images, respectively.

See how many fewer echoes were recorded on the 4:00 image?

Under the feeders at our Pownal home this morning, only 3 Dark-eyed Juncos were scratching for scattered white millet. Yesterday, there were 15, plus a rare-in-our-yard Song Sparrow. At our store’s feeders, the 4 Savannah Sparrows and an American Tree Sparrow departed overnight, but our junco count increased from 2 to 4, and a White-throated Sparrow arrived. Both of these feeder counts lend credence to the “more birds leaving than arriving last night” theory.

Meanwhile, I spent half of the day up at the Hawkwatch, where the second count record of a Black Vulture was recorded yesterday. By 1:30 today, we had tallied about 100 raptors. Broad-winged Hawks, many traveling relatively low, made up a good portion of the tally. The highlight for me, however, was a calling, fly-over Fish Crow – my first for the Park, and a very good bird inland. The last week has been excellent up on the hill, and the next week should also be very productive, so I’ll be seeing you up there!