By the time December rolls around we tend to think that our winter birds have settled in and that fall migration is over. This is certainly true for the bulk of birds, but some species are still on the move, and some have yet to come (or go). Prompted by a question sent in from Drew Masterman about the comings and goings of birds in his yard, I wanted to share some of the great resources that are available for you to use in deciphering the migration timing of our birds.

One of the best – or at least most common – methods to “see” migration timing is to use bar charts. These typically span the year, with the width of the bar depicting the relative abundance of the species in question. Learning what birds you can expect to see at which times is a critical skill for a birder. I remember poring through the back pages of “A Birder’s Guide to Maine” by Elizabeth Pierson, Jan Pierson, and Peter Vickery when I first got into birding. Appendix A spanned about a dozen pages, each with about 28 birds and a static but varying bar chart. This is still a great resource, though a bit has changed since 1996 when that book was published.

As I’ve written about here several times, we are seeing a rapid range shift in several species, especially with their wintering range, and perhaps most noticeably with Eastern bluebirds. The bar chart in “The Birder’s Guide to Maine” shows our bluebirds as uncommon beginning in late March, with a bump up to “fairly common” around September, before dwindling and becoming rare by December. Now we are seeing Eastern bluebirds as “abundant” through much of the year, and at least “fairly common” through the winter. So where is the best place to see this update? Look no further than the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird database.

This is a repository of bird sightings, and is full of amazing tools for learning about birds. For example, eBird has its own bar charts, but instead of being static printed charts, they are dynamic and constantly updating. At eBird.org, click on “Explore,” then scroll down to “Bar Charts” and select your region of interest. I recommend using Maine, though you can go down to the county level, or smaller. (Note: the smaller the region you pick, the fewer data points to pull from, which can leave you with an incomplete picture.) Follow those steps and you’ve got a great (the best?) visualization for the timing of abundances in our birds.

The last thing worth mentioning here, and prompted by another of Drew’s questions, is that each year can be very different for certain species. Drew was specifically asking about downy woodpeckers, a species that we typically don’t think of as migratory though they do appear to have some dispersal events on occasion. Dispersal among bird populations are typically food-related, and can lead to what are known as irruptions (not eruptions!) – changes in movement or migration patterns. Snowy owl irruptions, like the massive flight in the winter of 2013-14, are better known than most, but we also commonly see this behavior in a number of finches, like evening grosbeaks and common redpolls.

Perhaps Drew is seeing a shift in downy woodpeckers in response to the lack of mast we’re seeing in Maine this year. Consider sharing your backyard bird sightings on eBird this winter, or at least try out the Maine link for eBird.org  to learn more about the birds around you. As a fun homework assignment, try looking up the bar chart of blue jays in Maine, and click on the link to the line graph. Filter to show years beginning in 2018 and notice the huge drop in blue jays during the winter of 2019. You should also see they appear to be dispersing from Maine again this winter. Have you seen fewer blue jays so far?

CONFUSED BLOOMS

I’ll admit that botany is probably my least favorite topic in the natural world (seriously, I’d rather lick dirt than try to ID a goldenrod to species) but it is exciting when I see a question come up that is atypical. One I’ve had from a lot of folks lately has to do with flowers that are blooming for a second time late this fall. So what’s going on here?

Pardon the dad joke, but I’m sure I’m not the only one to greet a friend or coworker with “Lovely April day we’re having!” during one of these recent 50-degree rainy days. Unfortunately for a few plants, they are apparently more gullible than your peers. Many plants need a cold hardening period, but then get tricked when we have these warm and wet days.

In general, these plants that are blooming now, by accident, are going to be fine, though the blooms you are seeing now will not be seen again in the spring. That may cut back from the overall color you’ll see next year, but the plant will hopefully get back into a normal rhythm after the cold of next year.

It is worth noting that there are some species that have late season blooms, and this weather is allowing them to stay in bloom quite late. Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) has been absolutely stunning lately, especially when you find a yellow patch of flowers among bright red winterberry. Come check out the large patch we’ve got adjacent to the orchard at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth!

Do you have a nature question for Doug? Email questions to ask@maineaudubon.org and visit maineaudubon.org to learn more about backyard birding, native plants, and programs and events focusing on Maine wildlife and habitat. Doug leads free bird walks on Thursday mornings, 7 to 9 am, at the Gilsland Farm Audubon Sanctuary in Falmouth.