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Bird is the Word

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It’s the season for bird songs – the kind the birdies sing for themselves and the sort of song people sing about the birds. I’m sure a few titles will occur to you after a moments’ worth of thought:

Red Red Robin, Rockin’ Robin, Skylark, Lark in the Morning, Three Little Birds, Free As a Bird, Gonna Find Me a Bluebird, Be Like The Bluebird, When Doves Cry, Dupsha Dove … you get the idea.

A loon was spotted on Lake Calhoun yesterday, according to Bob Collins and Jayne Solinger at the MPR blog News Cut.

I can’t think of many songs about loons, even though loon and Calhoun both fit so comfortably into the classic Moon / June / Croon rhyming scheme popular with songwriters of the golden age of romantic word-rich ditties. It’s no surprise that local songwriter Ann Reed took note a few years ago and gave us this, which, alas, I can only offer you here in the form of lyrics. The song is on her 2009 recording Where The Earth is Round.

Loons on Lake Calhoun
words and music: Ann Reed • © 2009 Turtlecub Publishing

I’m riding on my bike
Gliding along
The light is early morning
It’s pretty and half-awake
This city that has
The lakes as its reward

I stop all my inner debating
And waiting a minute, it hovers and fades

Ducks talking, coots check in
Chalking up routes
They’ve been on their migration
Then floating up above
The soloist does her stuff
With carbonation

It’s a melody picked out
To tell how a tickle would sound if given the room
There’s loons on Lake Calhoun

They’ve dropped in to see a show
Stopped to see grebes they know
From a long, late winter
The people lift eyes from the ground
Seeming surprised at the sound
Of grace, delivered

I never expected a miracle
Here I’ll admit: Oh, I rarely — do you?
There’s loons on Lake Calhoun

And they’ve made it from far, far away
Before takin’ it northward, but before they do
There’s loons on Lake Calhoun

I contend that any songwriter can put a classy nightingale or a colorful oriole in their lyric, but you need someone like Ann to write and sing about loons, coots and grebes.

As for other migrations, it looks like at least one Ruby Throated Hummingbird made it into Wisconsin yesterday. And was immediately stripped of its collective bargaining rights. So it goes in the northern climes this year. And still the migratory beat goes on. Lots of things are cropping up – Robins, Earthworms, Whooping Cranes, Barn Swallows, etc.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, they face an exploding population of feral chickens. This isn’t a migration, it’s a multiplication. But it might cause some cock-a-doodle-doo intolerant people to head north.

And in Canada, it’s Canada Geese, who are not only proliferating, but are threatening (to the not-so-quiet alarm of some scolds) to become our northern neighbor’s official bird!

What have you seen or heard lately that indicates a migration is underway?

88 thoughts on “Bird is the Word”

  1. Morning all!

    Can’t speak to migrations, but at my other book club last night, I was sitting facing the window out into my friend’s back yard and the most beautiful cardinal pair were flitting around the bird feeders, accompanied by their court of sparrows and chickadees. They were just lovely and it certainly made it feel a little more like spring, until we started to talk about the upcoming weather!

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  2. Rise and Fly Home Baboons:

    There was a pair of loons on a little pond near my house last Saturday morning on my way out of town to my High School Girls Weekend in Iowa. Springtime loons sit low in the water, those long beaks protruding over the water. They stop here to rest from the long flights while they wait for their Northern lake homes to open. In the spring I usually hear their calls as they fly over or rest up on a neighborhood lake.

    As I headed toward Iowa I saw birds everywhere, especially hawks hunting the ditches from poles. This is such a welcome sight. When I was a child and teenager there were so few birds due to pesticide poisoning.

    And then there was the slow farmer pulling a wagon down the road at farmer speed, obstructing traffic. I guess that is another kind of migration but also a sign of spring.

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    1. Thanks for adding the image of a migratory agriculturalist, Jacque.
      I hope his (her?) tractor tires were leaving huge muddy clumps strewn across the road. That’s a sure sign of spring!

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  3. OT already…. in another weird collision of my various worlds, we chose the next few months’ worth of books last night (the other book club) and the next book up is about time travel!

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    1. I tried migrating out to the front porch for some quality reading time last Sunday, but the wind was already coming up and I had to admit, I was a little too early. Just requested the latest Thursday from SPPL-it will be awhile before I get it-Sherrilee, tell me nothing!

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    1. Our new governor is a dodo and last month his fellow birdbrains in the legislature voted for a significant decrease in education funding. Our salaries are being cut and so are programs. The one that breaks my heart most is the elimination of Reading Recovery – the highly successful tutorial program for struggling first grade readers. I’m so disgusted I could eat worms!

      Off to work. Catcha later on the flipflip. Thanks for Ann Reed this morning, Dale!

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  5. What fascinates me are the many changes we see–some related to climate change, but some not–in bird behavior. I remember when the biggest bird migration event was when we saw “the first robin.” Big deal. But now it is relatively common for groups of robins to spend the winters in Minnesota. You see them every month of the year.

    Back when Katie and I were more mobile, we walked the Minnehaha Dog Park every day, and we’d see robins down there in January and February. They were just like your every day robin but they had furry feet, hairy chests and little puffy hats with ear lappers. Can you imagine the sneering about “chickensh*t weak ‘snowbirds’ who don’t have the guts to spend winter here when the summer migration does finally get here? The birds that stay all winter are rewarded by getting the pick of the best mating territory.

    That’s MY kind of bird! Suffer through the hell of a Minnesota winter in hopes of better sex in spring. You gotta love ’em. That’s the spirit that made Minnesota what we love.

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  6. I have already mentioned earlier this week the black crowned night heron I saw at Minnehaha Creek (he was a pretty pretty bird with those elegant white feathers running down his back from his head). I have also observed the annual spring increase in the Seasonal Urban Dog Walker – being as close to the creek as I am, I see a lot of folks heading there with their pooches. Long about March the number of canine feet and human companions begins to increase exponentially. Last Tuesday there was a bumper crop of SUDWs out and about (and I was one of them).

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  7. When I moved to my farm in the mid -70s one of the first birds that I saw that May was the Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier) so I named the farm Marsh Hawk Meadow. So I always look forward to their return…the (brown) female arrived last week. I have yet to see the (gray) male over my meadow this spring, but I did see one in the neighborhood also last week.

    Red winged black birds arrive at my feeders before I see the robins…so for me they are the real harbingers of spring. Also seeing several woodcocks….and the song sparrows are in full song.

    I hived a new colony of bees on Monday…wouldn’t you know it turned back to winter this week. of course.

    Have a splendid weekend, y’all.

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  9. I’m seeing a steady stream of Motorhomes towing cars or SUVs flowing north on I-35, a sure sign that snowbirds are beginning there homeward migration from Arizona, Florida, Texas, and other southerly wintering areas.
    Chris

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    1. There are a few people in Clarks Grove that I call summer vistors because they spend more time in the South than they spend here. They have purchased small homes here that they use to camp out in during the summer. They are retired people who came here from the Twin Cites. I am going in the other direction for retirement from Clarks Grove to the Twin Cities and I will be in a full sized house to be lived in more or less the year around.

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  10. When the teenager came down for breakfast this morning, I looked at her feet and realized that the migration of the basket of zorries (flip flops in an alternate universe) from the back of the closet has happened!

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  11. Mentioned this a few days ago: saw 100 or so snow geese riding the the thermals along the MN River bluffs.
    I have seen a few signs of MSU students prepping for a return home from their breeding grounds.
    The Twins are migrating down the Central Division.
    SD governor and legislators are migrating down the primate family tree.

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    1. The snow geese are a real problem, since there are too many of them. They are creating problems for other birds. I thnk I heard the other day that ND Game and Fish is going to increase the allowable hunting limit for them.

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  12. Good morning to all:

    I’m sure a devoted bird watcher could tell us about many kinds of birds that are migrating. I only know about those I see in my back yard. I don’t see any robins here in the winter. The first robins arrived here a few weeks ago along with the first grackles.

    I don’t see any juncos this morning. Juncos do not stay here all year. Maybe they are on their way to their far North nesting grounds. I haven’t yet seen some of the birds that usually pass throught here on their way North such as kinglets. I did see a brown creeper and I think it was probably passing through on it’s way North.

    We migrated outside with our dinners and ate them out on the patio on one of the warmer days. Daffodils have started blooming. I found a few early spring greens to add to our salads and planted a few seeds in the garden.

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    1. Juncos remind me of medieval executionists, since they look like they have dark hoods. We have juncos much of the year.

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  13. For the first time since 1969 we are not feeding birds. Thus can report little except the robins stay year round in quite large numbers here.

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  14. Morning–

    I always look forward to the Barn Swallow’s return. I’ll see one when I’m out doing fieldwork; I assume he’s the scout because then the next day there will be two or four and the next day dozens of them.

    One of the challenges we had on the townboard was a flood control structure and related water area (it’s NOT a ‘lake’; it’s a ‘flood Control Structure’!) that had been there for years suddenly became the hot new fishing spot much to our and the neighbors chagrin.
    Final resolution opened it for fishing but it’s closed in November and April for bird migration. It seems to be a popular stopping spot for migrating flocks.

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    1. With all the flooding here, we often have pretty disapointed ditch ducks who think they’ve hit the habitat jackpot and then find their “pond” gradually disappear when the water level goes back to normal.

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  15. We are devotees of the duck pond at St Kate’s and it sure seems to me our little friends are pairing up nicely. The turtles have emerged and were sitting on last year’s piles of cattails. We also had our first spotting of what we call “the egret” we are not meticulous bird-watchers. We just know it is the big white version of the blue heron that also shows up there from time to time.

    Red-winged blackbirds are back in full force in the little drainage pond by work-wish I could get out to listen to them more….

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    2. I think that I have heard Red-winged black birds singing here, but haven’t seen them. I heard Mourning doves calling and then I saw one.

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    3. We call them mandatory egrets since there seems to be one assigned to every pond. Once we saw a whole flock of them near Saint Peter and pictured that as where they gather every morning to learn their assigned pond of the day.

      Things are going well with the grandkids. I’m planning to take them to the Macy’s Flower Show after lunch. Baby girl has all ready learned to pat the dog rather than pull the fur and grab for the eyes. Dog is still quick to escape causing some frustration.

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      1. Oops, guess I won’t. I thought it went through the day before Easter but it appears to have ended April 10. Bummer.

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      3. Interesting. Brian Jacques is a kids’ author we enjoy who writes stories involving anthropomorphic animals who live in Redwall Abbey.

        In one of the books, there is an egret who I believe is called “The Warden”, who punishes the evil-doers on his watch by consuming him. He stalks about saying ,”I am the law”, which is what we say every time we see “our” egret stalking through the St Kate’s pond.

        I wonder if the Chief Egret sends them on their way each day saying,”let’s be Extra careful out there”?

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      4. If you go to the Conservatory, you get the bonus trip to the zoo. When the s&h was stroller age, we would go to the zoo and walk around until he conked out for a nap, then I would wheel us over to the Conservatory for a quiet hour of reading iin the orchid nook.

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      8. my daughter just nnounced that she is going to get married in the como conservatory this fall winter when her fiance gets here form italy if its available.pretty place

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      9. Best friend got married at the Como Conservatory – lovely place for a wedding (and memorable story of the three little flower girls getting totally distracted by the fish in the koi pond).

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  16. a gracious good morning to You All!
    along with the usual suspects, Trumpeter Swans on monday, bluebirds arrived long ago, tree swallows, hooded mergansers wednesday (haven’t seen woodducks yet but i know they are here), flickers yesterday, rough legged hawks were still around last week but have moved north (they were here for the winter), the Canada Goose pair that nests on the pond came while ice was still there (went out on wednesday) to stake out the place and protect from intruders. Phoebes calling and wagging their tails. no barn swallows yet, Ben – but soon.
    our neighbor saw a Fisher a couple days ago! (large weasel – really large – porcupine eating large)
    i need to clean the houses this weekend but first 3 to 5 inches of snow. i was asking the bluebirds why they don’t learn? this happens every year. uffda.

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    1. In all my years afield, the rarest critter I made was the fisher I spotted. They were virtually extinct until recently.

      You probably know that migrating birds gamble on ETA. First-arrivers get their pick of choice nesting sites, but they get their cute little rears frozen sometimes, too.

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  17. We have the ususal honkers flying overhead, and there is s definite increase in hawks. The coots are back, too. We have a neighborhood Swainson’s Hawk that resides year round. It swooped in front of my car on the way to work the other day in hot pursuit of a little bird, clws extended, and dived into a spruce tree. The buzzards haven’t yet returned. We counted 40 of them circling the neighborhood last fall. That can give a person a pretty creepy feeling, especially when they are flying low over your house. I saw two migrating whooping cranes last Spring. The ND prairie pot holes that Jim talked about recently are good places to see migrating birds.

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    1. The Turkey Vultures are back…
      Last year I saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes in a neighbors field that I run. I had never seen them before.

      We have lots of Red Tailed Hawks and it’s not uncommon to see Bald Eagles anymore but they have just come around the last 3-4 years.
      I put up some Kestral houses a few years ago. One box gets used every year but they haven’t managed to raise chicks.

      I know wild Turkeys are not migratory but the first time I saw one about 15-20 years ago I had no idea what it was. Now they’re all over down here… there’s a successful re-population effort.

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      1. The wild turkey story is interesting. Pioneer records don’t make it clear that we ever had turkeys in MN. There is no mention of them. Many efforts were made by the DNR to restore (if that is what it was) turkeys in southwestern MN. The birds were too tame. They’d come into farmsteads at night to roost on sheds and get shot.

        The MN DNR finally traded some ruffed grouse to Missouri and got some eggs from true wild turkeys, birds whose wildness hadn’t been compromised by decades of breeding. The truly wild wild turkeys were instantly successful and now are pushing much farther north than anyone ever expected. I’ve seen them around our cabin overlooking Lake Superior.

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      2. Steve, I read that they also catured wild turkeys in traps and took them to location where they wanted to introduce them. This article also said that the turkeys they released that they had raised for release did not do well. I guess the turkeys they raised for release, at that time, were not from the the wild turkey eggs.

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      3. I’ve seen large flocks of Sandhill Cranes in a place in Northern Indiana where they stay for a while during migration. They look like flying crosses with their large wings to the side and with their long legs out behind and the long neck out in front. They have a very distictive loud call.

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      5. i live on the river bluffs in eden prairie. you can see the river from upstairs but the view is over the river valley down below. turkeys and eagles are year round residents. cranes and herrons are back. the deer are moving around a bit more up out of the river bottoms. geese and songbirds are coming on stronger. the gold finches are ready to start turning gold but not there yet. coyotes are new this year, owls and hawks and all things outdoors. a couple of springs ago i put one of those big trampolines in the spot where the view of the river is the best and the girls go jump 10 or 15 hours a week now. it will be 3 or 4 hours a day with the radio playing and the sprinkler for cooling off in june, july and august. we had originally intended to live downtown with a view of 394 but ended up out in the burbs with the river and the republicans. win some lose some. we love it here. especially this time of year. we were talking the other day about the blog and someone mentioned the cemetary in the basement. and i was going to say that my wife grew up in chicago where her brother and his friends who hung out at the neighborhood strip mall of the 60’s. her brothers best friend was john gacys last victim picked up at the strip mall . he had his cemetery in the basement. it really screwed her up and as upset as i get about her not the kids out of her sight i do understand. i have recalled my living on the river when i was a kid and here we are a block away and they have been there so rarely it makes me sad. this summer i will take them once a week. i vow it today.

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  18. I hear the calls of the subspecies, ‘Parentalis Avis Nivalis,’ signaling the migratory trek from Phoenix back to Duluth.

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  19. I don’t often catch sight of this little critter – the mocking bird – but I have already heard the litany of other birds’s songs sailing out from one of our bare-branched trees. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/id
    These birds might stay year round, but I think they visit our little bit of the earth only in the spring while looking for a good place to nest. Had to laugh when I heard the mocking bird singing through his play list, and among the songs was a shortened version of a loon call! I thought I had mis-heard, when the loon call cycled through again in the mocking bird’s morning song. I wish I was better at finding them, though. I would love to watch one while it sings.

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    1. We have a catbird, which I haven’t heard yet, that is also a copycat… I’ve read that they’ll even throw a cell phone ring in there.

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  20. My white throated sparrow is here, usually stays for a few weeks, sometimes into May before “it feels like I gotta travel on”. It has such a distinctive sound:
    http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-throated_Sparrow/sounds

    Once stopped at an Owatonna rest area, Husband and I happened to look up, andthere were hundreds of tiny black birds flying over us (can’t recall now whether headed north or south). We stopped in our tracks and just stared… started to leave as we thought it was the end, when here come more of them. We just have waited there 15 minutes before this stream finally petered out.

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    1. Urban turkeys getting more common. There was one Katie and I kept running into in the dog park between Minnehaha and Fort Snelling. That turkey finally figured out if it moved closer to Minnehaha it didn’t get dumb dogs pointing and chasing it ten times a day. I think it is still around.

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  22. OT Some of you might remember that I mentioned my Aunt Ida in a recent guest blog. She passed away about a week ago and there was no funeral as she wished. She said that we should just talk about her instead of having a funeral. Her daughter told me that she and her mother thought that her ashes should be spread on Devil’s Lake. At first I didn’t realize that this was probably a joke between the two of them. I did get a card from Ida’s daughter about Ida’s passing away and it had a picture of Ida with a big smile on her face sitting in a large toy car with a large Garfield, the cat, doll.

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      1. I blieve there is a Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin, probably not too far from Madison. However, my Aunt, who was little devilish, probably thought it would be funny to tell people that she wanted her ashes spread on Devil’s Lake.

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      7. you are right jim. there is one over by madison to. very cool craggy lake. i’ll bet your mischevious aunt who didn’t want a funeral is glad to be remembered by you on the blog with a smile.

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      8. There is also a Devil’s Lake in western Wisconsin near Webster. Why so many Devil’s Lakes, do you suppose? Are there any Angel’s Lakes?

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      9. rush limbaugh noted a long tme ago that even bad behavior gets noticed more than ordinary behavior. be the worlds most beautiful peaceful thought provoking lake and you are yeah angel lake ok . long lake 7 or 8. fish lake 100 round lake speing lke clear lake… devil is memorable and usually striking rather than tranquil

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  23. black bird singing in the dead of the night
    take these broken wings and learn to fly
    all your life
    you were only waiting for this moment to be free
    blackbird fly
    blackbird fly
    into the light of the dark black night

    kind of a baboony sort of look at the world through the eyes of a guy looking trhough the eyes of a bird. paul and ann . they bth get it don’t they?

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    1. when dale listed the topic . red red robin is the frist tune that popped into my mind. dale also listed it first. i love steve goodman. i forget waht a great guitarist he was. many folkies are musicians who accompany themselves with comfortable instramental challanges. steve took it the other way. his guitar was so busy you wonder how he manages to keep the voice in time it is so out of sync with his hands. thanks linda

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