šŸ¦ Wild Bird Watchers Bulletin: May 2022 Edition

What a week it has been for the arrival of spring migrants! Everyone has been so excited to see American goldfinches, Harris sparrows, and Mourning doves, but the big showstoppers are the Baltimore orioles and Rose-breasted grosbeaks! Excellent numbers of them have arrived and the jelly and orange feeders did not disappoint in attracting both species! Grocery stores were probably wondering why sales of grape jelly and oranges were so high this week! Natural food sources are quite low due to the weather and the trees are still bare which made for great birdwatching at our feeders. Other exciting visitors include Orchard orioles, Red-headed woodpeckers, Gray catbirds, Indigo buntings and many varieties of warblers. My yard has been filled with so many great birds and the sounds are just spectacular. What a wonderful time of year!

I know there has been a lot of mixed information going on regarding the Avian Flu and the use of birdfeeders. We spent a great deal of time speaking to and reading information provided by experts on songbirds and the potential threat. Thankfully keeping feeders up is safe. It is always important to clean feeders on a regular basis with a mix of dish soap and vinegar or bleach. Follow us on Facebook where we have posted a lot of great information about this topic. We are keeping up on all the latest information about this, we must take care of our precious songbirds! The joy they add to all of our lives and their importance to the environment is not to be taken lightly!

The arrival of spring birds also means it’s time for our annual plant sale! Once again we will be offering native flowers, grasses, and shrubs by our friends at Prairie Originals. This cool spring has made for slow growing for many of the plants and supplies may be very limited this year because of that. We are expecting our first delivery of plants on Friday, May 20th and more the following week. You can follow us on Facebook or Instagram where we will be sure to post as soon as we have our first shipment!

We are pleased to have a new line of beautiful solar products to add some light and twinkle to your yard! There are beautiful solar stakes as well as some hanging styles. We are also so excited to tell you that this year we got in the submersible solar fountains for birdbaths! You may have seen versions of this available online or through social media sites that float in your bath. If you tried one you probably found it always floated to the edge of the bath and emptied out or didn’t last the season. These high quality ones don’t float but are weighted to sit in the bath properly and provide a beautiful feature for you and the birds! These were not available last year due to supply shortage so it’s nice to see things coming in again!

Orchard orioles are the smallest of all orioles in North America. A group of Orchard Orioles is called a ‘harvest’ of orioles while the Baltimores are collectively referred to as a ‘pitch’ or a ‘split’ of orioles. Orioles are big consumers of the dreaded tent caterpillar. Most birds cannot eat them as they have stiff bristles that clogs up their digestive tract. Orioles will use their sharp bill to slice open the caterpillar and draw out the innards to enjoy and avoid swallowing the damaging bristles. Text is often put to the calls of birds. The Baltimore is described as saying “hew-li” while the Orchard oriole has a whole sentence, “look here, what cheer, wee yo, what cheer, whip yo, what wheer”, “chuck, chuh-huh-huh-huh”. Just in case you wanted to talk oriole anytime soon, haha!