The great return: Spring’s spectacular homecoming |
While birding near Puerto Morelos in the Yucatán this winter, wood thrushes were a regular sighting.
In fact, I often saw the same, surprisingly tame individual as it fed daily on fallen papaya in the yard of a small house. This led to an intriguing possibility: might this very individual soon be singing its flutelike notes from the canopy of a Kawartha forest? Humour me for a moment and let’s imagine that this particular traveller is indeed on its way back to Peterborough County.
The logistics of the wood thrush’s migration are formidable. Covering roughly 4,500 kilometres in total, the journey typically takes two to three weeks depending on weather, food availability and rest stops along the way. Our thrush likely departed the Yucatán about a week ago, beginning its trip with a gruelling, possibly non-stop flight of about 1,000 kilometres across the Gulf of Mexico.
After resting and feeding along the Texas coast, it has begun moving north through the Mississippi Valley, where it might be refuelling right now. From there, the bird will continue northeast through the Ohio River basin, likely to cross Lake Erie around May 10. Within days of that crossing, it will finally settle into its breeding territory here in the Kawarthas, seeking out a mature mixed forest — like the Kawartha Land Trust properties at Viamede on Stoney Lake.
A vibrant male indigo bunting visits a backyard feeder in May. Birds use a combination of different senses — a multi-map system — to navigate during migration.
Spring and fall migration are the best times to be a birder, but for me, spring takes the crown. Although short-distance migrants like waterfowl and sparrows arrive in March and April, May brings the biggest wave of migrants, as nearly all the long-distance travellers arrive — right on time and in dazzling breeding plumage.
These include hummingbirds, warblers, orioles, flycatchers, bobolinks, swifts and thrushes — among many more. After spending the winter in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America, they journey thousands of kilometres to either nest........