Monthly Archives: April 2022

Northern parula ushers in rush of spring’s colorful tropical migrants

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Photo by  Hans Toom/Pixabay • A male Northern parula looks splendid in spring plumage. These warblers attract attention with their buzzy songs, which is useful for spotting them since these birds spend much of the time in the treetops.

NOTE: As I am posting this week’s bird feature, I am hearing the dueling songs of two male Northern parulas in the woods outside the office window. 

Last year, the first warbler to return in the spring was a male Northern parula that arrived on April 9. This year’s return was a few days later than that, but it was once again a Northern parula at the vanguard of the spring migration.

In April and continuing into May, a couple of dozen warbler species will pass through Tennessee. Some of these warblers find area woodlands and other habitats to their liking. They will pause, explore and perhaps decide to spend their summer nesting season in Northeast Tennessee and Western North Carolina rather than continue migrating farther north.

Many of the warblers that pass through each spring, however, are destined to travel a much longer distance before settling down in their favored habitats for the summer nesting season. These warblers include the Tennessee warbler, Nashville warbler, Cape May warbler, blackpoll warbler and Connecticut warbler. Most of these species nest as far north as New England and Canada.

Others find the Southern Appalachians to their liking. Some of the first warblers to return each year include the Louisiana waterthrush, which favors rushing mountain streams, as well as species such as black-throated green warbler, hooded warbler, ovenbird, worm-eating warbler and common yellowthroat.

The Northern parula didn’t used to be one of the first returning warblers at my home. That honor used to go to hooded warbler or black-throated green warbler.

Spring has been returning in fits and starts, which could have some sort of overall effect on bird migration. 

I’ve still not seen a ruby-throated hummingbird, although some readers are still sharing stories of their first spring hummingbird sightings. 

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Lynne Reinhard of Abingdon, Virginia, reported her first hummingbird of spring on the morning of April 7. She shared the sighting in a Facebook comment to my page.

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Pat Stakely Cook in Marion, North Carolina, posted on Facebook at 5:33 p.m. on April 11 about seeing her first spring hummingbird. 

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Beth Barron Wolfe shared her first sighting with a comment on a post of mine on April 7. 

“I saw one last week, but it hasn’t returned,” Beth wrote.

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Karen Fouts of Marion, Virginia, also shared her first sighting via Facebook Messenger.

“We have our first hummingbird of the year this morning (April 13) in Marion,” she wrote. “Perhaps it was the angle of my view, but it looked like a female, which is unusual.”

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Nancy Vernon in Bristol, Virginia, posted about her first sighting. “Saw one yesterday (April 13) at my feeder in Bristol right after I put it up,” she wrote.

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Tammy Jones Adcock in Erwin shared her first sighting via Facebook comment. She reported that she saw her first hummingbird of spring on April 13 at her Erwin home.

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Karen and Bobby Andis in Kingsport sent me a Facebook message about their first hummer of spring. 

“Our first hummingbird was seen at 12:37 p.m. on April 14,” they wrote in the message. “Got our feeder hung awaiting the others.”

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Donna Barnes Kilday reported with a Facebook comment that she saw her first spring hummingbird at her home in Erwin on April 14. “First hummingbird of the year!” Donna reported in her comment. 

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Nan Hidalgo in Jonesborough posted her sighting as a comment on my Facebook page. 

“First hummingbird just now in Jonesborough,” she wrote around 1 p.m. on April 14.

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Phyllis Moore in Bristol, Virginia, also reported a hummingbird arrival. “Just saw our first hummingbird in Bristol,” she wrote just after noon on April 14.

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Rhonda and Randall Eller in Chilhowie, Virginia, posted a comment on April 14.

“Just had that first hummingbird,” they wrote. “He was early this year! Last year he didn’t come until April 24.”

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Paula Elam Booher in Bristol, Virginia, reported on Facebook that she saw her first hummingbird of spring on April 14.

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Steph Anie shared via a Facebook comment that she has been seeing hummingbirds since late March at her home northeast of Atlanta. 

“We have had them for two weeks now,” she wrote on April 7. Again, people residing farther south usually get to welcome back hummingbirds before those of us in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina.

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So, my Northern parula is my consolation for not yet seeing a ruby-throated hummingbird. This warbler has an abundance of identifying characteristics. Adult males are bluish gray overall with a yellow-green patch on the back and two white wingbars. A chestnut band separates the male’s bright yellow throat and chest. Adult females are often a bit paler and typically lack the male’s breast band. Both males and females have distinctive white eye crescents.

Like most warblers, they lead frenetic lives. They often sing high in the tops of trees, but they do occasionally venture closer to the ground, particularly when foraging for prey, which consists of a variety of insects and small spiders. 

The more reliable means of locating a Northern parula is to listen for the male’s  buzzy, ascending song. He is a persistent singer from the time of his arrival until mid-summer. 

A quirk involving nesting material is somewhat unique to this warbler.

In much of the southern United States, the Northern parula conceals its nest inside strands of Spanish moss draped from the limbs of live oaks and other trees.

In the Southern Appalachians and other locations farther to the north, the absence of Spanish moss means that the birds rely on various Usnea lichens, which are sometimes referred to as “Old Man’s Beard.” 

Overall, the population of this warbler is in good shape. According to Partners in Flight, numbers of this warbler have increased by 62% since 1970. Unfortunately, some populations in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri have been affected by logging and the drainage of bogs. 

Once paired up, Northern parulas may attempt to raise two broods in a nesting season. The female lays two to seven eggs and does most of the nest construction. 

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male Northern parula perched next to a cluster of Spanish moss.

Erwin woman reports early date  for spring return of hummingbird

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Photo by  Amy Tipton • A male ruby-throated hummingbird perches in a quince bush at the home of Amy Tipton in Erwin. The hummingbird, which arrived April 1, represents the earliest date so far this season for returning hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds returned to the region the first week of April. If you’ve not yet seen one, and I am still waiting for my own first sighting of one this spring, take heart. Many people are already reporting the return of these tiny flying gems.

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The date might have been Friday, April 1, but Amy Tipton’s first hummingbird of the year was no April Fool’s prank.

“Just saw my first hummingbird of the season!” Amy messaged me on Facebook to share her sighting, which took place on the first day of April at 7:15 p.m.

“It was a male feeding in the quince bush in our backyard,” she added. “I’m sure he’s just passing through, but I was so happy to see one.”

The Erwin resident reported the following day that the hummingbird had lingered overnight, which allowed her to get some photographs.

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Ray Gorecki, a resident of the Dysartsville area in McDowell County, North Carolina, emailed me about his first hummingbird sighting this spring.

“I am happy to say that we had our first ruby- throated male arrive this past Monday (April 4),” Ray wrote. “We set the feeders out on Sunday. We have had a male at the feeders each day this week.”

Ray added that being from western New York and being new to the area, he was thrilled to see hummingbirds so early in the spring. “Looking forward to seeing many more,” he added.

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Chris Amsbary in Marion, North Carolina, said he saw his first hummer of spring on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 5, at his home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains east of Asheville.

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Rebecca Morgan emailed me to report that she spotted her first ruby-throated hummingbird on Randolph Drive in Marion, North Carolina, on Wednesday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m.

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Reflect for a moment on the epic journey each ruby-throated hummingbird must make in order to return to northeast Tennessee, western North Carolina or southwest Virginia each spring.

According to the website for Perkypet.com, a retailer  of bird feeders, ruby-throated hummingbirds spend the winter months in Central America and southern Mexico. When the weather begins to turn warm, they will start to make their northern trip up to the United States. As the website points out, this can be a grueling journey for such a tiny creature, as many of them choose to fly over the Gulf of Mexico. This flight alone, the website points out, can take 18 to 22 hours of non-stop flight before reaching land on the other side of the gulf.

Simply crossing the Gulf of Mexico is only the first stage. Most of the hummingbirds must still travel hundreds of miles to reach locations where they will spend the summer. Males, after some time courting females, will not do much more than sip nectar and duel with other male hummers during the summer.

It’s the female hummingbirds that will work diligently all summer long as she constructs a nest, incubates eggs and feeds hungry young, all without any assistance from her erstwhile mate.

Hummingbird species number around 340, making the family second in species only to the tyrant flycatchers in sheer size. Both of these families consist of birds exclusive to the New World.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Male ruby-throated hummingbird show the namesake red throat. The feathers on a male’s throat are iridescent, which means they can change when seen from different angles. In poor light, the ruby-red throat can look almost black.

With so many hummingbird species, people have been hard pressed to give descriptive names to all these tiny gems. The term “ruby-throated” pales in comparison to some of the richly descriptive names that have been given to some of the world’s hummingbirds.

Some of the dazzling array of names include little hermit, hook-billed hermit, fiery topaz, sooty barbthroat, white-throated daggerbill, hyacinth visorbearer, sparkling violetear, horned sungem, black-eared fairy, white-tailed goldenthroat, green mango, green-throated carib, amethyst-throated sunangel, green-backed firecrown, wire-crested thorntail, festive coquette, bronze-tailed comet, black-breasted hillstar, black-tailed trainbearer, blue-mantled thornbill, bearded mountaineer, colorful puffleg, marvelous spatuletail, bronzy inca, rainbow starfrontlet, velvet-purple coronet, pink-throated brilliant, coppery emerald, snowcap, golden-tailed sapphire and violet-bellied hummingbird.

Knowing a little more about these tiny birds known as hummingbirds, I hope you’ll look upon them with increased admiration.

(I am still getting arrival reports and will continue to mention those in upcoming columns/posts.)

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Despite a perceived disadvantage of size, ruby-throated hummingbirds are quite capable of thriving in a giant world.

 

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are returning. Are you ready?

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Photo by Katy Jefferson • A male ruby-throated hummingbird visits a sugar water feeder for a quick refuel.

The website Journey North noted on March 15 that ruby-throated hummingbird migration was off to a slow start for spring 2022.  According to the website, Journey North volunteers along the Gulf Coast and in the Southeast are noting new arrivals, but the total number of reports is lower than at this same time last year.

On a posting made on March 22, Journey North indicated that the pace had quickened. After a slow start, according to the website, ruby-throated hummingbird migration is picking up in the Southeastern United States.

According to the website, most first spring observations of hummingbirds are males, although a few females are being spotted. Male hummingbirds, the posting noted, arrive first so they can find and defend a territory.

The first migration reports of ruby-throated hummingbirds began as a trickle in early March from along the Gulf Coast. Observers in states such as Texas and Louisiana reported ruby-throated hummingbirds as early as March 1.

The website made note that spring migration is a challenging time for hummingbirds. Temperature, wind patterns and storms can influence the pace of migration.

Even once these tiny birds make their epic spring crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, they will need time to rest and refuel before moving northward. By mid-March, the advance of ruby-throated hummingbirds had reached states such as Georgia and South Carolina. By the end of March, the first reports began to arrive at Journey North from Tennessee and North Carolina. (There’s already been a local sighting, but that will come with next week’s column.)

Now that the ruby-throated hummingbirds have officially returned to the Volunteer State and its neighbors, it’s time to put out those sugar water feeders. Consider planting some colorful native flowers to provide nectar sources for hummingbirds.

Northeast Tennessee usually gets its first spring hummingbirds the first week of April. If you’re seeing hummingbirds, I’d love to know. I have tracked arrivals for several years now. To share your first spring sighting of a ruby-throated hummingbird, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com or contact me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ahoodedwarbler. Please include the date and time of your sighting.

In the meantime, take steps now to welcome hummingbirds back and keep them safe during their stay.

Some ways of ensuring that our hummingbird guests are kept healthy and secure are simply common sense. For instance, don’t use pesticides, herbicides or any other sort of toxin anywhere close to the vicinity of a sugar water feeder or a flower garden. Hummingbirds are such tiny creatures with such intense metabolisms that it only takes a small amount of any harmful substance to sicken or kill one of these little flying gems.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Numbers of Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the region tend to fluctuate each year, but they usually begin returning each spring in early April in Northeast Tennessee and the surrounding region.

Feeding hummingbirds is easy, but many people try to complicate the process. Only common, pure cane sugar, mixed to a ratio of four parts water to one part sugar, is a safe choice for these birds.

For emphasis, I’ll repeat again that only common, pure cane sugar is safe for hummingbirds. There are no safe substitutes. Do not use organic, raw or brown sugar. Confectioner’s sugar, which contains an anti-caking substance (often corn starch, silicates or stearate salts), is also hazardous to hummingbirds.

There’s also a type of sugar known as turbinado sugar, which is named for the process of spinning the sugar in turbines to crystallize it. The crystals are rich in vitamins and minerals valuable for human health, but they are lethal for hummingbirds. Iron is one of the minerals contained in turbinado sugar. Hummingbird metabolism has a low tolerance for iron, which is present in the molasses added to brown sugar and in agave nectar. These are natural substances, but that doesn’t make them safe for hummingbirds.

The ratio of four parts water to one part sugar utilizing pure cane sugar most closely duplicates the nectar that hummingbirds obtain from some of their favorite flowers. Why try to mess with nature’s perfection?

I cannot imagine why anyone would supplement sugar water for hummingbirds with such human beverages as a sports drink or Kool-aid, but there have been reports of people doing so. Be aware that such additives will only risk the health of these tiny birds.

Most experts also suggest avoiding red dyes, which are often found in commercially marketed hummingbird sugar water. Don’t risk the health of hummingbirds for a little convenience.

It’s easy to make your own sugar water mix, which can be stored in the refrigerator in an empty plastic juice jug. Boil some water and then add one cup of sugar for every four cups of water in your pot. Stir thoroughly. Bottle the mixture until it cools. Fill your feeders and store any remaining sugar water in the fridge in the aforementioned jug. Refrigerated, the mix should stay good to use for at least a week.

In our milder spring weather, changing the sugar water in feeders can probably be done on a weekly basis. When hotter summer temperatures prevail, it’s usually necessary to change the sugar water every two or three days.

Brown thrashers return to rude, cold awakening

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Photo by Bryan Stevens
Brown Thrasher perched in a Mimosa Tree.

Just when it appears safe to welcome spring, nature throws a curveball in the form of a snowstorm and a frigid but brief cold snap.

At least the snowstorm had a silver lining at my home when a pair of brown thrashers chose to make their spring arrival at the same time.

Many of the resident birds looked a bit peeved to find snow and ice after a bout of mild spring weather, but the two thrashers outside my window on March 12 looked absolutely stunned.

I’ve always thought that brown thrashers are expressive birds, but the expressions of these birds looked like a mix of bewilderment and consternation to find that their return coincided with a short-lived dip into temperatures in the single digits.

Karen Fouts, who resides in Marion, Virginia, commiserated with the thrashers, agreeing with my post that the poor birds appeared stunned by the change in the weather.

“I’ve been waiting for ours but hope they wait a week or so,” Karen wrote in a comment to my post.

Although a few brown thrashers linger in Northeast Tennessee through the winter season, the majority of these birds fly a little farther south for the cold months. Invariably, brown thrashers make their return in March and can be considered another of our feathered friends whose arrival represents more evidence that spring is returning.

Photo by Bryan Stevens
A pair of Brown Thrashers forage for food on the ground below a feeder.

A few years ago, quite by accident, I came across a brown thrasher nest. I hadn’t gone looking for it. The nest, expertly woven into a thicket of honeysuckle vines, was tucked beneath a sheltering eave of an outdoor storage building. I don’t think anything but a fortunate accident could have ever revealed the nest. I still remember peeking into that tangle of vines and seeing a golden eye staring back. The bird didn’t look in the least pleased that I had accidentally stumbled across her nest.

The otherwise extroverted brown thrasher, which prefers to nest in difficult-to-access, tangled messes, found the cluster of vines a perfect location.

For those not familiar with brown thrashers — relatives of the Northern mockingbird — they are known for their feisty and fearless protection of their nest and young. I’m probably fortunate the thrasher on her nest decided to choose stealth instead of attack. Sometimes, discretion is truly the better part of valor and the bird probably decided that, if she remained motionless, she would blend in well with her surroundings.

The brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) belongs to the family of “mimic thrushes,” which provides a label for a group of songbirds capable of imitating the songs of other birds. Mimidae, the Latin root for “mimic,” provides the scientific name for the family, which includes mockingbirds and the New World catbirds, as well as thrashers. The Northern mockingbird is best known for the ability to mimic, but relatives like the gray catbird and brown thrasher are also talented mimics.

The thrasher is a fairly large songbird about 11.5 inches long with a wingspan of 13 inches. Much of the body length comes from the bird’s long tail feathers. A thrasher weighs, however, only about 2.5 ounces.

Early American naturalist and artist John James Audubon painted a dramatic scene of Brown Thrashers defending their nest from an attacking snake.

The brown thrasher is not a picky eater. It’s known to eat everything from berries and nuts to insects and small lizards. It’s also aggressive in defending its nest and young. John James Audubon, a French-American ornithologist, naturalist and painter, painted quite a dramatic scene of a group of brown thrashers valiantly defending a nest from an attacking snake. The painting is so detailed that one must imagine Audubon based his work on a real-life experience. His work, originally painted in the early decades of the 1800s, still holds up today.

Incidentally, Audubon knew the brown thrasher as the “ferruginous thrush.” Another former common name for this species was “brown thrush.”

They are familiar birds in southern gardens. In fact, the brown thrasher is the official state bird of Georgia and also provided the name for Atlanta’s National Hockey League team, the Atlanta Thrashers. The thrasher became Georgia’s state bird due to passage of a Joint Resolution of the Georgia General Assembly in 1970.

Returning to the expressive nature of brown thrashers, I think it’s the bird’s golden eyes that make them seem so alert and attentive. Once they feel secure in a lawn or garden, they become less shy. As one might expect from a large songbird, thrashers have voracious appetites. Among the feeder fare I offer, thrashers seem to prefer suet cakes. They’re not woodpeckers, however, so the awkward attempts of these long-tailed birds to access the suet offer some comic antics for observers.

More birds are due to make their spring returns soon. The return of ruby-throated hummingbirds is a highly anticipated arrival for many people. These birds usually get back in the first weeks of April. As always, I hope to track the return of these tiny flying gems.

To share your first spring hummingbird sighting, send me an email at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com or contact me on Facebook. Please provide the date, time and location for your sightings.