Date: 3/27/26 7:15 am From: 'M or C Johnstone' via NFLbirds <nflbirds...> Subject: FWD: RE: [NFLbirds] End-of-season, re Loons, more
I meant to send the following to nflbirds, not just to Don.
Just a note from the Great Lakes about C Loons. This winter has been colder, snowier, and with heavier ice cover than normal, but even so, plenty of open water is available all winter for out of season loons. Many of the big inland rivers, Great Lakes harbor mouths, and the connecting waters between the GLs (St. Marys, St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara, and St. Lawrence rivers) remain ice free. Most of the Great Lakes never freeze over. A smattering of early loons have shown up this spring, and they are rare in winter, but open water is not a limiting factor for loons in winter around the Great Lakes. But the places where loons nest, inland lakes with marshy borders are still mostly frozen in northern Michigan. The southern half of the state has been much warmer and may have open water on inland lakes. Matt Johnstone
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From: "Don Morrow" <donaldcmorrow...>
Sent: 3/27/26 8:10 AM
To: "NFLbirds" <nflbirds...>
Subject: [NFLbirds] End-of-season
I went walking at Phipps Park this week and watched a Blue Jay high in an oak. All winter long, I have been watching jays fly into oak canopies, searching for acorns. This time, however, the jay fluttered in the air and grabbed a caterpillar off a leaf. Yellow-rumped Warblers were also moving among the oak branches. Last month these warblers were hunting for the last of the wax myrtle berries. Today, they were hunting for insects feeding among oak catkins, the dangly yellowish worm-like male flowers that attract caterpillars, wasps, and spiders.
We are at the end of the fruiting season when avian usage of fruits, nuts, and seeds drops off sharply. By late March any tree that hasn’t died over winter from the effects of drought has at least started leafing out. Leafout brings bugs out. Newly emerging caterpillars, spiders, flies, bugs, and bees are now a rich source of nutrients for birds.
I enjoy going beyond identification to take note of bird behavior and have been tracking which plants they feed on for several years. I usually have only a handful of feeding observations in April, May, and June. By then, the acorns, seeds and fruits of oaks, pines, and cabbage palms that have provided large volumes of winter food, have been mostly exhausted and the main summer fruiting plants, black cherry, swamp dogwood, grape and peppervine are just beginning their year. Their fruit won’t be available until July, when it will provide an additional source of mid-summer food for newly-fledged birds.
My morning walk that day had a mix of birds. The seasons in North Florida overlap with no sharp boundaries. This time of year, it can be hard to determine whether some species are winter birds or migrants. A male Black-and white Warbler that I saw was likely a migrant from further south. I am not sure about the yellow-rumps and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. They could be leftover winter birds or migrants passing through. Both are boreal nesters and snow still covers most of Canada. In mid-morning, I had three Common Loons fly over heading due North. They are definitely migrants and are headed for the Great Lakes and Canada. This is their normal migration period, but I am not sure how they’ll deal with iced over lakes when they get there.
I had only a single feeding observation; a female Eastern Bluebird eating the desiccated fruits of a winged sumac. Occasionally in late Spring or early summer I find a Red-bellied Woodpecker eating a greenbrier fruit or a Cardinal munching on a blueberry, but insects are the preferred foodstuff at this time of year. The fruiting season is essentially over.
There are, however, always things to watch and note as you wander through the world. Yesterday, I saw a female Northern Parula make repeated trips to a hanging clump of Spanish moss. In the southeast parulas nest in Spanish moss. Further north they use Usnea lichens, also known as old man’s beard. She wasn’t carrying nesting material, but was obviously investigating possible nest sites. I’ll keep checking on her to see what happens.
It’s Spring. Go outside. There’s always something going on.
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