FJ5: Migration

Time: 12:05pm - 4:45pm
Date: 03/30/2020
Location: Hughes Hollow, Maryland
Weather: 65 degrees, Cloudy & Overcast
Habitat: Mixed Woodland/Wetland

I went home to Maryland to visit my family last week and I spent a full day at Hughes Hollow, a 25-minute drive from my house in Potomac. Hughes Hollow is part of the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, which is a 2,000-acre state-owned hunting area featuring a mixture of woodlands, fields, wooded bottomlands, and managed wetland impoundments. McKee-Beshers is known among Maryland birders as an extraordinarily productive birding location and provides habitat for a great diversity of wildlife species and birds. Biologists deliberately flood forest areas during the fall and winter to create “green-tree reservoirs” that attract Wood Ducks and other waterfowl that migrate through or spend the winter there. I saw an incredible amount of birds there, along with snakes, turtles, frogs, and lots of tadpoles!

I saw my first Red-shouldered Hawk of the season! They are resident to medium-distance migrants. Birds of the Northeast and northern Midwest migrate to more southerly states for the winter. Birds in central and southern states don’t tend to migrate, although some Red-shouldered Hawks do spend winters in Mexico. The Red-shouldered Hawk’s that I saw are year-round residents in Maryland. These hawks eat quite a wide variety of mostly small mammals, lizards, snakes and amphibians. They perch below the forest canopy silently and then descend swiftly, gliding and snatching prey off of the forest floor. They occasionally eat birds, sometimes from bird feeders. Migration can be a perilous journey, and birds that don’t undertake a significant migration avoid the hazards that come with moving from one place to another like predation, hunting, habitat loss, storms, and more. Birds that don’t migrate don’t need to expend massive amounts of energy to travel, and they can use that time instead to forage, watch for predators, defend their territory, preen, raise chicks and other beneficial tasks for survival. Along with birds of prey, many species of owl do not migrate. The Barred owl spends most of it's life in one area and rarely farther unless food is scarce. They're super cool and watching one hunt is a privilege. They eat lots of small animals like chipmunks, mice and voles. And they can perch on branches along the riverside, swooping down feet first to catch fish. We heard one hooting as we were heading back to the car and stopped to listen. When I was little, my dad used to take me out bird-watching in that very same spot and we would get so excited when we finally spotted the owl because they can be really elusive! Unfortunately, he was across the wetland, so we didn't see him but we were lucky to hear him.

To adapt to living in a place year-round, many birds change their food preferences (kind of like how many people only eat seasonal foods!) Birds that don’t migrate may eat buds, insects, berries and seeds in spring and summer, and switch to fruit and nuts in fall and winter when other food sources have been exhausted. Bird feeders can play a large role in a bird’s winter diet as well. They may also cache food in late summer and autumn, hiding supplies of seeds and nuts in protected areas to be retrieved later. Additionally, year-round residents like the Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal, and Blue Jay will molt in summer and early fall in order to gain an extra protective layer of insulating down feathers to help preserve body heat and protect them from extreme cold.

I also saw several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on my wetland adventure! They are short to long-distance migrants, and depart from their breeding range in September and early October for wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Mexico, West Indies, and Central America. They arrive back north around May. Females tend to migrate farther south than males, with a ratio of more than three females to one male. So, in Maryland they are in their non-breeding stage right now and will be moving north next month! These little guys are facultative migrants, meaning migration is usually optional, occurring in response to environmental conditions. Migration is often triggered by a lot of redundant cues such as; geographic/visual cues, solar cues, stellar cues, geomagnetic cues, and olfaction cues. Birds have the ability to sense changes in the photoperiod and react in different ways to those changes, whether they are leaving for their over-wintering grounds or returning to their breeding grounds. Birds also migrate to move from areas of low or decreasing resources to areas of high or increasing resources, and that could be one reason the Eastern Bluebird leaves for Mexico or the Ring-necked Duck head south from Canada to Maryland. Maryland is unique in that it's situated in the middle of two temperature extremes, and can provide a decent habitat for many year-round residents.

Mini Activity:
Northern Cardinal - Year-round Maryland Resident
Red-winged Blackbird - Year-round Maryland Resident
Eastern Bluebird - 1850 miles (MD to Mexico)
Blue Jay - Year-round Maryland Resident
Red-shouldered Hawk - Year-round Maryland Resident
Dark-eyed Junco - Year-round Maryland Resident
Great Blue Heron - Year-round Maryland Resident
Song sparrow - Year-round Maryland Resident
Ring-necked duck - 2000 miles (Central Canada to MD)
Barred owl - Year-round Maryland Resident
Snowy Egret - 950 miles (Gulf Coast to MD)
American Bittern - Year-round Maryland Resident (Right on edge of breeding and wintering grounds)
American Crow - Year-round Maryland Resident
Common Raven - Year-round Maryland Resident
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2000 miles (Canada to MD)
Black-capped Chickadee - Year-round Maryland Resident

Total: 6,800 miles

Publicado el abril 2, 2020 10:03 TARDE por olivialiu