Early birds of Spring
April is the beginning of an exciting time of seasonal transition in Nome’s bird scene. A few hardy migrants are returning to the Nome area long before winter releases its grip, while some winter visitors are leaving us to fly back to their breeding grounds.
For most of the winter, flocks of buntings or “snow birds” have been swirling over Nome on black-tipped, white wings and swooping down to visit bird feeders around town. If you don’t pay close attention, you may not notice that these chirpy flocks are often composed of two similar bunting species – McKay’s and snow buntings.
Most of the buntings we see in winter are McKay’s buntings, which are mostly white. In contrast, snow buntings have more black on their wings, backs and tails.
Recently, the composition of flocks bouncing over town has switched to mostly snow buntings. In April, McKay’s buntings head to St. Matthew and Hall Islands in the Bering Sea where the entire population breeds. They leave our coastline and feeders to hungry hordes of newly arriving snow buntings that breed on rocky ridges and mountaintops of the Seward Peninsula.
Meanwhile, outside of town in the shrubby river drainages, boreal forest birds that wintered here, such as black-capped chickadees and downy woodpeckers, are leaving. After entertaining us all winter at Banner Creek with their songs and antics, in April they head back to their breeding grounds in the spruce forests.
As they depart, redpolls are arriving. Their rising whistles and noisy chatter can make a few of these tiny, pink-chested birds sound like many, breaking the sound of silence in the alder thickets where they cling upside down to alder cones, eating the seeds.
Some seabirds such as glaucous gulls and common eiders stay along the ice edge in the Bering Sea all winter. If there is open water close to our shores and food to eat, they can potentially be seen during any month of the year.
This year, open water in front of Nome appeared exceptionally early. On April 19, I watched 150 common eiders and eight glaucous gulls feeding between the ice floes. Even earlier, I was pleased to see my first glaucous gulls of the year cruising along the ice edge, rather than scavenging at the dump where my first sightings usually occur. Long-tailed ducks, king eiders, murres and pelagic cormorants may soon follow.
Golden eagles are another early bird on the scene. Pairs often return to their nesting territories in March to court and build or repair their large stick nests. Some lay eggs by mid-April. On April 9, I was lucky to see a pair mating on a ridgetop above the Nome River valley and am very sorry that my camera was in the Canon repair shop!
Raptors are some of the earliest migrants to return. In addition to golden eagles, typically by late April, we may see rough-legged hawks, northern harriers and short-eared owls. If they find enough prey, they are likely to stay and breed. However, if food is scarce, they may fail, or not even try to breed. Or, they may leave the area entirely.
Northern shrikes, a predatory songbird, also arrive early to nest in April. When there are voles, lemmings and shrews to catch some stay all winter, as a few did this winter.
As rivers begin to break up and lakes and ponds start to thaw, the first waterfowl are soon to follow. Tundra swans, cackling geese, greater white-fronted geese, northern pintails and a few mallards are among the first waterfowl to arrive. Everyone is grateful for the return of these harbingers of spring and a valuable subsistence resource.
May is the peak month for spring migration here but be on the lookout for the first of a few other species that often arrive later this month. These include the first flocks of sandhill cranes, and a few songbirds such as American robins, horned larks, American tree sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, Lapland longspurs and rusty blackbirds. These passerines are able to subsist on seeds, last year’s berries and larval insects. Here, early birds do not get worms.
Life is changing for resident birds, too. Ravens are gathering sticks and nesting materials and some may already be incubating eggs. Gyrfalcons, too, may be on eggs. Male willow ptarmigan are beginning to molt into their red-necked courtship plumage and to stake out their territories. As rivers and streams open up, dippers are no longer confined to small spring-fed openings in the ice. Pairs are roaming the streams, courting and singing their rich and complicated songs.
Whether you enjoy birds on the wing or in the soup pot, it’s exciting to see the first spring migrants return, and to anticipate many more to come.