Máistir Nádúraí: It's March! And they're back.

3.03.2022

It's March! And they're back.

"Nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever approaching, forever vanishing; but in her vanishings there seems to be ever the waving of a hand, in all her partings a promise of meetings farther along the road."

― Richard Le Gallienne

Though not my first Red-winged Blackbird of the year, I spotted three Monday morning at a cattail marsh along Mineral Point Road just before Pine Bluff. Now there are even more. This week I also saw my first Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese of spring. Spring Migration 2022 is on.

Though soon to be relegated to the commonly banal, the first Red-winged Blackbirds are a welcomed harbinger of spring. They return en masse and commit to the destination. Though we can still get several inches of snow on any given day now through most of April, the blackbirds will stay. Though females will return later, the males are busy establishing and defending territories they will use for the forthcoming breeding season. Agelaius phoeniceus means flocking and red ― their promise is as absolute as anything I know in Nature, and this is just as comforting as their konk-la-ree song. Those songs along with the fragrance the spring thaw is impossibly spectacular to the senses.

Bio:

Mike McDowell has been documenting southern Wisconsin’s flora and fauna since 1987 and began leading field trips in 2002. Prolific at Pheasant Branch Conservancy, other highlighted natural areas include Pope Farm Conservancy, Spring Green Preserve, and the Baraboo Hills. His nature photography has appeared in various publications, newspapers, magazines and was even featured on a Wisconsin Endangered Resources license plate, a Capital Brewery beer label, and a National Geographic publication. He began journaling nature observations on this blog in 2005. He's the recipient of the 2012 Bronze Passenger Pigeon Award from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in their local communities or state to promote the field of ornithology. He was a finalist in Swarovski’s Digiscoper of the Year photography contest several times. His other interests include insect macro-photography (especially tiger beetles, treehoppers, and robber flies), fossil collecting, amateur astronomy, botany, natural history, and marksmanship with long-range rifles. Once a gigging musician, collecting Fender Stratocasters is a recently revived interest—most prized being a 1957 Vintage Custom Shop 'Mary Kaye' White Blonde. A former IT Professional, he's spent the last 24 years employed in the sport optics industry.