When Are They Gonna Get Here?

Well, the “other” category has it. And to see the what the “other”s are you’ll have to take the poll! Which would help a great deal ‘cuz only thirteen people responded anyways…

Knowing when it’s spring…one of the most common questions this time of year, is when is x-species going to be back. I don’t know about where you live, but in Vermont, spring sometimes takes her time returning. Sometimes Old Man Winter and Spring have a bit of a smack-down again in April, so those of us who live in the northeast really start to ache for the birds to get back here and lighten everything up.  One of my friends the other day posted on their status that he was anxiously awaiting the return of the Barn Swallow. Me, I know I’m on my way outta mud season when I hear “fee-bee? fee-beee”.

The cool thing is, thanks to citizen science & migratory bird data, we can actually predict when the birds will be back! Nice, huh? And I’ll tell you it’s pretty impressive when you say to friends that x-species will be back next week, like the Eastern Phoebe pictured above, and it shows up the next week in your friend’s yard. Man, I look like I’ve become some sort of savant bird whisperer or something. But really it’s science and you just need to know where to find it.

The Mad Birders’ website, for example has a tool for birders in Vermont. This group of bird geeks in the Mad River Valley took the state’s arrival/departure checklist and reworked it into a comprehensive spring arrival flyer. I luff this! Print it out, slap it up on the fridge, put it in your field guide, link to it on your Blackberry and you are ready to track who gets here when.

A great way to beat back winter and get on with spring is to celebrate each bird as it arrives! It was a little disheartening to tell my friend who digs Barn Swallows that he’ll have to wait another month. But I did tell him that he could get his s fix until then by groovin’ on the beautiful Tree Swallow which is predicted to arrive back this week in Vermont!

And you?

How do you track new arrivals?

Feel free to share your tools by leaving a comment here.