I’ve been tweeting Track Who’s Back! messages with a snapshot of who’ll be coming in for a landing in our region. Below is the full list. The list was compiled by the Mad Birders, a birding club in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, from the Vermont Daily Field Card.

Vermont Spring Bird Arrival Schedule

FEBRUARY
Week 1 -
Week 2 -
Week 3 -
Week 4 – Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird

MARCH

Week 1 – American Kestrel, Killdeer, American Robin, Common Grackle

Week 2 – Northern Pintail, American Widgeon, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Northern Flicker, Eastern Bluebird, Song Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird

Week 3 – Pied-Billed Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Red-shouldered Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Tree Swallow, Eastern Meadowlark

Week 4 – Snow Goose, Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, Broad-winged Hawk, Golden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, American Woodcock, Common Snipe, Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow, Fox Sparrow

APRIL
Week 1 – Horned Grebe, Double Crested Cormorant, Northern Shoveler, Redhead, Oldsquaw, Osprey, Merlin, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Winter Wren, Water Pipit, Loggerhead Shrike, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow

Week 2 – Common Loon, Red-necked Grebe, American Bittern, Black Scoter, American Coot, Greater Yellowlegs, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Vesper Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow

Week 3 – Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Brant, Surf Scoter, Virginia Rail, Sora, Pectoral Sandpiper, Purple Martin, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Solitary Vireo, Louisiana Waterthrush, Rufous-sided Towhee

Week 4 – Great Egret, Green-backed Heron, Glossy Ibis, White Winged Scoter, Common Moorhen, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Upland Sandpiper, Chimney Swift, Eastern Kingbird, Cliff
Swallow, House Wren, Marsh Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Chipping Sparrow

MAY
Week 1- Lesser Yellowlegs, Common Tern, Black Tern, Whip-poor-will, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Least Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Veery, Wood Thrush, Gray Catbird, Yellow-throated Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, White-crowned Sparrow, Bobolink

Week 2 – Snowy Egret, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Swainson’s Thrush, Philadelphia Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-winged Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Canada Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Grasshopper Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Orchard Oriole

Week 3 – Least Bittern, Black-bellied Plover, Semi-palmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Bonaparte’s Gull, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Common Nighthawk, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Peewee, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, Blackpoll Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat

Week 4 – Ruddy Turnstone, Sedge Wren, Common Yellowthroat

*Taken from the Vermont Daily Field Card, published by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (1994)

Just under the wire for Wordless Wednesday…enjoy!

It’s about to happen. Or it has all ready started for some. Mind-blowing migration.

Here we are enjoying August. We’re all laid back in our flip-flops and tank-tops sipping on mojitos and around us a frenzy is building. Can you feel it? You know, the zugunruhe? You would if you were feathered. The days get shorter, those feathers get itchy and it’s time to prepare for migration.

I really dig fall migration. Not only is my brain tripping over the juvenile plummages, but also over the fact that some of these youngsters are about to embark on a heavy trip. One they’ve never taken before. Migration has always blown my mind. From the physics of flight to the mystery of finding a place one’s never been to before, I can’t help but look at these creatures and like some hippie at Woodstock think, “Wow, man. Cool.”

So today on Twitter I asked: What intrigues you most about migration? Here are a few replies so far:

From: @eviebeevie: How do they remember?? I guess lg part of brain goes towards that? Otherwise easy to fly off course!

From @nfbgcycler: How do the flocks re-congregate? Do they practice? (I swear they do). Who decides it’s time to go?!

From @LadyWoodpecker: How do the birds know where to go? Are they genetically programmed or is the route learned?

What blows your mind when it comes to bird migration? Drop me a reply below or send me a tweet.