April is the new May for birders
Every day is precious during spring migration. There is much to see and the daily bird menu is always changing. The saying So many birds, so little time expresses both the joy and urgency of birding, especially in May.
Wait a minute make that April.
The mild winter and incredibly warm March changed everything. This year, April is the new May.
Daffodils, magnolias and forsythia were exploding on St. Patricks Day. Even before that, American white pelicans were staging at Nelson Lake Marsh in Batavia, three weeks before their usual appearance. Other typical April birds such as kinglets, sapsuckers and brown thrashers arrived early as well.
Most shocking was a ruby-throated hummingbird spotted March 21 at Fullersburg Woods in Oak Brook. In northern Illinois, hummingbird sightings in March were unprecedented until this year.
In a year when noisy flocks of sandhill cranes were swirling overhead in January and February, I guess nothing should be all that surprising. Not even the mockingbird that spent the whole winter at a Binnys Beverage Depot parking lot in Chicago.