A Spring Week in the Midwest III: Time Passes
ByMy lecture went well enough at the IOU meeting, with 100 kind listeners ready to ponder just what it means when we speak of “the warblers” each spring. And Sunday morning’s field trip was as exciting as the day before: good birds + good company = great birding.
The distant Bald Eagle nest at Blackhawk was occupied and busy, an eloquent sign of that species’ recovery since the days I regularly birded the midwest.
And Double-crested Cormorants have increased even more noticeably over the past three decades, with hundreds flying by Sunday morning or loafing in the water or pausing in the treetops to show off their fancy springtime headgear.
There have been many more changes to the birdlife of the midwest in the intervening years, but none is as striking and complete as the explosion in the breeding population of Canada Goose. It’s hard to imagine now, but just 50 years ago the large prairie-nesting race maxima was thought to be extinct–and now birds with at least some maxima blood coursing through their veins are conspicuous and successful on every puddle and slough in the midwest. Families of cuddly-looking goslings were everywhere this first week of May, and their parents sometimes took surprising perches:
Unimpressed? Try this:
Now that’s a commanding view for a goose!
