Spring has begun to push winter aside, although the signs are still very obscure. Two weeks ago, when the windchill hit 40 below, a few northern harriers passed through on their early migration, and an early canvasback duck was sighted at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
A week ago a large flock of common mergansers was seen on Lake Calumet. We see three species of these big fish-eating ducks around Chicago, and common mergansers are our usual winter birds. As spring advances they will be replaced by red-breasted mergansers in the flocks on Lake Calumet, Lake Michigan, and other large bodies of water.
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By the time you read this the first small flocks of grackles and red-winged blackbirds may have arrived in the Chicago area. If they haven’t, they will in a few days. The precise date of their arrival will depend on the weather. If we get a warm front carried on a southerly breeze we can rely on the birds to ride it into the rapidly thawing north.
Our weather gives us drama, a quality that is usually absent from west-coast climates. They get the occasional flood, but our climate involves us year-round every year. You cannot be a spectator here. If you try you might get struck by lightning.
And birds will arrive in large numbers. Only 13 species of wood warblers nest regularly in the state of Washington. One additional species occurs regularly as a migrant. Here we can expect to see about 36 species in migration every spring, and states like Wisconsin and Michigan, which have hardwood forests at their southern ends and boreal forests in the north, may have almost that many species nesting every year.
I seem to be getting very antiscenery as I get older. I react to the scenery of strange places much as I react to watching a Japanese No play. “I’m sure this is all very nice, but what does it mean? Why are they acting like that?”
