March Bird Club

Today’s CEI Bird Club meeting began with introductions along with an explanation of what your favorite bird is. Everyone had a different species from red breasted nut hatch because they could feed them from their hand using peanuts, blue jays because they could store peanuts in their crop and imitate hawk calls when approaching a feeding site to disperse competing birds, and many people’s favorite charismatic hummingbirds,.

We reviewed upcoming birding events and selected April 25th at 10:00 for the CEI birders Adopt-a-highway cleanup, encouraged participation in the Midwest Crane count on April 18th, noted there was a Birds and Brew fundraiser for Van der Brohe arboretum at Cool City brewery upcoming, as well as a free presentation at Manitowoc Public Library in conjunction with the Manitowoc Master Gardeners “Gardening for Hummingbirds” April 9th. Lots happening! 

Mandatory meeting distraction: two beautiful swans swooped by the Nature Center windows. 

What are we seeing right now?  Great-Horned owls and bald eagles are on their nests. Arriving soon will be the great blue herons. Local heron rookery sites were discussed. Canada geese, sandhill cranes and ducks are back. The overhead whooping and hollering sounds heard can be attributed to migrating tundra swans. We enjoyed a couple rounds of bird trivia and had a healthy conversation regarding the importance of maintaining and creating bird and pollinator habitats.

Field Trip: A tentative birding date before the end of the month will be set up to view the short-eared owls at Killsnake Wildlife area. Nancy will email the date and time. See you there!