Feathered Friday - Early Arrivals
It seems spring is happening early in Illinois for this #featheredfriday
Normally the bluebirds arrive late march but they are already here mid February. The reason is the La Nina effect causing a much warmer winter here.
Bluebirds normally eat insects but they haven't arrived yet. So instead they are eating dried up crab apples.
Birds don't really mind the cold so long as they have food to eat. There are plenty of wild fruit trees around here to keep them fed. Soon the cicadas will be hatching in swarms this year and these birds will be fat.
I think the bright blue ones are males and the lighter one is possibly a female. They are probably already filling up the bluebird boxes in the prairies.
I noticed a huge flock of starlings in the trees. These guys stay around all winter here.
They like to sit around making weird noises and if you catch one they can be trained to mimic words.
They look like a bunch of punk rockers from the 80s.
Quite a few robins were hanging around the starlings too. These guys arrived quite early this year.
Why robin why are you here so early? I suppose the ground isn't fully frozen so they can probably pull worms out and they also like to eat rose hips and crab apples too.
Perhaps they sense the 16 year cicadas under the ground and are here early for the great feasting. Multiple swarms are supposed to hatch this year and it will be apocalyptic cicada piles everywhere. Every critter will be bloated on them. I'll be taking many pictures of the swarms.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)
Very interesting, and I'm particularly looking forward to seeing those photos of the cicada swarms (and perhaps all the birds feasting on them). I really hope the environmental change we are causing doesn't mess up an event like that.
I was here during the last cicada emergence it was pretty epic, this time there will be twice as many. People won't need to buy their dogs any food as they can just take them on a walk and the dogs will be eating as many as possible lol.
Sounds amazing! How long does it last?
Basically all summer.
Cool mix. Seeing the bluebirds feasting on cicadas should be quite a show!
The last time they emerged every critter was fully bloated from eating so many. Hopefully I can get some good shots.
Ahahahah so cool; hope you do to, and share the results! ;)
Very nice shot..
It was a cold and windy walk and seeing these guys out was the reward.
They haven't come back to me yet. But it shouldn't be long. We don't have a species like the bluebird which is very pretty. Thank you for your report
There are a number of blue birds around here like the bluejay, indigo bunting and of course these eastern bluebirds. It is nice to not have a brutal winter every now and then, though it did end up snowing yesterday. Hopefully the robins survived lol.
We have some blue birds that stick around most of the winter. But no robins yet.
Hopefully the bear isn't eating all their food at the feeder. Just when I thought winter was over it snowed again here, I'll have to go out and see if I can find a robin in the snow.