Field Notes: Giggling, Noisy Flocks Arrive

Red-winged Blackbirds. Photo by Jeff Bryant.

By aerin tedesco, CCAS Field Trip Chair

March has come in with a flourish of wingbeats and cacophony! Huge flocks of Canada, Greater White-fronted, and Snow Geese (with a few Ross’s and Cackling Geese peppered in!) have been making their presence known in Champaign and neighboring counties around lakes and in agricultural fields. And if their giggling, noisy flocks weren’t loud enough for you, thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and Common Grackles have been gathering, too!  Check out this video from Vermillion County to hear just how loud that many birds en masse can be!

American Woodcocks have already been heard “peenting” and displaying in several counties. Join our woodcock walks on March 13 and 18 at Meadowbrook Park in Urbana to see and hear them for yourself!  Their unique mating ritual is definitely something to behold!

Sightings of the occasional Golden-crowned Kinglet and Eastern Phoebe tell us that we’re only weeks away from another push of migratory species moving through our area.  Can’t wait to see them all again!