Orioles are colorful May bird arrivals
PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Neoptropical birds will make a big push to arrive in Iowa during May. Their bright colors will attract our attention. Our backyard feeders will bring them close to our windows for careful observations or photographs. The Baltimore Oriole has bright orange chest and belly feathers with a black back and wings mixed with yellow and white. Its cousin the Orchard oriole has a cinnamon colored chest, all black head and white markings on its wings. Both species are similar sized and both like to feed on grape jelly at a backyard feeding station.
The month of May has arrived, and with it comes a large assemblage of neotropical birds on their migratory journey northward. When they stop long enough for us humans to observe, we will be greeted with a host of new species and colors on their plumage to fit most categories of the rainbow.
The list of re-arrivals on this bird list is long. For avid birders, their checklist will get intense scrutiny during this new month. The word neotropical refers to birds that nest in the USA and Canada and come fall migrate long distances to wintering grounds in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
There are more than 350 species that fit the neotropical grouping, and about half of those breed in the USA and Canada. This broad list includes shorebirds, water-birds and landbirds.
Of the 145 birds that regularly nest in Iowa, 42 fit the neotropical definition. For the most part, they prefer forests or forest edge habitats. Some of these species have declining populations for which biologists are trying to fit the puzzle pieces together as to what is affecting the decline.
While some populations appear steady, others up, and others down, this mix of mysteries is not an easily solved biological endeavor. Still, unraveling the mysteries of birds and the ingredients of habitat and food sources that make them tick is a rewarding career for avian biologists. As clues are assembled, more questions arise, and the mysteries continue.
Migration is a year-round phenomenon, not just during spring and fall, but there is a bigger push each spring and fall that garner our attention. Migration urges are unstoppable and continue day and night, rain or snow. For us in the northern hemisphere, spring brings new plant growth and thus new food sources. Those food types are emerging insects, young animals and new plant seeds.
No two species migrate along the same pathway although the broad corridor of the Midwest could be defined as the Mississippi River and either side of that inland waterway more than one hundred miles east and west of the river itself. The Missouri River is another corridor many birds will follow, and others go across the continent without regard to rivers, crossing great expanses of farm, ranch and mountainous areas.
Shorebirds, depending upon species, will migrate from the southern tip of South America all the way to northern Canada. Another example is the cerulean warbler that makes the journey to nest in Iowa’s Mississippi river forestlands from wintering areas in northwest South America, and the Ruby-throated Hummingbird crosses the Gulf of Mexico in a single day, a distance of 600 miles.
Some birds track the moon, the sun, or stars or all the above. Weak magnetic fields can be sensed, and so can odors in the air, barometric pressures and polarized light. Day lengths getting longer triggers migration.
Genetics provide a hard-wired internal compass. Lots of research has found these factors to be present. Leg banding and netting inventories help with clues, and so does radio telemetry and radar returns at weather stations can “see” birds as they form up for big migratory pushes each spring or fall. Millions of birds can show up on aircraft tracking ground radar sites.
Enjoy the arrival of returning birds this month of May, 2022. Maintain a list if that is your thing, or just enjoy the new colors of new birds at a favorite county park, prairie, or wetland area.
All your outside exercise to get these places will reward you with new spring sights and sounds. Enjoy them all during May.
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Sometime in May, date unknown, the Iowa DNR fisheries bureau personnel will deliver approximately 1,000 to 2,000 rainbow trout to Sand Lake. This is part of their longstanding urban fisheries program to bring cold water species closer to where more people live and work.
These local pond areas can support trout during spring months and again in the fall. If summer water temperatures get too warm, trout are not likely to survive warm water. Trout do best in waters warmer than 45 degrees and colder than 70.
People fishing for trout need a fishing license, and a trout fee endorsement in order to possess trout. The daily limit is five trout per angler with a possession limit of ten. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit the catch to one daily limit.
Yes, a child can purchase a trout fee and not a license, so that allows them to catch their own limit of trout.
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May is a month for things to happen that are specific to this springtime of the year. Day length on May 1 for Marshalltown area folks is 14 hours and two minutes. By the 31st, that will have increased by 58 minutes to 15 hours.
Our sunrise on May 1 was at 6:07 a.m. and sunset at 8:08 p.m. On the 31st, the sun will show up on the eastern horizon at 5:38 a.m. and set in the west at 8:38 p.m.
Sunrises and sunsets change dramatically as one travels north toward the pole. For instance our friends living in Fairbanks, AK, already have a 5:30 sunrise and sunsets after 10 p.m. Their rate of change is faster than ours.
Fishermen and fisherwomen will note that walleye season on Iowa’s Great Lakes opens May 1. On May 21, musky fishing will be allowed in lakes bordering near or on the Iowa — Minnesota border which does include Iowa’s Great Lakes. Many other fish species will use warmer water near shore to begin their spawning work for a new year.
Walleye fishing season opens May 7 on Iowa’s Great Lakes of Spirit Lake, East and West Okoboji. The slot length this year is 19 to 25 inches with only one walleye over 25 inches allowed per day. Other fish species offered in the Great Lakes include panfish, (crappie or bluegill), northern pike, smallmouth and largemouth bass.
The middle of May will see the hatching of pheasant broods. Bluebirds will have their first broods hatching on or about May 10. Look for wild turkey broods to appear by the end of the month, and white-tail deer fawns will be born near month’s end or early June.
Reminder: leave wildlife baby birds or mammals alone! Do not attempt to ‘rescue’ what is best left to the parents. Your human intentions are not needed or welcome. Plus, it is illegal to take in wildlife babies.
April showers bring May flowers as the old saying states. Lately, we have had many showers of rain, some light, some too heavy, but overall the rain was welcome. Water from the sky helps to recharge ponds and cause stream flows to perk up.
As for the Iowa River, it had a water level increase of about two feet and seems to be remaining steady for now, and well within its banks. Weekend rains can change that outlook quickly if a large downpour within the watershed takes place. Stay tuned and be aware of river conditions after a large rainfall event.
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Fishing for walleyes has a new challenge program for 2022. In cooperation with My Catch by Angler’s Atlas, a statewide catch-photo-release walleye tournament starts May 1. To register and pay the fee of $25, you can participate.
One has to download the MyCatch app from Goggle Play or the Apple App Store. Prizes will be awarded each week during May and June. Prizes range in value from $100 to $600 in a variety of categories. Check it out. Contact Jeff Kopaska at the fisheries bureau, Iowa DNR at 515-204-8021.
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“God does not count the time you spend fishing against your lifespan. Therefore, go fishing often.” — Unknown
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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at:
P.O. Box 96
Albion, IA 50005
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Neoptropical birds will make a big push to arrive in Iowa during May. Their bright colors will attract our attention. Our backyard feeders will bring them close to our windows for careful observations or photographs. The Baltimore Oriole has bright orange chest and belly feathers with a black back and wings mixed with yellow and white. Its cousin the Orchard oriole has a cinnamon colored chest, all black head and white markings on its wings. Both species are similar sized and both like to feed on grape jelly at a backyard feeding station.
Outdoors Today
Bluebirds and Bluebells = Spring
Northern Pike eggs now in Spirit Lake hatchery
Robins adapt to March’s variable weather
Sportsman’s sale at Ikes April 5-6
Wildlife taxidermy art on display March 23
