Planning for the Spring Migration
No suet! Meal Prep for our winged neighbours. Making meals for our overwintering winged friends and planning for the Spring Migration
“When you see them - the chickadees and cardinals - on our daily walks through the parks and ravines, you start to greet them as your friends.”
With the cold snap and the winter storm (2 snow days!) our Kindergarteners wondered how our feathered friends were faring, and if they needed help.
Already familiar around the kitchen, from making their famous Stone Soup to weekly bread baking, it was a natural step for them to make seed balls for their feathered friends. And perfect timing too, between the cold and the advent of the great migration!
So as Wiarton Willy predicts and early Spring, and we observe more rustling in our trees (& hedgerows), feel secure in the knowledge that our JK team of birders are working to keep our winged neighbours fed.
On Spring Migration - Between February and June, millions of North American birds take to the skies on their annual journey from their southern wintering grounds to fly north to their breeding grounds, many settling in Ontario and others travelling as far as the Arctic.
Our friends at Ontario Nature tell us that birds time their spring journeys to coincide with the insects that hatch with the arrival of new leaves on the trees. Getting this timing right is crucial because if birds arrive too early before the food supplies are there, they may starve. Extended daylight hours also give birds more time to collect food.
