We’re passionate about birds and nature. That’s why we opened a Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop in our community.
1211 East Front Street
Traverse City, MI 49686
Phone: (231) 946-0431
Fax: (231) 946-1379
Email: Send Message
Store Hours:
Mon - Sat: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sun: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Comments:
Visit us in our new location! We've moved one door closer to the Omelette Shoppe.
Note: We often stay open later than the posted minimum hours. Give us a call if you're running late.
"Names like Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, goldfinch, and oriole reflect the brilliant colors we see at our birdbaths and feeders this summer.
The Baltimore Oriole (photo below), Black-billed Cuckoo, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo return to summer breeding homes this year to find a tremendous food supply: Eastern Tent Caterpillars. These birds specialize in eating caterpillars of many species of moths and butterflies. The beaks of other birds cannot probe the protective web of tent caterpillars and the worms are too fuzzy for many other birds to eat. The hairs act as an irritant to most birds.
The Tent Caterpillar have reached the high end of a cycle that ebbs and flows with other natural cycles of predators and parasites that feast on the fuzzy crawlers. Soon you may see the adult worms crawling about in search of a quiet place to spin a cocoon and pupate, the process of metamorphosis that transforms caterpillar into moth. By mid-summer cinnamon colored, rather small moths can be seen fluttering around yard lights at nightfall. They breed and lay eggs to begin the cycle for next year.
Tent caterpillars feed mainly on trees and shrubs in the cherry family (prunus): Choke Cherry, Pin Cherry, and Black Cherry. These native plants survive the defoliation to sprout new leaves and grow on.
So if activity at your mealworm feeders seems a little slow, be patient because the tent worms soon turn into moths and mealworms will once again appeal to the orioles, which fledge young in early July. And, other birds in your yard, including chickadees, titmice, and more won't eat tent caterpillers and so will still come to your mealworm feeder.
During the final wave of spring migration many species of warblers travel to and through our area. I have been out with binoculars to watch the annual event of colorful travelers flitting through spring green foliage. Ambling down a quiet two-track looking up for Bay-breasted, Cape May, Canada, Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers. And looking down for Nodding Trillium, Gay Wings, Toothwort, Trailing Arbutus and Pink Lady Slipper... Ahhhh how it sets my senses in tune once again.
Close to home the collie boyz and I walk in steady, quenching, May rain this a.m. It will be a treat to see our gardens respond to fresh rainfall.
Our resident robins have returned to nest on the decorative wreath out front. Their nest built right over the top of the House Finch nest made earlier this spring.
Mom and Dad Cardinal are nesting again also. This time at the front door. The female so stoic on the nest, never has she flushed from the nest as I peak from below to see which way her tail points from her position on the nest.
Another chickadee pair is using the nest box in the raspberry patch, and will soon hatch out a brood of eggs.
It is sometimes hard to pay too close attention to our feathered resident friends. This spring all nesting attempts in our yard have failed. It is the first time we have lost chickadees in the relative safety of a fenched yard and sturdy nesting box. Some small predator, maybe a shrew or possibly a snake fed on the tiny chicks.
I mentioned in my last journal the cardinal nest just outside our living room window. This nest was also robbed in the night. Still the cycle continues as all three species have started new nests. Both the robin and cardinal have selected safer sites for nesting for their second attempts and I plan on putting a baffle on the chickadee box before eggs begin to hatch.
Late May and all of June, young birds will be leaving the nest. This is a crucial time to keep house cats in the house!"
