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.
"A female cardinal flushes from the bank of a yew bush as I reach under for leaves with a metal fan rake. I am momentarily startled from my mindless day dreams of places and things I'd rather be doing than raking leaves.
The soft alarm call and wing feather beating against evergreen foliage as the disturbed bird flutters away, tell me I have just discovered where our resident cardinal pair have hidden their nest.
Three speckled eggs are the focal point of the compact arrangement of nesting materials, forming a tidy, compact, rather small nest. (Photo of a cardinal nest in a forsythia bush)
If the low nest survives to the weekend, I will put up fencing around the area to keep out roaming neighborhood cats.
We have four other active nests in our yard this spring. Robins and Mourning Doves are both nesting in the backyard Blue Spruce. The chickadees incubate six eggs in the nesting box at the north end of our raspberry patch. And the House Finches are on the decorative wreath that we watch from the kitchen window.
The cardinal nest is just outside the west living room window. Each time the female leaves the nest to feed we check on the progress of the three beautiful eggs.
Our Mourning Doves are on their second nesting attempt. The first nest was smothered by five inches of wet heavy snow on March 27th. Mourning Doves have the longest nesting season of any bird species in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Thirty years ago their nesting season started in April and ended in September. Today it begins in March and continues thru October. (Photo of a Mourning Dove nest)
Other bird species are adjusting their annual cycles to the changing climate. Bald Eagles in the Great Lakes region are beginning their nesting season earlier too, as much as two weeks earlier than just twenty years ago. The dove's snow-smothered nest is an example of how nesting earlier can be an ecological trap for birds when "normal" March weather suddenly returns.
It is nearly time to put up nectar feeders for orioles and hummingbirds. Both species begin arriving in early May. Mother's Day seems to be an average return date for the bulk of the nectar sipping birds in our area. Clean and disinfect feeders and have them up by May 1st for the earliest birds but don't expect any visitors til the end of the first week in May.
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks return about the same time too! They love WBU Supreme Blend with black oil sunflower and safflower."
