Bird City Appleton Celebrates International Migratory Bird Day
Each year during the months of April through early July, Wisconsin receives many bird migrants traveling thousands of miles to find their summer homes or to pass through on their northbound routes to our Canadian neighbors. These birds bring joy to our home feeders, occupy our forests from the ground up, and provide song and beauty in the grasslands and beyond while many others provide our wetlands with music during the nights and evenings. Some of these Neotropical migrants such as the purple martin only arrive to manufactured nesting sites changed by people over generations to use as habitat for rearing their young.
On Saturday April 22 at Apple Hill YMCA Environmental Center and at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, free presentations on banding birds, guided bird hikes, live bird presentations, and information about purple martins will highlight the day. Enjoy a social gathering of instructors for an interactive day providing knowledge about long distance migrants indicating their ecology, song, identification and habitat.
Migrating birds encounter many challenges as they fly northward thousands of miles each spring. Lights, buildings, vehicles, towers, domestic animals and a changing habitat of human intervention all play a role as obstacles for these winged travelers as their brief stay or full summer participants in their northerly pursuit of reproducing their own species. We know these migrants need safe places to stop along the way where they can rest for a short stay to refuel and rehydrate. Quality habitat in the form of shelter, food, water, and close arrangement of those pieces of habitat bring safe environments for successful travel to those eventual nesting areas.
Where people come in is to recognize this journey, to enjoy the various colors and songs of these travelers and to ensure that these migration flights continue for many more generations. Insurance can be as simple as offering habitat within our backyards by planting native vegetation for cover or as a source of habitat for insects, seeds and fruits and offering an opportunity for fresh water.
Many birds like the ovenbird or Baltimore oriole migrate during the night using the stars or internal instincts for navigation. Some like the purple martin migrate during the day and return to their successful breeding sites created by humans, shared habitat alongside occupied buildings and protected by their shared environment. What Bird City Appleton is providing, is a unique opportunity to be with the birds along with knowledgeable instructors. Come enjoy the day with family or friends and bring along your questions while being a part of over a million bird enthusiasts in Wisconsin. Did you know that purple martins fly up to 5,000 miles one-way to arrive at destinations in Alberta or artic terns fly over 25,000 miles from the Antarctica to the Artic!
At Apple Creek YMCA, Ryan Atwater a teacher from Freedom will start the day with capturing, identifying and banding birds at 8:00 AM. Bird hikes will follow at 8:30, 9:30 & 10:30 AM with leaders coming from the local bird community. The morning will conclude with Stephane Feuerstein from Nature’s Guide talking about live birds and raptors. In the afternoon beginning at 1:00 PM at Fox Valley Technical College, Dick Nikolai will begin the “Workshop on Purple Martins” starting with their ecology, Les Rhines will follow with insights of housing, how to attract martins and preventing nest competition, and Greg Zimmerman will bring his expertise on monitoring, management and inclement weather. For more information, please contact online at Bird City Appleton at https://www.facebook.com/birdcityappleton/ or at Wisconsin Purple Martin Association at https://www.wisconsinpurplemartins.org/ for venues and times.
“Purple martins bring an intimate connection to backyard wildlife. They are like immediate family returning from a long trip to sing praises of where they have been but longing to stay for the camaraderie of their human connection”, said Dick Nikolai who can be contacted at prairiechicken@att.net for further information.