Happy Earth Day!                       Spring Migrants and a Cute Regular: 

Black-capped Chickadees are entertaining throughout the year! I watched a chickadee shred a wood chip on a trail in Canatara Park. In the above photo, she has "grown a moustache" with pieces collected in her beak! In the following pictures, she has a tight grasp on the wood chip with her feet and beak, as she shreds it into thin pieces that will be used to line the nest cavity.

Black-capped chickadees will excavate their own cavities, but also use natural cavities and abandoned Downy Woodpecker cavities. Nests can be found at ground level, to more than 20 m high, but are usually between 1.5 and 7 m high. They tend to excavate in dead snags or rotten branches. Once the nest chamber is hollowed out by both parents, the female builds the cup-shaped nest using moss and other coarse material for the foundation, then lines it with softer material such as rabbit fur.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Chickadee/lifehistory

Though the Palm Warbler's name might imply it is a tropical bird, it's actually nests in the boreal forest as one of the northernmost breeding of all warbler species. They got their name when a specimen was collected in the Caribbean amongst a lot of palm trees.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Palm_Warbler/lifehistory

My first Pine Warbler of the spring was hunting for insects in a White Pine Tree! He's hanging by his toes in the second photo as he reaches for a snack!

Affectionately nicknamed, "Butter-butt", the Yellow-rumped Warbler is a biological success story. While most warblers are strictly insectivores, forcing them to make long, energy-sapping migrations to the tropics every autumn, the Yellow-rumped Warbler has evolved the ability to consume and digest the waxy coatings on certain high-energy berries, allowing it to winter much farther north than any other member of its family.

https://lovethebirds.com/yellow-rumped-warbler/

A Red Admiral landed briefly on our house this week. Red Admirals can't survive the frigid winter temperatures in Southern Ontario. They migrate to the southern U.S. in the fall and a new generation will return north in the spring. Monarchs are not the only migratory butterflies! Unlike Monarchs, Red Admirals do not have a single known overwintering site. During migration, they can be found in a wide range of habitats from tundra to the subtropics.

https://cvc.ca/conversations/red-admiral-butterflies-are-on-the-move/

 

The American Lady is another butterfly migrant! I expect to see one in my backyard soon as they lay eggs on the Pearly Everlasting which is growing in the garden.

Eastern Comma's are able to tolerate harsh winter climates. Adults tuck into wood crevices to wait out the winter weather.

I finally saw my first Trout Lilies in bloom. A Cabbage White butterfly was using the flowers as a nectar source!