This has been the weirdest bird migration season I can remember. I was more prepared than I’ve ever been for migrating birds to come to my backyard feeders and birdbaths, but I waited for almost two weeks and nobody came. I put my oranges and grape jelly out for the orioles and tossed a little dried fruit and meal worms with the seed mix for any non-seed-eating birds that might cruise through my yard, but only my regular feeder birds showed up.
All over southern and central Wisconsin birders have been wondering where all the warblers and orioles and tanagers are. The weather has been very uncooperative—we’ve had many chilly days with winds from the north or east which are not conducive to migration. Many of the migrating birds have been backed up well to our south for two weeks or more.
I got excited one day when I was refilling the feeders and discovered that my orange had been nibbled on. However later I saw the suspect in action—a House Finch, not an oriole.
Then a House Wren started showing up at the platform feeder which is out-of-character for an insect-eater. I wondered if the orange had attracted ants, but I didn’t see any insects when I took a closer look. The wren is building nests in a couple of our bird houses, so maybe he was just warning the other birds that they were in his territory.
Then things really got silly. A robin started visiting the platform feeder several times a day. They eat insects and fruit, not seeds, but there were some dried blueberries on the platform feeder, and this robin found them and decided they were for him:
He even visited the feeder after a taking a long dip in the birdbath:
