Nature Connection: On The Move

 On my morning walk I saw a huge flock of blackbirds. There were grackles and starlings, red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds, all feeding together, then rising up together as people approached. Blackbirds will hang around a bit longer before they migrate, and some will stick around as long as food is available. They are everyone’s favorite birds to complain about as they can mob and empty your feeders very quickly. 

 Ironically, everyone’s feeders allow the blackbirds to stay longer than they might otherwise, perpetuating the very thing many people try to avoid. If you want to see a really adaptable group of birds that can adjust their diet on a dime, look no farther than the blackbirds. 

Blackbirds may be front and center right now, but many other birds are also still preparing for their migration. Herons and egrets are beginning to thin out in area marshes. Some great blue herons may stick around all winter and over the last few years a few great egrets have stayed all year but most fly farther south where the fishing will be easier and more productive.

 Migration may seem like a marvel -- all that traveling without a compass or map, guided by instinct or memory depending on species -- but we humans began as a migratory species as well. We humans continue to migrate, but we call it immigration now and it gets people all twitchy just thinking about it, not just here, but worldwide. 

 Climate change is already beginning to impact areas that can no longer sustain humans in safe or healthy ways and people are on the move. That sort of migration will only increase as the years go by and more places become increasingly difficult to survive. Drought, floods, fire, all these things will cause people to move as clean water sources and arable land become more difficult to maintain. Add war to the mix and it will only increase.

 Migration in simple terms is the movement from one place to another in search of a better place. Birds and animals do it to find seasonal foods and to breed. Some take enormously long trips, over land, over sea, even in the sea, for yes, fish and whales migrate as well. So do sea turtles, sharks, and horseshoe crabs. Some make longer trips than others but generally they are looking for the best places to survive.

 Most of our songbirds left over the last month. Some, however, are still hanging around. These latter birds, including blue jays and goldfinches take much shorter journeys, often just moving a few hundred miles. If the weather holds and the food source stays stable, they may not move at all.

 Shorebirds tend to gather and prepare for migration here on the Cape but most of those are already on their way south. A few will stay for a bit longer but one morning we will wake and find that even that last young osprey that remains on the pole by the road will have flown off, hopefully in the right direction.

 Some mammals migrate, though not many in the New England area. Some might move from one place to another in a neighboring area, however, where they will be more protected as winter moves in. Our most common mammal migrators here on the Cape are bats.

 Monarch butterflies have become famous as the most visible migrators of the insect world, but they are far from alone. Seventy-one species of insects migrate, including other butterflies and some species of grasshoppers, moths, and even beetles.

 The humpback whales are still around but soon they will head south. Right whales will return to our area in January or thereabouts and the sea turtles that have spent the summer here should be on their way south. As we know, many get caught in the bay when the water cools too quickly but lucky for them, we have a wonderful network of people that volunteer to help them out.

 When I was child, the Canada geese flying in a V overhead, honking as they flew, was a sure sign of fall. These days the Canada geese that hang out on the Cape don’t seem to leave anymore, though some probably do. Our lawns, golf courses and athletic fields afford them plenty of food and our winters get milder every year, making the Cape an attractive place for them year round.

 In spite of all the birds and insects that leave every fall, some birds come here in huge numbers for the winter, namely the diving ducks such as eiders, scoters, and mergansers. They’ve already started to arrive but soon thousands of them will fly in, ready to feed on shellfish and fish as long as the water stays free of ice.

 Migration seems miraculous, but in reality, it is incredibly common, especially here on Cape Cod where there is a breed of human called Snow Bird that heads south every winter and returns in the spring.