MILWAUKEE — Forget groundhogs! Birds might know more than any other animal if spring is coming early — at least that’s what it feels like in the Badger State.
Renowned ornithology expert and Aldo Leopold Foundation Program Director Stan Temple joined Wisconsin’s Afternoon News to share why many species like the sandhill cranes are back. He explained:
“Back in the 1930, sandhill cranes were gone from Wisconsin for four moths of the year. They’d leave early October and wouldn’t be back until March. This year, they departed at a record-late date. January 12 was when the very last bird departed Wisconsin. They were back February 11. They were barely gone four weeks, not four months!”
While sandhill cranes can travel more than 100 miles a day during migration, they only made it to Indiana this season before returning back to the Badger State about a week ago. He told Wisconsin’s Afternoon News that “usually, they head down to the Gulf Coast, as far as Florida.”
We asked Temple how birds know when to migrate. He said short-distance migrants like sandhill cranes will “respond directly to temperature,” but there’s a whole slew of long-distance migrants that go all the way down to the tropics.
“And for them, of course, they don’t have a clue about the temperatures in Wisconsin so they don’t use temperature to trigger migration,” Temple said,” If you’re a wood thrush lucky enough to spend the winter in Costa Rica. You don’t know what’s happening during the winter in Wisconsin, so instead, those long-distance migrants use daylight. It’s very reliable to know when the seasons are changing. So a lot of our long-distance migrants a lot of warblers, vireos, and flycatchers — the birds of summer in Wisconsin — they’re still arriving pretty much on schedule.”
Thankfully, Temple says the birds coming back so early are tough birds that can handle our winter weather, “but they’re probably a little bit miserable when the thermometer drops.”
Temple says long-distance birds almost always migrate at night.
“Then the next day, they have all day to feed and refuel before they can continue,” Temple explained.
Temple told WTMJ that there is an increasing number of robins that choose to spend the Winter in the Badger State.
“The ones that did choose to go south maybe as far as Missouri or Arkansas, they’re starting to come back in response to the warm weather,” Temple said.
TOP HEADLINES FROM THE 620 WTMJ NEWS TEAM:
- Car crashes into Cafe Hollander in Milwaukee
- Kenosha authorities seize $35,000 of Colombian cocaine
- “It’s addicting”: Bull-riding star John Crimber discusses his passion
- “We’re going to need a lot of them” Milwaukee RNC host committee calls for volunteers
- Wisconsin’s Afternoon News: Eliminating mental health deserts with Senator Howard Marklein
READ: Early spring! The Penguins see no shadow at Milwaukee County Zoo