Birding Location: The Nature Center
If you want a great location to relax, do some bird watching, and just enjoy some forest sounds and scenery, Edwin Warner Park’s Nature Center offers all of the above! Located just seven minutes from the shop, I decided that it would be a good spot to do a little bird watching on my drive home. Before I had even found a parking spot, I had already observed Purple Martins wheeling in the sky overhead, as well as a pair of Eastern Bluebirds sitting on the fence.
One of the fun things to observe at the Nature Center this time of year is their active colony of Purple Martins. These large members of the swallow family begin to arrive in late February and early March. They catch all their food on the wing, and they also get their water in this method, flying low to scoop water with their lower beak. After watching these beautiful aerial acrobats, I moved on in search of shade and other birds.
In addition to more Eastern Bluebirds, I also observed a few Barn Swallows, flying low over the overgrown sections of field in search of insects. Barn Swallows are in the same family as Purple Martins, and there is a good chance you might have seen these long distance migrants. They are the most wide-spread species of any swallow, with them being dispersed throughout North and South America, Europe and Africa, Asia and northern Australia, and occasional migrants even turning up in Antarctica. Their most identifiable characteristic is their deeply forked tail and almost showboating level of acrobatics.
In the same field, I also observed a small flock of American Goldfinch, a Carolina Wren, two Brown-headed Cowbirds, and by ear I was able to pick out a male Indigo Bunting. With all the recent rain, I had forgotten how bright the Sun is so I decided to take the gravel path that follows the creek through the forest. While I did not spot any birds here, I did hear several Wood Thrush (my favorite!) calling back and forth. It is worth adding; this entire loop is level and would be a relatively easy walk for many people. If you aren’t able however, or, perhaps you just want to take a load off, the Nature Center has you covered. They have a tremendous number of hummingbirds visiting their feeders in the garden area, and these can be watched from the comfort and shade of their covered porch. As we get later into the summer and into peak feeding time for hummers, they literally have dozens of hummingbirds.
The Nature Center also has seed feeding stations you can watch! If you happen to live in a location where bird feeding is not allowed, this is a great spot to get your bird feeding fix. It’s all the relaxing benefits, with none of the effort!
Should You Continue Feeding Suet?
With the warmer days, we have frequently been asked if it is time to stop feeding suet. The answer to this is an emphatic no! All of us here feed suet year round, and it is an especially popular food source in the spring and early summer when birds are raising young. Some of you may have concerns over it melting in the heat; while this is not usually a problem until it gets much warmer, (think summer days when it is in the 90s) we have a solution for this as well! Our suet dough is specifically designed for feeding in hot temperatures. It has a higher melting point, meaning that you can continue feeding suet even in the dog days of summer. It comes in two flavors, Peanut Butter and Orange, and costs the same as their non-dough counterparts.
