Southern Minnesota backyard birders look for the "big three" — Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks and ruby-throated hummingbirds — to return to their feeding stations this first full week of May.
In the north it may be another week before these welcome migrants arrive. Baltimore orioles spend winter in Costa Rica and other parts of Central America. They have a strong homing instinct and often return year after year to nest in the same yard. The rose-red of the male rose-breasted grosbeak is diagnostic. I have observed them in the tropics of Costa Rica, where many winter. Our only nesting Minnesota hummingbird spends winters from south Texas to Costa Rica.
Another migrant that has arrived lately and is a persistent singer is the house wren. They migrate to the southern states and into Mexico for winter, and tend to return to their former areas. Despite its tiny size of about 4 ½ inches and its drab brown plumage, the house wren is as well known as the American robin. What it lacks in size and color is compensated for with voice and activity.
Remember to spare the dandelions and save the bees. Common dandelion flowers, especially now, are a critical food source for honeybees and other pollinators.
Our state mushroom since 1984, the common morel makes fabulous eating but not raw. Many mushroom hunters look for morels after a rainfall during lilac blooming time. It's blooming time for the common purple lilac and its various varieties.
Jim Gilbert worked as a naturalist for 50 years.
