I saw a catbird at our feeder early this week, which was highly unusual since they usually skip town around August. Later that day, I saw a mockingbird in the same area.
“I must have mistaken the two birds,” I thought to myself. “They are both gray.” Then yesterday I saw the catbird again, pecking away at my C&S Peanut Suet Log. And it was a catbird, no mistaking.
I have never seen a catbird this late in the year.
Catbirds generally begin arriving in our neck of the woods in late April into early May – like clockwork. They return each year to almost identical nesting areas. They build their nests in dense shrubs and the females often find colorful bits of plastic to intertwine in the nests. Who knew?
As the summer wears on, they feed as heavily as possible on insects, especially caterpillars, which fattens them up for the winter migration around late August and early September.
But why was my resident catbird still here? I have two theories. First, since we have really had no hard frosts (until this week), there are still lots of insects around, especially crickets. There are scads of crickets this fall. Also, I have noticed tent caterpillar nests still on the trees, much later than usual. Perhaps my catbird was taking advantage.
I hope Mr. Catbird didn’t lose his GPS and forget where to migrate. I understand that Florida and even Cuba are favorite winter catbird destinations.
I will be interested to find out if he sticks around after this week.