I wondered when they would show up – my Catbirds, that is. Usually, about the time the snowbirds leave (and they did a week ago), the Catbirds arrive. I shouldn’t have worried. While I was sitting on the patio this week enjoying a cocktail, a catbird flew to a limb above me then flitted down to a chair not 6 feet away. This was obviously a returnee who remembered that I often distribute meal worms when I’m out and about. I just happened to have a container full and flipped a half dozen in his direction. The Catbird quickly pounced on the fat, juicy worms and gobbled them down.
It amazes me that migrating birds like Catbirds return to the exact same place each year. The young birds return as well, but if the adults have found nesting sites, they shoo the young birds away.
My catbirds usually show up in late March, two pair every year, so they were a few weeks late this year. Throughout the spring and summer, they sing beautiful songs, then camp out at my suet feeder and peck away at my C & S Peanut logs. They eat lots themselves and they especially enjoy feeding the rich suet – and meal worms – to their young. With a beak full of food, they flit off beneath the shrubs and bushes and feed their chicks.
But as soon as the chicks can take care of themselves, the Catbirds head south. The Audubon folks say that most catbirds winter in the southern-most United States or even the tropics, but a few linger to the north if they have access to a reliable source of berries or a particularly well-stocked bird feeder.
Sometime around September, they leave, on their way to the Caribbean and who can blame them? But for now, it’s food to have them back.
