Spring in the life of a suburban ecosystem
Somewhere in the universe, in a small corner of a beautiful spiral galaxy, a small rocky planet orbits a medium-size yellow star. The advanced primate life forms that have evolved on this planet call the star the “sun” and the planet the “earth,” (if they speak English) and somewhere on the earth, in a small corner of a metropolitan city area, lies the modest house in the suburbs I call “home.”
Home is located in an area called southern Ontario just north of another area called upper-state New York. The original habitat, in our geological era, is called Eastern Woodland, and is dominated by hardwood trees, such as oaks and maples, softwood trees like birch and poplar, lakes, and streams, and is the natural home to a host of non-human life forms I refer to as “critters.” These critters include mammals, birds, insects, arthropods, earthworms, fish, eels, and probably billions of bacteria in the soil.
The critters that interest me the most are the mammals and birds that visit our backyard. A typical spring day in early April starts with the birds.
Among the first critters that stir are the cardinals and the dark-eyed juncos. They like the pre-dawn and early light of the day and drop by to feed on the birdseed I scatter on the ground by the fence. The cardinals are not migratory and stay here all through the winter. The juncos, on the other hand, are migratory and our backyard is their winter/spring home. Soon they will be migrating north to their summer feeding and nesting grounds.
A little while later the grey squirrels (many of them coated in black fur) begin their descent from the creches in the trees where they spend the night huddled together. Frequently they hang from their back legs on the tree trunk and do a morning stretch with their forelegs as they greet the day. Then they descend to indulge in the peanuts I toss out between a maple tree and an oak tree.
Once the scrum for peanuts begins, the squirrels are joined by the local blue jays, usually between 2 to 4 of them. The local jays are here year round, but many of their cousins migrate south in the winter and return in the spring. When that happens I sometimes see 8 or blue jays grabbing peanuts and flying off with them before the squirrels discover them.
As the spring advances the Eastern chipmunks, a form of ground squirrel, come out of their winter semi-hibernation to join the race for peanuts. The “chippies” also love birdseed and will stuff their cheeks full of them to take down into their elaborate tunnels and seed hoards below the ground. The almost unbearable cuteness of the chipmunks captures everyone’s fancy.
A red-bellied woodpecker leaves the birch tree it was examining and flies to the maple tree where it peers down to see if the peanut frenzy has died down. As soon as there’s an opening, it flies to the ground to feed on some birdseed. Then it flies off again to do woodpeckery things on tree trunks. Occasionally a hairy or downy woodpecker flies by too, but they generally eschew the peanuts and the birdseed. The same for the black-capped chickadees that often accompany them.
For those of us who live in the north, the most iconic signs of spring take place when the robins, grackles, and red-wing blackbirds arrive. Grass is beginning to grow, flower plants poke their heads out, and snowdrops blossom while the robins run along the edges of the yard looking for early spring worms.
What’s interesting about both the robins and the red-wings is that the males arrive some 3–4 weeks before the females. This is probably to give the males time to establish their individual territories so when the females arrive they can get right down to the important business of mating and laying eggs.
One of the shyer critters — a cottontail rabbit — emerges from under the bushes and it, too, nibbles on birdseed. The rabbits have to hide from predators like urban coyotes, not to mention hawks and owls. The cottontails develop a trust in me over time and don’t even flinch when I toss them a bit more food.
Hawks aren’t daily visitors but they do fly in occasionally and we sometimes lose a squirrel or one of the songbirds to them. It’s not nice to watch, but it’s perfectly natural and they, too, need food to survive.
Soon other songbirds begin to migrate from the south and visit the yard. Cowbirds, white-throated sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, ruby-crown and golden-crown kinglets, various thrushes, and the occasional brown thrasher. Most are just passing through on their way farther north or out into farmland so it’s important to keep an eye out for them from the kitchen window.
Raccoons are among the largest of the mammals that visit us occasionally. They too live in the neighbourhood year round, though they’re mostly nocturnal. They’re intelligent and clever and can get into things with their dexterous paws. For this reason we now have supposedly raccoon-proof garbage bins, but the raccoons are already learning how to open them. Nearby Toronto is often called the “raccoon capital of the world,” and has an enormous population of these indomitable critters.
As spring progresses, the flickers arrive. These beautifully coloured birds are members of the woodpecker family and although they’ll eat some birdseed, they prefer ants.
Soon the goldfinches that live here year round change into their summer plumage and are frequent visitors to our birdbath. Around the time when insects can be seeing flying around tree buds, the warblers begin to arrive. Most of them pass through quickly, heading for more northern places to build nests.
Although mid-day is quiet on the critter front, various creatures come out again in the late afternoon for another feed. Mourning doves walk the perimeters of the yard in graceful motion, unhurriedly pecking at birdseed along the way. Eventually the squirrels head back up to their creches as the light begins to fade. Then the cardinals make a final round of feeding in the dusk, often joined by juncos and white-throated sparrows. The daylight comes to an end and the watchful humans eat their dinner, then retire to their snug to listen to music, read books, and reflect on the bounty of the day.