Up the Creek: The arrival of the tanager
By Ken M. Blomberg
They rarely visit our backyard, let alone spend time at our feeders. But our family was treated this past weekend with two brilliantly colored migrant forest song birds. They possibly crossed the Mexican/US border without detention, defying “the wall” and flying tree-top level as the sun set one night a week or so ago. Following the Gulf Coast northeast, then swinging north along the Mississippi River valley, they made it to our backyard last weekend.
The first wave of Scarlet Tanagers arrived in central Wisconsin.
You may have seen a few yourself, as social media birders in the upper Midwest were abuzz with the news. Much like earlier arriving male Baltimore Orioles, their dazzling colors stand out like neon signs among the yellows, blues, grays and browns of other songbirds at the feeding stations. Strikingly marked orange and black male orioles, almost take a back seat to the scarlet red and black male tanager. But wait! Was that first tanager red, or orange? We scrambled for the bird identification books. I wrestled the newest Peterson guide from 3-year-old, No. 1 grandson and discovered ours was a first-year male tanager, which are occasionally orange instead of red. A second male, redder than the reddest male cardinal around, landed on the jelly feeder and stole the show.
Tanagers are primarily insect eaters. Their diet consists of any flying variety of insect such as bees, wasps, hornets, ants, sawflies, moths and butterflies. In addition, they will eat beetles, flies, cicadas, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, treehoppers, plant lice, termites; grasshoppers, locusts, dragonflies and are known to consume snails, earthworms and spiders. Tanagers will opportunistically consume fruit when plentiful, or when insects are in short supply.
That was the case this year when they arrived in Portage County. Cold, wet weather has kept the flying and ground dwelling insects at bay, so birdfeeders and those humans that keep them full have been working overtime. The boss has been ordering jars of jelly by the case off the internet to keep the cost down. At last count, she’s using more than 36 ounces, or several jars a day feeding her sugar-craving flock of birds.
On a side note, the last of this spring’s turkey seasons began this week Wednesday and ends next Tuesday.
I was fortunate to fill a tag during the second season last month near Tomah with friends Dan and Jim. After trying a new recipe ala Jim, the boss requested a second turkey for the kitchen. With additional tags still available for sale from the DNR for this home zone, I will be spending a few hours in my new turkey blind built at the end of our prairie field along the creek.
Sitting on the back porch last week drinking coffee, I heard an anxious male turkey gobbling very close to my empty blind. With a little bit of luck, I’ll soon be eating marinated turkey slices on homemade bread for the second time this spring. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.