Nature Happenings

• Great Backyard Bird Count, mid-month, www.birdsource.org/gbbc

• Project FeederWatch continues, www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw 

• February is National Bird Feeding Month!

• Look for Eastern Bluebirds.

• Bluebird and other nesting boxes need to be cleaned out this month.

• Eastern Meadowlarks return from their winter habitats in late February.

Eastern Meadowlark                                                  Source: Doris Brookens/Macaulay Library

• Red-winged Blackbirds, Killdeer and Great Blue Herons return.

• Killdeer are members of the plover family and are known for their "distraction display," pretending to have a broken wing to divert predators from its ground nest.

Killdeer distraction display                                                  Source: vagabond54/shutterstock

• Watch for Sandhill Cranes migrating north in late February.

• Grackles return north.

• Bald Eagles begin their nesting behaviors.

• Chipmunks reappear at feeders as temperatures rise.