Signs of Spring 2020
The Birds
It’s easy to know when spring has arrived–the birds are beginning to chirp in the bushes, and you may even spot them gathering grass and twine to line their nests. However, some of our lesser-known feathered friends have more unique habits.
Photo by guizmo_68 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/7958548@N03/472551926/
The American woodcock, a plump, large-eyed sandpiper, arrives in Massachusetts around mid-March and begins his courtship displays in open, grassy fields bordering rivers and wet woodlands. After sunset, the male begins to call for any nearby females with a repetitive, nasally “peeent.” He calls many times, turning constantly so he faces all directions, and then he abruptly flies up and begins circling. The woodcock’s wings create a distinctive twittering noise as he circles high overhead, becoming faster and more intense as his circles become tighter, until he begins making high pitched chirps and dives straight down to the spot he took off from. He will continue this ritual many times until the last light of the evening twilight leaves the sky.
And the Bees
Everyone is familiar with the common honey bee, but there are in fact over 300 distinct species of wild bees known to Massachusetts, all with unique habitats and life cycles. One of the earliest to appear and easiest to see in the garden is the mason bee. The males are the first to emerge from their cocoons in early April, when the daytime temperatures begin consistently reaching 50 degrees. Feeding off crocuses and bathing in the sun, they wait patiently for the larger females to emerge a few days later.
Once that happens, the females mate and quickly get to work gathering nectar and precious pollen to make a ball for their larvae to eat. Unlike honey bees that secrete wax to build their nests, the female mason bee must find a hollow reed or a hole made by another insect in wood to nest in. A female mason bee does not start a hive; she will place her sticky ball of pollen and a single egg into tube and seal it with a plug of muddy clay she gathered, earning her the name of mason! She will make several partitions this way, always laying female eggs at the back and male eggs at the front. After laying about thirty or so eggs she will die, but next spring’s batch of bees will feed and develop safely in their sealed nest. Mason bees are particularly good at pollinating fruit and almond trees, since they are chiefly after the pollen rather than the nectar that honey bees prefer. Mason bees’ entire bodies become covered in pollen, and a single bee can do the work of many honey bees. These bees are very gentle and tolerate human activity. They are easy to attract to your garden with hollow reeds or drilled wooden blocks.