Fall migration is in full swing and peaks this month. Everything from hawks to eagles to flycatchers, warblers and kinglets will migrate from or through our area during September. But fall migration plays out more leisurely than spring migration and many migrating birds will linger in our area for weeks before continuing further south. Look for white-crowned and white-throated sparrows during the second half of the month. They are ground feeders but will often come to feeders with cracked corn, millet and sunflower chips.
Orioles are typically gone from our area by Labor Day; Hummingbirds linger longer so don't take those feeders down yet as young birds and migrants from farther north will sometimes linger here through the beginning of October. Their migration timing is not at all related to feeders, but feeders can help provide much-needed energy to those that are already heading south.
Broad-winged hawk migration peaks in mid-September and the best place to see it is at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth. Kettles of hawks numbering in the thousands pass overhead every day and from 25,000 to 150,000 can pass in a single month, making it one of the great birding spectacles in North America. Hawk Ridge holds a three-day weekend festival each year at the peak of migration, this year September 20-22, with tours, raptor counts, live raptors, bird banding, presentations and more! A schedule of events and reservations can be found here: https://www.hawkridge.org/event/hawk-weekend-festival-2024/
What about the birds that do not migrate and stay here all year? Many of our most common backyard birds do not migrate at all, including downy, hairy, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers, northern flickers, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadees, goldfinches, house finches, blue jays, cardinals, among others. All of these stay here year around and will continue to visit your feeders all through the fall and winter. Robins and bluebirds are increasingly staying put over the winter as well and fewer of them migrate away in the fall.
Mixed flocks of blackbirds (including grackles, red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds) numbering in the thousands can be seen in late September.
Robins gather in large flocks to feed on crab apples and the tasty insects inside them.
The final wave of wildflowers blooms in fields and prairies. These include spotted jewelweed, a late-season hummingbird attractor, fall asters, beggarsticks (small white daisy-like flowers), sage, gentians, goldenrods, including showy goldenrod, blanketflower, sneezeweed, and a host of sunflowers, blazing stars, and St. Johns worts. Many of these flowers attract monarchs and other butterflies.
Speaking of monarchs, they continue their annual journey south from Ontario and will have a final egg laying of the season in September. As nights get cooler they often roost communally in flocks of several hundred butterflies on the branch of an oak tree, where they look like leaves turning colors for fall. This is the time of year to put out butterfly roosting boxes in your yard or garden.
Prairie grass seeds are ready to harvest in September. Wild rice is also harvested in September from lakes and streams in the northern parts of our region. The Dakota call this time of year the Wild Rice Storing Moon.
In the far north, moose begin their annual mating rituals and males are often seen fighting each other for females.
