Strong southwest winds Sunday night into Monday delivered the season’s first major wave of migrating birds to the area, including colorful Baltimore orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds.

After a cooler week with unfavorable headwinds, the forecast for another south blow Saturday. That means you’d better have the feeders filled with seed, sugar water and grape jelly this weekend.
Earlier this week, BirdCast live maps estimated a new all-time nightly record at more than 857 million birds traveling across the U.S. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and several universities created BirdCast, launching it in 2018.

The team boils down decades of migration science and couples it with real-time U.S. weather surveillance radar to estimate nightly movements. This creates a powerful suite of tools, including live migration maps and a dashboard with county- or state-level stats for migration traffic, direction and speed each night. Learn more at https://birdcast.org/.

Meanwhile, Saturday is Global Big Day. More than a million birders across the country and around the world are expected to participate, identifying, counting and reporting the birds they see on eBird. You don’t need to be a bird expert or spend all day looking. In as little as 10 or 15 minutes, you can report what you find, then watch the results come in live at https://ebird.org/globalbigday.
The Cornell Lab’s free Merlin Bird ID app can help you identify the birds you see and hear. And if you get some great pics or video Saturday, consider sharing on social media with #GlobalBigDay.

Finally, it’s Wisconsin’s Fat Bird Week — an annual effort to raise awareness on native bird species and how we can help them. It’s a fun, bracket-style competition and highlights how chunky birds are healthy birds. As key pollinators, birds disperse seeds, pollinate plants and help manage pests in farmlands and forests. Birds also have significant mental health benefits for humans and support Wisconsin’s $2.6 billion wildlife watching economy. Check it all out at https://www.wisconservation.org/fat-bird-week/.

Appreciating trees

A new report says that more than 54 million trees have been planted in the state since 2021, including nearly 12 million last year.

The DNR supplied more than 4.5 million of them, including 2.3 million planted on private lands, nearly 1.7 million on DNR, federal, tribal and other public lands, more than a half-million that were planted in county forests, over 25,000 planted in school and community forests, and over 56,000 given to students last Arbor Day through a free seedlings for fourth graders program.

Wisconsin has about 17 million acres of forests and millions of urban trees that create homes and food for wildlife, support the forest industry and provide outdoor recreation opportunities. Trees also safeguard water resources, reduce energy consumption and soil erosion, provide shade, and trap and store carbon dioxide. Perhaps just as important in these busy times, forests and urban trees provide natural beauty for stress relief.

Since the state’s reforestation program began in 1911, 1.6 billion seedlings have been supplied to landowners. For more info, visit https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/forestry.

Fishing update

The Green Bay yellow perch season reopens May 20, and muskie — now open statewide on inland waters — become legal targets on Green Bay May 23.

New this year, smallmouth bass is catch-and-release only until July 1 in all Green Bay waters and in all Lake Michigan waters within five miles of the Door County shoreline.

Some of the best action right now is for walleyes and northern pike, both which are feeding heavily after recovering from spawning. Some bonus brown trout have also been hooked in the bay, and browns, lakers and an occasional rainbow or salmon on the Lake Michigan side.

Lake Michigan perch has a closed season of May 1-June 15.
Weekly water levels

Lake Michigan water levels have increased 14 inches in the past month, and are seven inches higher than last May. Water levels were close to the 100-year average, but are down 34 inches below the record May high, set in 2020. Levels are still 30 inches higher than the record 1964 low.