American Pelican. Photo courtesy of Matt Wetrich

One way you know that spring has returned is the sound of birds chirping.

Jefferson resident bird expert Matt Wetrich says now is the start of some major migratory patterns for birds as temperatures begin to warm up in Iowa. Popular places to see waterfowl, such as five species of geese and 15-20 species of ducks, are Dunbar Slough and Spring Lake Park. He points out another type of bird that is very visible right now.

“You’ve seen tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of mixed blackbird flocks. I’ve just noticed at Dunbar Slough we’ve seeing some of that. Just looks like a giant pepper shaker was sprinkled over Dunbar Slough and some surrounding areas. So you have some mixed flocks of Red winged blackbirds, and Common Grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and European Starlings, and a couple of others.”

Domestically, Wetrich says people might hear robins or the unique chirp of the Northern Cardinal. “Sort of a rich, musical sound something along the lines of (whistle sound). So if you were to put some mnemonics to it, it would be ‘What cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer. What? What? What? What?’ So that’s a real nice musical noise you might hear in your neighborhood.”

He adds that birds will continue to be on their migration patterns for a couple of months as the spring season propels forward, so he encourages everyone to take in the different variety of birds while they can.