If you’ve been out to look for birds in the last two or three weeks I’d like to know your reaction. Lots of birds? Few birds? Variety of species but few individuals? Better than past years? Worse? I’ve been out almost every morning since May 1, in favorite spots near our home, in county parks, in northwestern Wisconsin. Most days I’ve wondered where the birds are or went. How would you describe this spring? Indigo Buntings, local nesters, have been easy to see. This male was singing at Baker regional park at Lake Independence.

Here’s another breeding-bird mark for my Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas records. This Marsh Wren, busily adding cattail strands to its globe-like nest, conveniently is building about six feet off a paved road near Long Lake, west of Wayzata. This is in my atlas township quadrant. The male of this species begins construction of more than one nest, as House Wrens do. Should he find a mate, she chooses the actual nesting location, and the nest is finished, soft fibers used to line its inside. This bird spent a lot to time working inside the reed ball, so we might have the real thing here. I can only hope. The bird, more often nesting deep inside a cattail marsh, is making observation very easy. Â

Binoculars make no permanent record of what you see through them, nor can you enlarge the image and examine it at leisure. Bless photography. This very cooperative Willow Flycatcher, seen Sunday in my Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas block, was doing something I had never seen before, not that I noticed before pumping the image up with Photoshop. It was raising its crest, a sign of its displeasure with me in its space. It also was calling vigorously, so it goes into the record as a potential breeder.

Domestic cats — cuddly, purring, and well-fed — kill hundreds of millions of song birds each year. Domestic cats are among the world’s most efficient predators. The problem, of course, is not with the cats. They’re doing what comes naturally. The problem is with cat owners who let their pets outside, where the cat’s hunting instinct is dominant, full tummy or not. Birds have enough problems with us. Keeping cats indoors is one thing we can do to help birds that costs nothing and is immediately effective. The cat benefits, too. Indoor cats are healthier and safer. The American Bird Conservancy has placed an explanatory video on YouTube. The Web address is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvN7FNUPas. Take a look. The cat pictured here — an animal with an attitude and what appears to be too many toes — was hunting on a golf course in Arizona a couple of years ago.  Â

The first Common Nighthawk I’ve seen this spring was sleeping on a willow-tree branch when I discovered it late last week. It could be a local nester; it could be a migrant. It breeds throughout North America with the exception of high-Arctic areas. Nighthawk might be its name, but it is most active at dawn and dusk. Spring migrants are most often seen alone. In the fall, the bird become gregarious, seen in flocks of dozens or hundreds from July into September as it moves south. Listen for its “peent” call above shopping-center parking lots this summer as it hawks insects attracted by lot lamps. It’s short bill opens to a gape to sweep insects out of the air.

A quartet of Caspian Terns has been feeding in a lake near our home for the past few days. I assume they’re migrants; a few nest as far south as Leech Lake, most in this part of the continent continuing north to Canada. Caspians, the largest of the world’s terns, found on all continents except Antarctica, plunge dive for the fish they eat. The birds I was watching usually began their dive from about 30 feet above the water. They go straight in, like rocks. They recover quickly, back on the wing in a couple of seconds. This bird came up with a large fish. It struggled to get altitude once airborne. Prey fish often are swallowed on the wing. I doubt if this one went down with one swallow. (Two photos.)

This isn’t about a bird. It’s about the American Toads that were singing endlessly in the marsh behind our house. They’re as good as birdsong for me. There are several out there, along with at least three frog species. They were singing me to sleep, and greeting me in the morning. Each toad picks a pitch at which to sing (one note held for as long as 20 seconds). The next toad selects a slightly different pitch so he can be recognized as an individual. I finally saw one a couple of days ago, just before they went quiet, thanks to a friend with sharp eyes. The toad takes a deep breath, inflates his throat pouch, and sings away. Toads, by the way, don’t give you warts if handled. They will, however, urinate on you, and also secrete a foul-smelling liquid if annoyed. Best just listen to them.Â

Many male shorebird species use wing patterns as part of their courtship displays. The display colors often are located on the inside of the wings. The wings are outstretched or raised during the display. Here we have a Willet doing his best to attract the attention of a female. He’s as close to her as he can get when he begins (look close, she’s there). You can see that she turns out to have little apparent interest. These birds were photographed in North Dakota two weeks ago.

The female Hooded Merganser that nested in a box near our home was on the water this morning with 12 new chicks. The group functions as one organism: the chicks do NOT stray from mother’s side. One chick remains in the nest box. It was struggling this morning to break out of its shell, as much as 12 hours behind its siblings. We’ll check again in the morning to see if it made it.

For those of you wondering where the migrant birds are or went, as I am, a lot of them are still working their way north. Roger Everhart monitors weather radar to detect large migration movements. Monday, he reported Sunday night radar images showing many migrant songbirds moving north from the Gulf states. They were concentrating in the mid-Mississippi Valley, to our south. He says these birds will be creeping north over the next couple of weeks. Roger lives in Apple Valley, where he operated the North Central Bird Observatory. We spent the past few days in Burnett County in northwestern Wisconsin. Birding was OK at its best, but many species were represented by one sighting. We wondered if the winds had simply blown them over us. This Golden-winged Warbler was one of our sightings.