It might sound odd to hear that I use birds to denote the seasonal changes but I actually do, bird migration is fascinating to me so I watch and make note of their migratory fluctuations all year long.
For example, I pay close attention to what the white-faced ibis are doing each spring and fall and when I start to see large flocks congregating in irrigated agricultural fields and pastures in late summer, feeding up for their long migration to Mexico for the winter, I know it won’t be long before t-shirts will need to be replaced with hooded sweatshirts as autumn is right around the corner.
White-faced ibis are what I call a “summer bird” of sorts, meaning when they show up in the spring much warmer temperatures are definitely coming soon and when these uniquely shaped birds are gone in early fall, winter is not too far away.
So it is a little strange, very peculiar actually if I might say so myself as a lifelong birdwatcher, to find white-faced ibis poking around a frozen wetland in January in northern Utah, not just once but numerous times to be more precise.
Yes, this has actually been the trend over the past 3 years on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route during my winter birdwatching trips to the refuge with white-faced ibis being found more and more commonly on the refuge loop each winter.
If I go back even further, 5 years or so, I can recall my first ever finding of a winter-bound ibis on one of my other favorite birding spots, Farmington Bay WMA, with a small group of birds actively picking around the snow-covered vegetation right next to the gravel road.
Back then I thought finding ibis along the Great Salt Lake during January was an anomaly, never to be seen again.
I would be wrong, however, with that kind of thinking nowadays because, and as strange as this may sound, even though white-faced ibis typically spends the winter in Mexico, I’m consistently seeing ibis during the months of December, January, and February more and more each and every year.
It’s not that a well-known summer bird has, for some unknown reason, decided to skip fall migration altogether and stay put during winter here in northern Utah has me so perplexed, this phenomenon isn’t as uncommon as it might sound.
As evidence of that, I actually found a dozen yellow-headed blackbirds hanging out with a flock of red-winged blackbirds on the bird refuge a few weeks ago in February, definitely a head-scratcher for sure as yellow-head blackbirds are migratory and typically leave about the same time the ibis do each fall.
What has me so confused about finding winter ibis here in Utah is why and how individuals of this particular bird species stay and somehow survive the harsh and very cold winter months.
Well, this confusion of mine goes back to their diet so let me explain.
White-faced ibis rarely eat seeds or plant matter but feed almost exclusively on a wide variety of invertebrates, including worms, spiders, snails, and beetles, to name just a few, as they wade through wetlands or irrigated agricultural fields during the day.
(White-faced ibis feeding in a shallow wetland. For short photography tips, nature clips, and interesting stories about the natural world around us, subscribe to our Bear River Blogger channel on YouTube for videos and updates from our travels while out in nature, both on and off of the famed Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.)
Their long and slightly curved bill helps the ibis probe deep into the soft wet soils and shallow waters for insects to feed upon.
With this unique feeding behavior that literally depends upon shallow wetlands and moist soils from irrigated fields and pastures, white-faced ibis are at a great disadvantage when the dreads of winter hits and all of their foraging locations are, well, frozen and their food source is inaccessible for the most part (more about that in a minute).
Just like it is with most other bird species, white-faced ibis migrate south for the winter to find a suitable and accessible food source when the one they have been relying upon will soon be inaccessible due to frozen waters.
Ibis somehow know this is coming so they instinctively migrate south to a warmer climate for the winter months.
The question that nobody yet has an answer for is why individual ibis stay put when nature beckons and the urge to migrate is so strong even the young of the year know it is time to leave but a few stray birds resist and try to tough it out during the winter season when they are at a great disadvantage due to feeding behaviors and preferences.
I don’t know if that will ever be known but after watching ibis feeding in the frozen grasses and short cattails of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge this past winter, I have noticed something a bit peculiar about how these birds are possibly finding food in an otherwise frozen wetland.
More and more when I watch ibis feed during the winter they seem to prefer to poke around clumps of grasses and cattails where it seems small pockets of open water are available when most everything else is frozen.
It was explained to me by a rancher years ago that clumps of grass and vegetation absorb the sunlight and as a result will oftentimes melt the snow and ice right around its base.
I’ve seen it on his ranch where clump after clump of grass had a small ring of open space around it when the rest of the terrain was still frozen and snow covered and I am thinking this same phenomenon might be what is giving a few stray ibis access to at least small portions of food during the winter months when there is almost no open water to be found anywhere else.
Either way, it is something I am definitely going to keep my eye on each time I cross paths with white-faced ibis on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge during upcoming winters.
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