Geese are resting in fields throughout the state, and their voices fill the skies in mornings and evenings, and tiny yellow-rump warblers flit through lakeside greenery hunting bugs to fuel their trips south. The annual bird migration is beginning, and it's the most dramatic, powerful event in the natural world. It will last for at least a couple of months, and it's a matter of life or death for these feathered descendants of the dinosaurs.
Some birds make incredible flights.
The Arctic tern, for example, is the long distance champion. It flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back every year. Just as impressive is the migration route of many hummingbirds. Most of our eastern ruby-throated hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on their way to wintering areas in Central America. No, they do not ride on the backs of geese.