Where to go bird watching this weekend – the local National Wildlife Refuge

In the late 1800s the U.S. Government along with numerous independent groups began selecting and protecting lands across the country in the name of preservation. Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872, Afognak Island, Alaska in 1892 was proclaimed a "fish cultural and forest reserve" under the Forest Reserves Act to protect the breeding Fur seals on the island (“protected” for future fur harvest). In 1903 President Teddy Roosevelt declared Pelican Island, Florida as the first “bird reservation” and today it’s considered the first National Wildlife Refuge. The idea of preserving these special areas for breeding, migrating, and congregating animals was in the interest of the appreciative naturalist as well as the hunter, fisherman, and biologist and today the National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) retain this seemingly incongruous purpose. Operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, hunting and fishing are permitted on many refuges but careful monitoring as well financial support from hunting and fishing licenses support these pockets of wild space hopefully long into the future.

NWRs are not always rolling mountain ranges or huge tracts of open land, in fact on the east coast they are often small pockets of water, flood plain, marsh, and field protected for their important role in waterfowl migration. A look at the national map of NWRs depicts this role in the the concentration of refuges along the four major “flyways” of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the Rocky Mountains, and the Mississippi River Valley.

Refuges are denoted by the “flying goose” sign and are well worth a visit as they comprise diverse habitats and often remnant examples of a lost landscape. To find your nearest refuge please visit the Fish and Wildlife website.

Scarlet Tanager - the red in the sky

The eye popping color of the male Scarlet Tanager is among the brightest, most unlikely colors in all of New England. The tanager is a husky tropical migrant that travels from the forests of western South America to spend a busy summer in the hard wood forests of New England. This long distance migrant appears in mid-May, often in pairs with males draped in robes of unnatural red. The females are dressed in a more tasteful camouflage of yellowish-green. The males come into this red color for only a few months during the spring breeding season and by late August the contrasting all red body with jet blacks wings will dissipate into a greenish color similar to the female, though the males keep their black wings year round.  

Finding this insect catching, treetop bird can be a challenge even with their remarkable color. Knowing the song of the tanager and better still the call note is a great tool in locating these birds and catching a glimpse. The male’s song has been described as “a robin with a sore throat” a raspy, burry, collection of warbles and phrases. While this may confuse the new bird watcher learning to recognize the tanager’s call note is far easier and makes for a great identification clue. Listen for a slow, loud, two-note, “chick – burrrr” call repeated from high in an oak tree. This call of two distinct sounds can be heard from a distance and while it doesn’t help to clear away the large leaves on the tree it will at least let it be known that a tanager is around.

The brain knows – New England warblers

Bird watching in the spring is an act of snap judgments. Dozens of warblers representing dozens of species flit around the full green leaves snatching bugs on the wing and giving the patient, neck-bent bird watcher only brief glimpses from below. Learning to identify the thirty plus species of wood warblers is a daunting task to the new bird watcher who is made even more humble standing next to an advanced birder who rattles of species as if making it up. But the advanced birder is not making it up, nor do they have supersonic eyes. The advanced bird watcher is using sound, habitat, and the accrued experience of viewing warblers to make snap decisions, faster than they can even edit their commentary. Consider the photo to the right; most people are able to identify the individual in the photo without hesitation based solely on a few blocks of color. This kind of eye to brain connection is complex and reactionary, occurring seemingly without effort. The same is true in bird watching. It only takes a few tiny blocks of color, a patch of white, a wing bar, or grayish crown, one or two good field marks to identify the majority of the new England warbler species. This process is not quick but by studying books, photos, songs, and spending time in the field this body of knowledge will accrue and will be accessed effortlessly.

Bird-a-thon – 1 day, 200 birds

Mass Audubon’s 2011 Bird-a-thon begins today Friday, May 13^th at 6pm and for the next twenty-four hours teams across the state will attempt to see as many species of birds as possible. Bird-a-thon began in 1983 and is now a major event for raising both funds and awareness of the diversity of birdlife in the state. The idea of a bird-a-thon is founded on a larger birding endeavor: the big day. Big days are 24 hours spent searching and observing as many species of birds as possible (without the use of a plane or boat). Careful planning of location, time of day, year, and route come into play. Owls at night, song birds at dawn, ducks and shorebirds in the afternoon. Big days are carefully orchestrated to include stops at as many different habitats as possible. Examples of well known big days include the World Series of Birding, the Super Bowl of Birding, and the Texas “Big Day” during which the U.S. record for number of species seen in a single 24-hour period with recently broken with 264.

While these Olympic style bird watching events are a fun way to raise awareness for conservation as well as financial support it does bring up the concern; should an activity grounded in environmental ethics promote the manic use of fossil fuels to simply lay eyes on a single bird? And, unlike the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Atlas there is little citizen science gained from a big day.

In recent years Mass Audubon has addressed this issue by promoting birding locally, splitting up the state into regions that are canvassed by local teams, and even giving out an award to the team leaving the smallest fossil footprint. Other events like the Big Sit take a more humorous approach to the issue while the Big Green Year count birds only seen while walking or biking from home.

Beyond the issue burning fuel in the name of convening with nature (and bird watching is still far better than skiing, backpacking, and rafting) the main goal of a Big Day should be connecting people with the natural world through birds. To do this people need only go to their back yard as birds are found in every corner of the ballfield and local park, in abandoned lots, train yards, even dense city centers. So, as the Bird-a-thon begins I will personally be spending the next twenty-four hours on a single Audubon sanctuary, traveling by foot, and leading numerous public bird walks. It will be a day worth celebrating in the peak of migration, with only “chance rain showers” and hundreds of people out and about looking for birds.

Lastly, it is not too late to join a team, or support the fundraising. If you’d like to get involved please visit the Mass Audubon website or support me through the secure, First Giving account. Happy Bird-a-thoning!

The Daily Show - The World Series of Birding
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Gray catbird - two in the bush

Found in the “mimid” family with the Mockingbird and Brown thrasher, the Gray catbird is a chattery and quarrelsome bird at home in a low, dense tangle. Found around New England in backyards just beyond the fence line and wherever there is a deep hedgerow. Catbirds get their “cat” from the whiney meowing they make but also have an amazing repertoire of “chats, creeks, whoops and pissts”. Unlike the Mockingbird who replicates the songs of other birds, cats, car alarms, and mechanical noises in changing sets of three to five the catbird sings a garbled song in a loud and distinctive voice. Watch for these long tailed birds foraging in the leaves, darting out of the bush to sing from a tree branch, or scolding the neighborhood cat from a fence post. Both male and female catbirds are grey all over though on closer inspection they have a black crown and surprising rufous coloration under their tails. Catbirds have returned from a winter in Mexico and Florida to build stick nests, and raise their young in wood lots and backyard brambles across New England.

Black-throated green warbler – murmuring the trees

Louis Agassiz Fuertes

The latest handsome, albeit tiny, arrival to New England is the Black-throated green warbler. A mid-tree bird fond of evergreen and hemlocks, this warbler can be heard signing a distinctive summer song throughout New England. With both a wheezy, “trees-trees-murmuring-trees” and a buzzy, “zee-zee-zee-zee-zoo-zee” the Black-throated green warbler, like most warblers is often first heard, than seen. With a non-descript back, two white wing bars, and yellow head. The giveaway for breeding males is the contrasting bright yellow head and black chin and throat, as well as the white outer tail feathers often seen in flight. Listen for the buzzy, repetitive, song zeeing and zooing from the treetops.

Boston’s green islands

Post Office Sq. by Greg MacKay

Spring migration flows up the east coast on tiny out stretched wings. Hungry from a journey of 1000 plus miles, migrant song birds collapse into green spaces throughout New England. One interesting phenomenon is the “green island” effect. Green islands are essentially green spaces surrounded by the grey concrete and tarmac landscape of the city.  Imagine the bird’s eye view of Boston in which thin rivulets of trees and puddles of parks stand out like green oases in a concrete desert. Green islands essentially funnel birds from the surrounding skies and “fall outs” occur especially when northward heading migrants hit a patch of bad weather. Boston's more well known green islands include the Boston Common, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Arnold Arboretum and even tiny Post Office Square in the financial district. The foresight of early city planners can be accredited for not only preserving space for us to walk, jog, cook out, play baseball, fish, and take evening constitutionals but also for creating a network of urban huts, safe places to refuel, water, rest away the day only to return to the skies at nightfall for another sixty miles in the long journey north. During the month of May Visit any urban patch of tree and field, especially before sunrise, and you may be surprised by what you find.



Arnold Arboretum

Chimney swifts – the city sky chatters



by Diana Sudyka

http://thetinyaviary.blogspot.com/


Chimney swifts are appropriately named for both their heroic, breakneck, insect snatching flight and for their habit of nesting in chimneys. Swifts are built like a swallow but are in fact their own genus and are a pared down bird seemingly made of nothing more than two wings and cigar shaped body. Swifts have returned to New England from a winter spent in western South America and can be heard filling the skies above large urban downtowns to small town centers. Often overlooked, or in this case “underlooked”, swifts trace the sky on unseen coils of wire, picking insects out of the air with rolling, aerial acrobatics. The city dweller with eyes pressed down to sidewalks and iphones may live an entire life without ever noticing these birds above.

Listen for swifts as they chatter through the skies, amass around chimneys and come late spring watch fort the mating flight in which a pair of swifts glide in tandem on up held “V” shaped wings. 

Spring songs and the art of bird listening

In the spring it becomes ever more important to learn the songs of New England migrants: warblers, vireos, thrush, tanagers, and orioles to name a few. With leaves on the trees and insects in the air the woods and forest floors shiver with waves of life. In tree tops far away separating “tisps” from “chups” seem like separating a single A flat from a Beethoven symphony.  But with some practice and a good audio guide it is possible to build an ear for the world above. Warblers really don’t warble and tanagers sound like a robin with a soar throat. These kinds of clues along with a visual understanding of how bird songs are constructed and some simple mnemonics will unlock the life of the canopy and reveal one of the great myths of bird watching; songbirds are found by ear almost 80% of the time.

The best way to start learning is to access songs online or purchase one of the many useful audio guides. While some guides offer sounds for every North American bird, one audio guide will actually walk you through the tricks of learning common New England bird songs. Walton and Lawson's Birding by Ear has all but become the standard for learning bird song and the smart title is now synonymous with the very act… birding by ear.

To learn more about bird song in the field join me every Wednesdays in May at Newton Hill Park in Worcester, MA for a lunch time “power bird watch”. We’ll meet at 12:15pm in front of the Blessed Sacrament Church at 551 Pleasant Street Worcester, MA 01602