Writing for the Birds
This experimental team used birding as a form of inspiration for prose and poetry. Every team has done some sort of writeup of their adventures, but for the Pen & Quills it was all about the writing. On a strict deadline ;-).
Barry’s StorY
For the Pen & Quills Birdathon Ginger and I hike the Smith Creek Trail at Joseph D. Grant County Park, revelling in the wildflowers and the riparian woodland and the burbling waters all the way to the fork of Sulphur and Smith Creeks. Forest birds make every turn of the trail a delight, from the Northern Rough-winged Swallows alighting on the telephone lines above the parking area to the House Wrens singing and carrying nesting materials down along the creekside near the trail’s end.
They turn mastering
The air with each brief wingbeat,
Then freeze on a wire.
The Warbling Vireo is aptly named, as I spend much more time hearing its short sweet Warbling than I ever do viewing the Vireo. That little melody lends a flavor to the forest and causes me to frequently look up through translucent leaves that are struggling to achieved summer fullness. The filtered light colors and covers the forest floor and the Warbling Vireo flavors that light with its song. Certain birds make a forest magic; this is one of them.
Skulking behind leaves,
Warbling Vireo, you
Shout from everywhere.
Warbling Vireo
Then we find the warblers above the stream. I am amazed at the patterns and colors these birds concentrate on the miniscule canvas of their feathers. The Black-throated Gray Warbler’s palette is black, gray and white, with yellow accent-dots above its eyes. The Townsend’s Warbler's fills the gaps between its jet-black streaks with radiant yellow. The yellow of the Yellow Warbler’s underside is clawed with slashes of red. The Wilson’s Warbler sports a bright yellow gown accented with a severe black skullcap. All these birds are here, resplendent, and yet it’s still so hard to catch even a glimpse.
Brilliant yellow fire,
Stark black, bright white, this warbler
Remains elusive.
Townsend’s Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Hermit Warbler
We stay in that one spot for far too long; we stay in that one spot not nearly long enough. There are six warbler species over the creek and under the trees: Orange-crowned, Wilson’s, Black-throated Gray, Hermit, Townsend’s, Nashville. The Warbling Vireo is there, as is the Cassin’s Vireo: you can’t miss the constant announcements of their presence, with the calling of Pacific-slope Flycatchers interrupting the silences between vireo bursts.
Cassin’s Vireo
Sports tiny spectacles and
Complains endlessly.
Cassin’s Vireo
When it comes to empidonax flycatchers, the call is all-important, because they all appear so visually similar. Of course you need to scrutinize bill size and color, look at the shape of the eye ring, check the projections of the wingtips and the length of the tail, but you won’t be certain until it opens its beak to tell you for sure.
Show your eye your wing
Let me watch you claim your perch
And hear you whistle.
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
There is a chipping in low bushes: wild roses and snowberries. I wonder if it is a Fox Sparrow or a Hermit Thrush or even just a Dark-eyed Junco. But it feels different so we stop and we peer through the underbrush hoping for a glimpse. Ginger gets out the recording equipment and points it toward the sound. The invisible bird seems to be flitting around in the bush as the sound keeps moving. Then suddenly out it bursts, landing on a branch across the trail. Binoculars on him for only a second show a gray head, yellow body and white arcs above and below the eye. MacGillivray’s Warbler! A first for the county for us! In that instant my mind harkens back to our previous MacGillivray’s, two years ago at Cerro Alto Campground in San Luis Obispo County. Local birders brought us to its patch and we waited and it came out singing and giving us glorious unforgettable looks and plenty of time to get photographs. This time all we have is a second or two, but it is all we need.
A microphone aimed
At chip-calls in underbrush
Captures a wonder.
After about half a mile, the trail seems to end, but if you look across Smith Creek you’ll see it continues on the far bank. The creek is fast and the rocks are slippery, so in previous hikes we have always turned back here. This time, we ford the creek and continue on trail new to us. We reach a point where even over the roaring stream we hear a bright song, clear and pure, from a bird moving quickly along the creekside. My first thought is American Dipper! The habitat is right, although I’ve never heard of there being a Dipper here. We rush back along the path following the song and eventually a House Wren pops up, holding a stick for nest-building and repeats its varied melody, ending the mystery.
How do you hold a
Stick and still sing so sweetly
Tiny little wren?
The alders along the creekside are abundant near the trail’s end and many of them have rows of thousands of holes from sapsuckers who spend their winter months in this valley. The sapsuckers are all gone this time of year, headed north to breed. Next winter they’ll come back to this place, a haven with a plentiful food supply. I plan to pay them a visit if the creek is not too high to cross.
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Your grid of holes betrays you
I know you were here.
The confluence of Sulphur Creek with Smith Creek is so mesmerizing that I have to stop birding and just sit and take in the rushing waters, the boulders and the faint sulphur smell from the creek that mixes with aromas of bay and maple leaves. The stream is louder than any bird calls, but peaceful-loud, calming-loud. The water cascades over rocks surrounding the boulder on which I meditate and collects before me into a deep, calm pool that reflects the alder leaf canopy of this sanctuary. Around me low poison oak shrubs glisten. Ferns drip down the left bank while rounded river rocks contain the stream on my right side. In front of me, a great sycamore leans away from the creek, its roots diving deep beneath the streambed and its branches reaching up and out and away. Steady, still, full of peace, I feel part of the forest, planted upon the earth with my arms stretching out to the sky.
Rooted on the bank:
Alder, maple, sycamore,
I too am a tree.
24 species total along Smith Creek. All photos taken while on the Birdathon.
ebird Checklists:
• https://ebird.org/checklist/S67902137
• https://ebird.org/checklist/S67902151
Julie’s Story
We quickly bike down the road, passing Northern Mockingbirds, noisy, active citizens of the suburbs; a Red-tailed Hawk; and some other typical suspects. We do this quick ride in order to arrive at a building where Cliff Swallows nest each year. We’ll start our count here, then slowly make our way back down the road, keeping the morning sun at our backs.
We arrive at the building, pulling up near a giant sage bush in full bloom. The mud daub nests of the Cliff Swallows line the building’s eaves like surveillance cameras, their openings the watchful lenses. At this moment, though, the nests are still, and a large dark shape, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye, tells me why – a Red-tailed Hawk is perched in a nearby tree. This hawk resembles one that I’ve seen before in this stretch of trees, and trick of the eye or not, she is exceptionally large. The hawk slowly preens herself, while three or four Anna’s Hummingbirds buzz around her head like mosquitos, at times dancing very close to her head before quickly zipping up and away. The hawk occasionally looks up, following one of the hummers in a languid way, before tiring of its display and going back to sitting quietly or pulling at one of her feathers.
Suddenly, the hawk takes off and swoops low over our heads, heading towards the open slopes of the hills behind us, and we gasp, delighted. As she vanishes into the horizon, chirping Cliff Swallows soar into and pop out of their nests. They were waiting for the hawk to leave, my husband says. A female House Finch appears on the roofline, carrying a wad of grasses, twigs, and fluff, and stays that way, swaying a little from time to time, before disappearing deep into a bush.
House Finch
The house finch
is everywhere
what is that mystery bird?
oh, it’s just a finch
yet what would spring be like
without its long melodies
its loud squabbles with its peers
the gentle bill tapping of pairs
the arrival of streaky juniors?
Nuttall’s Woodpecker
My elusive ladder-backed friend
you start a trill – then stop –
drag me out into the yard
following your calls
You stop again – all is silent
time passes and I grow impatient
I go back inside and then –
trill! I smile. You win.
American Crow
The crow, they say, is a very smart bird
I never doubted it, but now I know it
One day, a crow landed on the eaves and
looked straight at me, into my eyes
and the experience was electrifying
I knew I had been seen, and evaluated
in some corvid way
and this rather unnerved me
I wonder if crows think we are smart?
Combined Checklist for the Pen & QUills Birdathon
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Canada Goose | |
| Mallard | |
| California Quail | |
| Band-tailed Pigeon | |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | |
| Mourning Dove | |
| Anna's Hummingbird | |
| Snowy Egret | |
| Turkey Vulture | |
| Cooper's Hawk | |
| Red-tailed Hawk | |
| Acorn Woodpecker | |
| Nuttall's Woodpecker | |
| Northern Flicker | |
| Pacific-slope Flycatcher | |
| Black Phoebe | |
| Hutton's Vireo | |
| Cassin's Vireo | |
| Warbling Vireo | |
| Steller's Jay | |
| California Scrub-Jay | |
| Yellow-billed Magpie | |
| American Crow | |
| Common Raven | |
| Chestnut-backed Chickadee | |
| Oak Titmouse | |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow | |
| Tree Swallow | |
| Barn Swallow | |
| Cliff Swallow | |
| Bushtit | |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| Brown Creeper | |
| House Wren | |
| Bewick's Wren | |
| European Starling | |
| Northern Mockingbird | |
| Western Bluebird | |
| Hermit Thrush | |
| American Robin | |
| Cedar Waxwing | |
| House Sparrow | |
| House Finch | |
| Lesser Goldfinch | |
| Dark-eyed Junco | |
| Song Sparrow | |
| Lincoln's Sparrow | |
| California Towhee | |
| Spotted Towhee | |
| Hooded Oriole | |
| Bullock's Oriole | |
| Red-winged Blackbird | |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | |
| Orange-crowned Warbler | |
| Nashville Warbler | |
| MacGillivray's Warbler | |
| Yellow Warbler | |
| Black-throated Gray Warbler | |
| Townsend's Warbler | |
| Hermit Warbler | |
| Wilson's Warbler | |
| Black-headed Grosbeak |
63 Species Total.