What to Look for Now—Timely Birding

Spring 2020

Matthew Dodder
SCVAS Executive Director

Spring is the best time to go birding—which is what I say about every season actually… but it’s what’s different about spring that makes it especially worthwhile. We experience the warmer temperatures, and the longer days. We notice the budding of trees and flowers. We see more insects, and we hear singing! Not the short call notes heard year round, but full songs! The very nature of spring is sound.

Annie Dillard wrote in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek about spring and the cacophony of bird songs. Her description of the Mockingbird is particularly wonderful.

“His invention is limitless… he is tireless, too; … he will begin his daily marathon at two in the morning and scarcely pause for a breath until eleven at night. I don’t know when he sleeps. This is what I have on my chimney; it might as well keep me awake out of wonder as rage.”

I couldn’t agree more.

SOUNDS

On January 26th I posted a brief message on SouthBayBirds about the songs I had been hearing around the Ranch. Dark-eyed Junco and Oak Titmouse sounding as if it was mid-spring, and they were calling for mates. Most notably, the descending trill of an Orange-crowned Warbler which always reminds me of warmer weather. But this was still winter!

Resident birds often begin singing quite early because they have the freedom to nest before the migrants arrive—before the competition ramps up and nest sites become harder to find—before all the properties are taken. Late January, I watched as a female Anna’s Hummingbird sat on her nest, and I reflected on that advantage—the ability to get started early in the season, and even have time for a second or third brood before the fall. Residents have a head start.

Still, the fields and forests of January are generally rather quiet. Now of course it is officially spring, and bird songs and sounds are all around us. The Orange-crowned Warbler’s dry decelerating trill is now heard constantly, the staccato song of the Wilson’s Warbler which rises and falls in volume, echoes through the wood and willows. The softly-colored Warbling Vireo and its rushed “Rosita Rosita Rosey” becomes familiar again—but good luck getting a look at this subdued and slow-moving Vireo! I find that every spring presents the challenge of re-familiarizing myself with all these sounds. It’s always an effort, but I find that year after year, I shave off a day or two from the time it takes me to recognize each song. And I am always learning.

There is an app I have found helpful. Larkwire: Learn Bird Songs 1 is available in the Apple App Store and on larkwire.com. It has a unique gamified approach that presents songs in regionalized small groups (Warblers and Sparrows, Trilled and Buzzy, Robin-like, and even Drumming, etc.) It then asks the user to identify the song from a group of four choices. The questions become more difficult as one learns, and the scoring helps make it fun and motivates us to get better. Of course, nothing is more helpful than hearing a song in the field and then locating the bird that it comes from. That first-hand connection of song and bird stays with you better than any other kind of practice.

TERRITORIES

Consider each season at its essence—what makes spring different from other seasons, in other words. The prominence of song and sound in spring has a reason, and that reason is territory. The myriad ways which birds advertise their presence, their claim to an area is often expressed through song or sounds. Territories are held through visual cues as well. Think how visible the red epaulettes of a Red-winged Blackbird are from across the marsh. That visual signal accompanies the male’s famous “Konk-ka-reee!”.

Territories come in many forms depending on whether a bird is solitary, colonial, whether it is monogamous, polygynous, polyandrous, or promiscuous. A territory can be a patch of willows or reeds (Marsh Wren), an entire marsh (Northern Harrier), a flowering tree or even a single branch (Anna’s Hummingbird), or a small circle defined by how far a bird can reach from its nest to peck its neighbor (Cormorants). Some territories are aggressively defended, and others not so much. Think about the defensive behavior of Stilts, Terns, Kites or Kingbirds, as opposed to the relative subdued nature of Towhees or Bushtits. Appreciating the many ways birds acquire, reinforce and retain their territory is an important part of knowing spring at its core.

Territory is defended not just with action, but with color. The hues of our spring birds are beautiful to us, but more importantly, they are clearly visible to rivals—I’m thinking Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Bullock’s and Hooded Oriole. Oh, and Lazuli Bunting and Blue Grosbeak! Overwhelming color is spring’s response to the grays and browns of winter.

PAIRS

Finding and keeping territory is about more than attracting a mate. It is about a bird demonstrating it can provide good real estate for a home, a place that affords protection for eggs, and access to a supply of food. The pairing of birds belies the flocks we see in winter. Now, the safety that numbers provided during the cooler months is replaced by partnerships for the purpose of raising young—that is for monogamous birds such as Bushtits. We remember this tiny lint-ball-of-a-bird and its large twittering flocks—20-30 birds at a time during winter. In spring however, they pair off and seek some semblance of privacy. Colonial birds like Cliff Swallows are, despite their numbers, still bound by the contract with another individual, their mate. In their case, the large colonies are as much a matter of safety for the nesting site (bridge or wall), as it is the safety of each individual nest in the colony. They are paired off, and gathered together simultaneously.

I recommend The Birdwatcher’s Companion to North American Birdlife, by Christopher Leahy for a more articulate account about Territory, Pair Formation, and Mating Strategies.

FUTURE

Perhaps spring is mostly about a specie's future. The annual nesting, if successful, will bring more representatives to the floor where they will carry on after the adults have passed. Look for those adults attempting to replenish their numbers, to ensure continuity for another year. If successful, they have done their job. To me, winter seems mostly about survival. With that comes the flocking behavior, the huge noisy groups of Snow Geese in the Central Valley announcing where the food can be found, the American Pipit gathering in large flocks and watching for predators, and the reclusive habits of our rare winter Swamp Sparrow—each of these working in its own way to find food and remain safe from predators.

Spring is also about survival, every season is in fact. But the urgency to establish territory, find a mate, and successfully rear young suggest that the future is actually at the center of spring’s design.

TRAVEL

I end with an acknowledgment that spring is also about travel, particularly arrival. Over the years, we have had more than 400 species occur in our county, 177 of which are breeding birds. Roughly 50 of those breeding birds come from somewhere else and then leave again in fall (Lazuli Bunting). Among the earliest to arrive are Allen’s Hummingbird, and Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Others simply pass through our area in spring (Hammond’s Flycatcher), continuing north to breed elsewhere, and still others show up mostly on their way to their wintering grounds in the south (Willow Flycatcher). Every season contains an element of transition. But spring sees the appearance of our most important birds, the ones that choose our county to raise their families and guarantee their future—the ones that waited through winter, survived the dangerous journey here (sometimes thousands of miles or even south of the equator like Cliff Swallow), produce marvelous sounds that confuse us, and build nests in unending variety. Head outside this spring, find the sights and sounds it brings, and as Annie Dillard wrote, “keep awake out of wonder”.

Recommended Living on the Wind by Scott Weidensaul for a beautifully written acount of migration. How Birds Migrate by Paul Keerlinger for the mechanics of migration. A Season on the Wind by Kenn Kaufman, because it’s Kenn Kaufman and he’s great.