Bird Findings
Pileated woodpecker
Remember your first sighting of a Pileated Woodpecker or a Peregrine Falcon? Or maybe your childhood discovery of a robin’s nest, or, sadly, the broken little blue eggshells beneath it?
Robin nest
The late-nineteenth century bird writing pioneer, Olive Thorne Miller, discovered a new bird species and wrote about it in the popular magazine, the Atlantic Monthly. She was then scolded publicly by the noted male ornithologist, William Brewster, for reporting her finding in a mere magazine instead of a proper scientific journal. He was embarrassed because well after her discovery he had announced in the Auk that he had found the new species. In a polite riposte, Miller wrote, “I should take pleasure in “sharing my discoveries’ were I so happy as to make any; but to me everything is a discovery; each bird on first sight, is a new creation; his manners and habits are a revelation, as fresh and interesting to me as if they had never been observed before.”
Fox Sparrow
Rufous-sided Towhee
Northern Cardinal
It is this joy, the feeling of revelation that is the essence of seeing live birds, whether for the first time, in some special setting, doing something you have never noticed before, or after a long, long absence. RCC Bird Watch and Wonder co-editor, Bob Musil, has noted his own joy at the rare appearances of a Fox Sparrow or a Rufous-sided Towhee jumping backwards in the leaf litter left beneath an azalea in his yard. He was even moved to reflect on his love for the common cardinal when one hopped off his small, stone St. Francis feeder onto his kitchen windowsill and peered through the glass as if to offer thanks.
Eastern Bluebirds
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Bluebirds may be giving thanks, too, as they gathered for mealworms put out for them by Dale Mangum who sent us this happy group photo from Patuxent, Maryland. Bird watchers, of course, also note the numbers of birds they see at Christmas and other collective counts that are a key part of citizen science. We report the most interesting and important findings here, along with the arrivals of migrating birds tracked at places like Hummingbird Central, or your own observations of the first junco or whitethroat of winter, or the first Red-winged Blackbird or robin of spring. The mass arrival of some species also marks seasonal celebrations like those of the return of Turkey vultures to Hinckley, Ohio.
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Sometimes the wonder of birds comes from hearing them, whether you can identify the sound or not. Rachel Carson is best known for her exposé of the chemical industry in Silent Spring. But it is the loss of bird song that gives the book its title and its power. “On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.”
Painted Bunting
Carolina Wren
Whether it is this wren you can hear that was part of Rachel Carson’s “dawn chorus,” a report or photo from you, from one of our followers across the nation, or a rare glimpse of a Painted Bunting in Maryland, you will find it here.
We think you will agree with Olive Thorne Miller, that each sighting, each finding, will be a true joy, a true discovery.
Remarkable Sightings Saving Puget Sound’s Puffins: Bringing These Ocean Ambassadors Back From the Brink Where Have All the Backyard Birds Gone? Past Issues of the RCC Bird Watch and Wonder
The Latest on Bird Findings
The southward migration winds down in November, as most, but not all, migrants have gone further south. The southbound migration continues into early January. We are now more likely to get birds that are out of their normal range. Four of the birds seen this week are in this category. Ray Ewing found a western cattle-egret at Slough Farm on Oct. 24. The species originated in Africa but is well established in the Americas, especially in the warm southern states, preferring agricultural areas near wetlands. Numerous observers have seen it. Read more
Hundreds of seabirds clung to Williamson Rocks, a guano-covered cluster of stone and grass rising just above the high tide line in Burrows Bay, near Anacortes, Washington. The spectacle drew a flurry of shutter clicks from photographers on a passing tour boat. The islet brimming with cormorants and gulls was missing at least one photogenic element, though. Decades ago, tufted puffins nested there, as the comical-looking seabirds once did throughout Washington’s San Juan Islands. Read more
Backyards that once erupted with the chatter of sparrows feel quieter. Fields that used to ring with the calls of blackbirds and meadowlarks now sit in an uneasy silence. Even the evening skies, once alive with the swooping swallows chasing a nighttime snack, seem strangely empty. Since 1970, nearly 3 billion birds have vanished from North America’s skies — almost one in every four. And most startling, it isn’t the rare species being lost first; it’s the sparrows, swallows, jays and thrushes that once seemed too abundant to ever fail. Read more
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