Hiking

I love the woods.  I am exhilarated to be there in the middle of spring, with the rustle of the trees in the wind and the uneven feel of the ground under my feet.  I walk along paths that twist and turn, while the fresh vegetation brushes against my legs.  I enjoy the warm, loamy soil, the pungent aroma of decaying leaf litter, and the way the sunlight breaks through the canopy and falls in patches on the forest floor.  As I walk, I watch for the tiny, dusty toads that seem to pop out of the soil and the flash of a spring azure butterfly’s lavender wings when I disturb the insect from its spot on the path.  Sometimes I even glimpse a blue-tailed skink’s bright scales as the lizard scuttles into the piles of dead leaves from last winter.

I love the surprise of coming upon a narrow, meandering creek in the middle of the woods.  I watch the sun gleaming on the surface of the water, the revolving bands of whirligig beetles, and the skitter of water striders.  The sounds of the birds in the woods catch my attention, as does the sight of a golden yellow Prothonotary Warbler materializing like a speck of sunshine from the darkness of the trees.  I love hearing the shrill cry of a hawk overhead and the thrill of spotting an owl awake and perched on a branch in the middle of the afternoon.  The owl stares back at me with a wide-eyed gaze and startles away, taking off through the forest with silent beats of its mottled wings.

I love the smell of sap from the pine trees, the feel of the corky bark on the sweet gum twigs, and the rasping calls of the gray treefrogs.  My calf muscles ache and my breaths become a little shorter as I ascend a small slope.  I am in my element.  The rush and frenzy of the rest of the world seems to fall away, replaced by the chatter of birds in the undergrowth along the sides of the path, the squirrels barking from the branches far overhead, and the glimpse of a large saturniid moth that is resting in the shadows.  Sometimes I find ticks clinging to the inside of my socks and mosquito bites that I never noticed earlier.  I relax back into civilization, wishing that I could go outdoors and experience it all over again.

Polyphemus moth

Springtimes

 A repost from March 31, 2018.  Hope you enjoy!

A vestige of autumn--a sweetgum ball--hanging on a limb with new spring leaf buds.  Note the spring foliage in the background, as well.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, White-eyed Vireos, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have arrived on their breeding grounds in the area where I live.  That’s to be expected, just as it’s getting closer and closer to the departure times for wintering Cedar Waxwings, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and White-throated Sparrows.  I have seen or heard all of these migratory species, plus permanent residents like Brown Thrashers, Northern Mockingbirds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebes, Red-tailed Hawks, and Canada Geese, on my most recent walks through the neighborhood.  This time of year is a lot of fun for those of us who enjoy birding, because the species palette changes so rapidly from week to week, day to day (or even hour to hour, in some migration hotspots).  

If you’ve been a birder for a while, then data that you collected in previous years can serve as a guide to what birds you might expect to see on any given day in the spring.  That said, there is also an element of unpredictability, which helps to keep things exciting.  After my walk, I started thinking about my early days as a birder: what sorts of observations had I made on this date, several years ago?  I looked through some of my old field notebooks to find out!  

Revisiting these old notes turned out to be more interesting than I anticipated.  Since I started birdwatching in May 2000, the first spring in which I really paid attention to birds was 2001.  As it turns out, I did bird on March 31, 2001.  I was with other Okatibbee Creek Audubon Society birders at Tallahala Wildlife Management Area, in Bienville National Forest.  This was a noteworthy day for me because I not only saw Wild Turkeys during the car trip to Tallahala, but I spotted my first-ever Belted Kingfisher—a male bird (lacking rust-red belly strap of the female) perched on a power line over a pool of water, just north of Meridian.  It’s a common species, yes, but it was a “life bird” for me back then, and I remember how cool it was that I could see the white dot in front of the kingfisher’s eye and the bristly crest on the somewhat comically oversized, slate blue head.

This kingfisher was photographed on December 31, 2015 at Choctaw Lake, MS.  Similar position on the wire, but viewed from the back, unlike my "lifer" Belted Kingfisher.

I wasn’t able to see very much on the actual field trip, unfortunately—I suppose that I had yet to develop the birder’s skill of tracking down tiny, fast-moving songbirds moving through tall trees and tangled branches.  My birding mentor pointed out the thin, high-pitched songs of a few newly-arrived migratory species, including Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Parula, and Black-and-white Warbler, but since I wasn’t very good with birdsong identification, either, I didn’t end up adding those species to my life list until quite a while later.  It was still a pleasant trip, though, in part because the woods were so beautiful with all of the trees either in blossom or just leafing out, and wildflowers filling in the sunny gaps on the forest floor.  On the drive back from Tallahala, I saw a Wood Duck (another lifer, technically, although I had definitely observed this species a number of times before I became a birder), Great Egrets, and Barn Swallows.  Not bad for a beginner, I guess!

March 31 wound up being significant again during the next year, 2002.  By that point, I had studied bird sounds from both the old Thayer birding software and a CD of 50 common species recorded by Lang Elliott, so I was much better at auditory identification of birds.  I was eager to put my new abilities to use, so I got up early in the morning and spent some time waiting for migratory songbirds at the edge of the woods on my family’s property in Collinsville.  Although I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, I had a feeling that the mixed, shrubby woods on our land might be good for Black-and-white Warblers at this time of year.  Sure enough, after five minutes or so, I heard the squeaky wee-see-wee-see-wee-see song of a male Black-and-white.  I spished loudy, and the warbler came closer to investigate.  Another life bird!

It looked just like this Black-and-white Warbler that I photographed in Arkansas on March 25, 2014.  The northwestern Arkansas woods were nowhere near as green at that time as springtime Mississippi woods, though.

Interestingly, I also saw a pair of Wood Ducks flying through the backyard on this day, exactly a year after my “life bird” sighting in 2001.  We didn’t have ponds on the property, but a few of the neighbors did.  Even so, Wood Ducks coming through the yard were definitely not a daily occurrence.

Although I birded even more during 2003 than I had in previous years, I don’t have any field notes from the specific date of March 31, 2003.  March 31, 2004, however, has an entry.  By this time, I was living in Macon, Mississippi, so the progression of spring migrants may have been a day or two behind that of the more southerly Collinsville.  The habitat was different too—much more open and orchard-like.  And, of course, every year brings slightly different weather, which can affect bird migration.  On March 31, 2004, the weather was cool and windy.  I saw the usual resident Brown Thrashers, Northern Mockingbirds, and Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers—very similar to my March 31 list for this year, actually!  

Brown Thrasher -- March 30, 2018

Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets flew overhead during the day, though, and there were also two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons early in the evening.  Night-herons—and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons in particular—usually are not found in northeastern Mississippi throughout the year, but instead arrive there in the spring and depart in the fall.  

Other migrants on this day in 2004 were Cedar Waxwings, in a flock of about 10, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers—one species about to check out and head northward to nest, the other just arriving to nest in Mississippi.  Going and coming.  As you may remember, those species made my 2018 list, as well.  Is it a surprising coincidence?  Not really.  Both of these birds are typicallly quite common this time of year.  Still, it’s both fascinating and rewarding to see these patterns and connections in birdlife over the years.  If you have older field notes of your own, or access to someone else’s old records, I strongly recommend taking the time to look at them anew.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher April 12, 2014, in Arkansas.  The species is very common in the breeding season.

Common Gallinules at the Refuge

Over the last few years, Common Gallinules have become more common at Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge during the winter.  While they have long been regular summer residents in the area, the overwintering is apparently a fairly recent development.  Is it a bad sign?  A good one?  Neutral?  I'm not entirely sure.  I suspect that it may be related to climate change (in this case, increasingly warm winters in north Mississippi), so it's certainly a potentially concerning development, and worth monitoring.

During the winter, these Noxubee NWR gallinules spend most of their time around the edges of the lakes, and occasionally mingle with American Coots.  Here are some photos:

The Gallinule is to the right of the American Coot

Gallinule -- note the white lines on the sides of the body.

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Lots of foraging in the shallows!

The lake.  What you can't see is the biting wind!

My Christmas Bird Count Highlights

This winter’s Christmas Bird Count will end on January 5, 2023, but I suspect that most birding groups have already completed their counts.  I participated in the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge CBC—a bird survey that I’ve helped with many times over the years—on December 17, which is fairly early in the count period.  The weather started out fairly cold (for this area, at least), but it warmed up a bit over the course of the day, and the woods that make up most of my birding territory provided a surprising amount of protection from the wind.  I started out at Dorman Lake, where I usually pick up on a few Red-cockaded Woodpecker calls as those birds begin to stir in the early morning.  Unfortunately, there were none to be heard in the woods near that lake.

Overall, I would say that bird activity was low.  There were relatively few larger groups of sparrows, warblers, and other small species in the forests and thickets, and I saw no ducks at all—not even at Dorman Lake, where I usually find flocks of Ring-necked Ducks.  However, even though I didn’t see as many species as I am accustomed to finding, there were both expected and unexpected delights.  One of the unexpected ones was an American Kestrel in an area outside of my territory.  For at least a minute or two, the male kestrel darted, swooped, and hovered over the fields and the catalpa trees near the road.  Because birds tend not to stay in one place for very long, this kestrel went undetected by the birders who were covering this territory, so I was able to add it to the count list!  In this same area, I spotted two Vesper Sparrows, which are quite uncommon in this region of the country.  Vesper Sparrows usually inhabit fields and pastures, and their pale bills, white eye-rings, wing-bars, and white outer tail feathers help to distinguish them from other sparrows.  These Vesper Sparrows perched in a tree along the side of the road, allowing me to take some photographs.

Other species that I saw in various locations included White-throated, Song, Swamp, and Savannah Sparrows; White-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches; Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets; Yellow-throated and Pine Warblers; Red-headed, Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated Woodpeckers; Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers; Northern Flickers; Eastern Phoebes; Winter and Carolina Wrens; and a good number of others.  All of these were expected, but that didn't make them any less interesting to me.  No, there weren’t as many individuals and species as last year, but I had a great time in the field, regardless!  There is no substitute for time spent enjoying the outdoors, and the CBC is a rewarding way to do just that.

Time Once Again for the Christmas Bird Count!

The 101st Christmas Bird Count, back in December 2000, was my introduction to both my local Audubon Society chapter and the wider world of birdwatching.  Prior to that experience, I had birded mostly around my own yard in rural Mississippi, and certainly didn’t know anyone else who shared my avid interest in birds.  But all of that changed.  The count leader assigned my mother (who did the driving) and me to an area that included a portion of the local reservoir and dam, as well as the neighborhoods adjacent to it.  I remember standing at our first stop on the route, shivering in my heavy coat and thick gloves as I observed Bufflehead ducks and American Coots bobbing in the waves near the spillway.  Fortunately, the temperature increased considerably as the day progressed, as did the numbers on my bird checklist and my appreciation for this challenging but enjoyable form of citizen science.  What had originally been only a hobby for me was now a way to make a real contribution to ornithology.

The Christmas Bird Count is one of the longest-running wildlife censuses.  The period of December 14, 2022 through January 5, 2023 marks the 123rd time that the count has been conducted.  The count circles, of which there are several per state or province, measure 15 miles in diameter, and each count compiler assigns portions of the count area to the various groups or individuals to cover.  The rules for counting are fairly simple: all observed, identified wild birds should be included in the tally, and the same area cannot be surveyed more than once.

American Kestrel seen on Noxubee NWR CBC, December 17, 2016

In addition to being a fun time in the field, the Christmas Bird Count is a great way to touch base with other birders and hone one’s birding skills.  While I normally do make an effort to keep accurate tallies of birds that I observe, the CBC forces me to pay even closer attention to what I’m seeing and hearing—to locate and identify every individual bird that I possibly can.  A lot of CBC work involves intensely focusing on details: listening carefully to detect all of the brief contact and alarm calls from kinglets, warblers, chickadees, titmice, wrens, nuthatches, and creepers in the dense woods; sorting through groups of "little brown jobs" to identify the different species; scanning distant rafts of waterfowl for subtle differences in plumage between species; trying to get a reasonable estimate of the number of individuals in an enormous flock of blackbirds, robins, or waxwings; and so forth.

One of the most common songbirds seen in the winter months in North America: the White-throated Sparrow.  (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

The Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 as a response to the then-common “side hunts” that involved teams of hunters competing to see who could shoot the most animals—birds included—on Christmas Day.  The count’s founder, Frank M. Chapman, was a prominent ornithologist and conservationist who (quite understandably) found the tradition of “side hunts” to be irresponsible and repulsive, so he recruited a number of colleagues from all around the country to count all of the birds that they could find on Christmas.  Although the CBC has expanded considerably since its conception, its basic formula hasn’t changed much.  The fairly simple, straightforward rules make it just as fun for beginners as it is for those who have done it for years.

Considering how simple the CBC really is, how valuable could its results be to ornithology?  In some cases, more valuable than one might think.  For example, Niven et al. (2004) used CBC data to examine population changes in the bird species that breed in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska and winter farther south.  Some of these boreal species, such as Merlins and Palm Warblers, showed population increases.  Populations of several other species were relatively stable, while some species, including Harris’s Sparrows, Rusty Blackbirds, and Northern Shrikes, had declined significantly.  The researchers noticed that the CBC winter population trends paralleled those in the data from the Breeding Bird Survey, another long-running bird census.

Merlin at Choctaw Lake, MS, December 31, 2015.

Like the authors of the boreal species study, Link et al. (2006) found that CBC data matched data from other surveys very well.  In this instance, American Black Ducks showed similar population changes on both the CBC and the Midwinter Waterfowl Inventory—an indication of the general accuracy of CBC data!  The data can also be useful for examining the impact of disease on bird populations; in 2003, C. Caffrey and C. C. Peterson looked at CBC results over a multi-year period for several common species in the northeastern U. S., and came to the conclusion that West Nile Virus had likely not significantly affected the populations in that region.  And these studies are merely the tip of the iceberg; CBC data can be a treasure trove of information for a patient researcher.  This is something worth celebrating about the CBC as the 123rd count begins and as we move into a new year.

A rare (for the region) Palm Warbler seen on Noxubee NWR CBC, December 16, 2017.

References:

Caffrey, C. and Peterson, C. C.  2003.  Christmas Bird Count data suggest West Nile Virus may not be a conservation issue in the northeastern United States.  American Birds 57:14-21.

Link, W. A., Sauer, J. R., and Niven, D. K.  2006.  A hierarchical model for regional analysis of population change using Christmas Bird Count data, with application to the American Black Duck.  The Condor 108:13-24.

National Audubon Society, Christmas Bird Count Compiler Resources.  Retrieved December 30, 2017, from http://www.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count-compiler-resources.

Niven, D. K., Sauer, J. R., Butcher, G. S., and Link, W. A.  2004.  Christmas Bird Count provides     insights into population change in land birds that breed in the boreal forest.  American Birds 58:10-20.

Weidensaul, S.  2007.  Of a Feather.  Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, Florida, USA.