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WORDS ON BIRDS
Spring birds warm a winter day
December 8, 2007
Steve Grinley
On these cold, wintery nights, with holidays
approaching, most folk have "visions of sugar plums dance in their
heads." That is, unless you are a birder. We birders dream of mild
mornings in May at Plum Island or Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge,
with visions of warblers dancing all around us. Last Sunday, it was
like one of those dreams.
Margo and I decided to do some urban birding around
Boston. There were reports of late orange-crowned warblers in the
Boston Public Garden, so we headed there first. The weather was
anything but mild. The temperature was in the low 20's and there was a
breeze producing a wind chill a few degrees lower. Still, it was
better than the 20-30 mph winds of the previous day.
As we walked through the gates of the Public Garden, we
were greeted by a number of chickadees that were flitting about the
trees and accompanied by a downy woodpecker. White-throated sparrows
and juncos were scratching the leaves underneath shrubs. Blue jays
screamed in the distance, a northern cardinal was chipping from a
dense hedge and goldfinches twittered overhead. All very wintery
enough.
It didn't take long before we found a purple beech tree
hopping with activity more conducive of spring. Some of the lower
branches had retained their leaves and birds were feeding in the
clusters of leaves. The first bird we saw was rather gray, with pale
striping - a pine warbler. Then, a flash of yellow from another bird,
and further study revealed a Nashville warbler with its gray head and
white eye-ring. Next, an olive-green colored ruby-crowned kinglet
flitted by. Several other small birds turned out to be warblers. There
were four orange-crowned warblers moving in and out of the leaves. Two
of those were distinctly pale yellow and the other two more uniformly
olive-gray.
A second pine warbler dropped to the walkway below and
started feeding on something (invisible to us) that was on the
pavement. This pine warbler was also quite gray, without the bright
yellow breast of spring birds that help us find them in the tall
pines. Occasionally pedestrians would walk by and the warbler would
move to the side of the path, but then it continue its search for
food, undisturbed by the presence of people. A few minutes later, a
hermit thrush joined the pine warbler near the side of the walkway and
scratched at the dirt and leaves beside the path.
Back in the tree above, Margo spotted a warbler with
brighter yellow in the head and black striping on the throat and
sides. It was a black-throated green warbler! Our fourth warbler
species for this early December day.
We were then distracted by loud blue jays, scolding in
trees a few hundred feet away. A few of the birds we had been watching
were distracted as well, and flew off in that direction. So we decided
to follow. The blue jays were leading a chorus of complaints, joined
by robins, chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches. Even the hermit
thrush was high in a tree, inquisitive of the raucous. We thought for
sure that the birds had found an owl. We searched the trees up and
down, but saw nothing suspicious.
We checked every hole for a possible screech owl.
Finally, Margo spotted a face in a hole looking back at her. At first
excited, her voice turned to disappointment when a gray squirrel
emerged, followed by another. No owl. The fervor quieted down and the
birds dispersed.
We returned to the beech tree, and many of the birds
were still there. With warblers, kinglets and hermit thrushes, it
truly had the feeling of a May morning in Mount Auburn. But then a
brown creeper lit on the trunk of the birch, a red-tailed hawk soared
over the brownstones on Commonwealth Avenue, and the biting cold all
reminded us that this was, indeed, December. Though this encounter had
warmed our spirits, we left in search of hot chocolate to warm our
bodies. Steve Grinley
Bird Watcher's Supply & Gift and Nature Shop at Joppa Flats
Newburyport, MA
BirdWSG@Verizon.net
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