Starting the list out right
WINGIN’
IT
By
Kate Crowley
You will probably not
be surprised to see that I am writing the first column of 2016 about starting a
new list for the year. I can’t help
it. It’s an exciting time of the year –
truly starting with a clean slate (so to speak). I think anyone who keeps annual lists of the
birds they see feels this way. I’ve said
before, that this ‘hobby’ is most like going on a treasure hunt – all year
round – and I don’t think that’s something any of us outgrow. But instead of looking for a pile of gold (or
cash if you go to casinos), we are searching for beauty and surprising
discoveries.
So on January first, we
were at my mom’s house in Iowa City and as soon as it was light enough outside
to see the birds, I spotted a gorgeous bright red male cardinal. For many people this is not such a big deal,
but we just don’t see cardinal in our neighborhood and there is nothing more
stunning then one of these striking birds surrounded by a snowy landscape. Mike had put out sunflower seeds on the deck
of her house and almost immediately the birds came in. So I started off my New
Bird Year with a spark of color.
Next as we drove on the
freeway we spotted a red-tail hawk perched on a branch of a tree next to the
freeway. This seems to be fairly common
on all our trips to Iowa. The hawks can
be found on either side of the road, keeping their keen eyes on the ground for
any unwary rodent. What was surprising,
however, was seeing a mature bald eagle flying over a cornfield. Then we saw two more in the same area and
finally one sitting in a snow covered field of corn stubble. This is just not where we expect to find our
national bird hanging out. The rivers
and creeks are still open and maybe they are finding fish in them and bringing
them back to the fields to eat. There
could have been a road killed deer in the area too, which is popular with these
birds.
Later we spotted a
rough-legged hawk in a tree alongside the road.
They are the same size as the red-tailed, but have a dark band across
their chest. Along some of the
backroads, on the power lines the smallest of our falcons – the American
kestrel- perched, and like their larger raptor cousins, they too are looking
for voles, shrews or mice in the grassy ditches.
We will likely see all
these species again in the coming 12 months, but seeing them on this first day
of the year is the best. Other ‘birders’
will understand, those not yet captured by this part of birdwatching may
not.
At home we got our
checklist that we keep for the birds that we see on our property each
year. The total for 2015 was a
disappointing 58 species. Our 8th
lowest – we average 65 species per year.
But we were gone from home at critical times last spring when the
warblers normally migrate through and we were also absent for a lot of weeks in
the summer. This year may not be much
better in terms of our presence, but we will still duly note each new bird as
it appears in our yard, field or forest.
If nothing else, these kinds of checklists can potentially be of value
in the future when people are trying to figure out when certain bird species
were common or rare. We will have 30
years of these records at the end of 2016.
If nothing else, it is of interest to us to look back and see changes or
similarities. We record the day and month that each species was first
seen. Mike has plotted some of these
dates and has noticed a definite trend of earlier arrival in the spring of some
of the migratory species. The same sort of data that scientists are seeing all
over North America as our climate has been warming and shifting. How this is going to affect populations in
the long term is of great interest and concern to many of us.
Winter, for a
birdwatcher in northern Minnesota can be lacking in exciting sightings, but
when you have a list that you’re trying to keep, you pay more attention to your
surroundings on a daily basis. The challenge is to maintain that degree of
observation and record keeping through all twelve months.
If you haven’t yet
tried this sort of record keeping or list making, I recommend you try it this
year; an easy New Year’s Resolution.
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