It’s spring transition season for birds in my seashore part of the Pacific Northwest. As I wave goodbye to some birds, others are arriving and getting busy.
Waterfowl are the most obvious winter residents who have decamped now. I know some ducks breed locally, like Hooded mergansers and Gadwalls, but they nest in freshwater away from the saltchuck where I see them in winter. It can’t be far since they show up early in fall. Some like Harlequin ducks and Surf Scoters leave a few nonbreeders behind. But most ducks are totally absent from spring to fall, like Buffleheads, Red-breasted Mergansers, Pintails, Teal. Not to mention Trumpeter swans, loons and grebes, all migraters. Even the gulls and cormorants who live here year round are mostly out on offshore rocks and breeding islands. The net effect is that most times I go down to the seashore it is mostly empty of aquatic birds.
Undoubtedly some of the ducks around at the tail end of the season are just passing through en route to their northern breeding grounds. They don’t have name tags so I can’t know for certain if those late buffies and mergansers are the same individuals who have been my neighbors all winter long, or different ducks stopping by my local bays for rest and fuel.
Red breasted mergansers are a favorite of mine. They are abundant in winter, and very social, so there’s lots of activity to see. I saw my last RB mergansers on April 23 this year, which is pretty typical timing.
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I like to imagine what life as a duck must be. Winter is their off-season, when they paddle around at leisure, packing on the pounds, partying with their buddies. Youngsters are learning the subtleties of duckdom. Winter is a time of flocking (if they want), wandering from place to place for good feeding prospects, paddling around far from shore safe from terrestrial predators (eagles are probably a threat at any time of year). Short days, then drowsing in quiet spots for the night. Winter storms provide drama but around here anyway the ducks know where to go to get out of the wind and waves.
They gradually diminish in numbers over March into early April. By the end of April they are few and by now in mid May all have departed for their summer quarters. I like to think of them as going to work up north, and then coming home in September, October, November for the winter season.
It must be an interesting seasonal contrast for them. The water alone is totally different. Here it’s salty, big and moving constantly. Up north and inland it’s fresh, smaller scale and usually calm. Summer is high stakes time, competitive, predators nearby, and not much socializing beyond their immediate family I have read. There’s a stressful stretch of molting time when they are unable to fly. And those busy days are long.
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Meanwhile, a variety of passerines have been arriving for the summer breeding season where I live a quarter mile from the seashore. The year round residents have gotten busy too, so the focus of activity has shifted from the water to land now. Nesting! Given how so many bird features and behaviors are geared toward propagation of the species, it’s hard not to conclude that breeding is kind of the key focus of their life, biologically and evolutionarily speaking. Their current work load as I watch it looks exhausting compared to the relative chillin winter life of birds here.
The first sign of the shift comes in early spring for some birds when their plumage changes into brightly colored patterns. In my local bays I see that among the migraters like the loons and grebes.
Some songbirds by the shore who I’ve seen in their subtle winter colors brighten up before departing too, like the Golden-crowned sparrows, which are strictly winter birds.
Dark-eyed juncos are year-round birds but I see a lot less of them in summer. They shift their habitat, even in the same general geographic area.
From BirdWeb, a great online resource of the Seattle Audubon Society :
During the breeding season, Dark-eyed Juncos use a variety of forested habitat, but prefer moist conifer or mixed forests with dense understory and forest openings. During the winter, they can be found in open woodlands and brushy areas including towns, gardens, and shrub-steppe habitat.
BirdWeb Dark-eyed Junco
This is a crappy picture but I like seeing the two kinds of sparrows together, the winter GCs and the summer WCs. To be sure, some White crowned sparrows stick around in winter but many more migrate in for the season.
The summer busyness of raising youngsters is evident everywhere, from nest protectiveness to food gathering for chicks to clueless fledglings. Photo-wise it’s harder for me to catch that kind of action. But I’m sure other Chorusters have seen and photo’d activity like that in your own neighborhoods!
Much of the activity is in trees, marshes and thickets. It’s a lucky moment when they emerge to perch out in the open for a sec.
I don’t know exactly where their nests are for the most part, but they must be nearby when you see little birds attacking big birds, chasing them away from a certain area. I see robins chasing ravens, ravens chasing redtails, blackbirds chasing everybody! I caught some pictures of a redwinged blackbird attacking a Bald eagle last year in late April that’s pretty typical. They will literally make contact! But only from above and behind.
I can infer nesting by the social changes in birds. For example, Black Oystercatchers in winter typically group up in small flocks. Come spring, several of my nearby beaches are each “owned” by a pair who are nesting in a more protected site not far away. By now, instead of seeing both of the pair foraging together along the beach, I’m only seeing one. The other is most likely guarding the nest now. There’s one nest I know its exact location based on where the oystercatcher flies directly to, and where there’s lots of screeching when a raven, hawk or eagle passes over.
Other birds come to my yard with their fledglings, like various finches, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, blackbirds, starlings, doves. Feeders and birdbaths give them a boost at this time of year.
The Red Crossbills and Blackheaded Grosbeaks arrive in mid spring, immediately start nesting, raise the youngsters for a little while and then move on.
Some birds are transients, just passing through on their way to summer breeding spots elsewhere, stopping only for a day. Green-winged teal are never in this particular bay (below) in the winter. Safe to say they stopped by to feed and rest. They have a long way to go still. (The Canada geese in the picture were moving their newly hatched goslings from an offshore rock to the beach, where they then trekked overland to a wetland. Some of our geese do not migrate anymore.)
Spring is a season with lots of drama, changing location, raising families, adjusting to summertime food sources and weather. For a birder, there’s something to see at every time of year, even close by our homes. What’s notable in your neighborhood right now?
The Dawn Chorus is open for your birdy news of the week.