V22 N8

Bird Droppings
Dispatches from the nation’s birdwatching capital… by Seymore Thanu
This time of year is a treasure hunt
for bird watchers. New species are
arriving every day. You can mark the
calendar with them. Great Horned
Owls calling in January… Waterfowl
migrating in February… Robins singing in
March… Osprey arrive March 17. The first
Purple Martin is appearing, now...Phoebe and
Laughing Gull any day. Pine Warblers singing
at Belleplain… Yellow-throated Warblers
close behind.
You can always count on nature to maintain
a regular schedule. It’s real. It’s affirming.
It’s natural. It’s how our ancestors marked
time. Take your average birder, put them in a
sensory deprivation chamber for a year and
give them their freedom. In one hour, they’ll
pinpoint the date give or take a week, based on
the composition of birds that they find.
Yes, just as breeding birds are arriving.
Wintering species are departing. The ranks of
sea ducks are thinning. Snow Geese are heading
north. Yellow-rumped Warblers are donning
touches of yellow. By April they’ll be on
their way to breeding territories in the boreal
forests of Canada, the surge of neotropical
migrants. Black-throated Green Warblers...
Blackburnians...Tennessee Warblers... more!
You say you’re not a birder so don’t recognize
those names. I say, “how sad.” Being
in Cape May and not knowing birds is like
not knowing the name of your next-door
neighbor.
Indeed, bird watching is humanity’s old-
est preoccupation. You say you’ve tried bird
watching but found it too frustrating? I say
you had a poorly designed bird field guide
and binoculars that didn’t work. All you really
need is eyes and ears working within accepted
tolerance specs. Let the birds do the rest.
There are smartphone apps that even
identify the birds you hear. Downloaded for
free, Merlin identifies not only the birds singing
close by but even the single note utterances
of distant birds. And you don’t have to
name every bird down to the level of species.
Putting a bird in the right family group is
enough to start and you can do this already.
I’ll bet you can identify 10 species of birds
right now — Robin, Blue Jay, crow, Canada
Goose, Great-black-backed Gull, swan,
Turkey Vulture, goldfinch, blackbird, dove…
That’s 10 and you are well on your way
toward getting all the rest. Ten thousand possible
species across the planet. Seven hundred
in North America. Three hundred in
New Jersey. It’s a treasure hunt. Collect all ten
thousand and win a lifetime of travel.
Late Winter Harvest
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experience unlike any other. Set in the warm dining room of
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Learn More & Reserve at
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140 Stevens Street
West Cape May, NJ 08204
March 28, 2024 EXIT ZERO Page 27