Birding Western Mass - Flocks, Mobs, Crows and Woodcocks
Thoughts on Birding from the Quabbin to the Berkshires
25 Woodcock Hotspots | Fish Crows | Big Flocks | Mobbing | An All-Person Trail in Easthampton
Study Up - Fish Crow and Woodcock
Fish crows’ return to Western Massachusetts has been early this year, but they will increase over the next months and re-establish their seasonal presence in the cities where they thrive. If you care to separate them from the common American crows that dominate the East Coast, it can help to listen to the fish crow’s ca-ha as prep. A longer reflection on the bird is available from the excellent BirdNote.
I’ll write a crow issue this year, I hope. Last year on a bike I passed a flock of fish crows in New Haven. Their behavior is striking; they were much more communal and social than the crows I usually see, which are plenty of those things. Fish crows are often described as following McDonald’s dumpsters, which is fair, and also that they follow rivers, which is kind of fair, but I suspect that the former is more important than the latter. Fish crows are adjusting to urban life in ways that American crows already have, but maybe with even more alacrity.
As I write this, woodcocks have only been seen two places in Western Mass in the last few weeks — Pleasant Valley in Lenox and McDonald Farm in Wilbraham. Yet, history implies they will peak in about 3-4 weeks, near the week of March 15.
I’d study the woodcock peent. Most of the times I’ve seen woodcocks I’ve been alerted first to their presence with that call, which tells me to start looking for their aerial spirals.
After the subscribe button (scroll past if you’re not in need or the mood) will be the ultimate woodcock location list.
Here’s a list of ebird hotspots (not personal locations) where there have been more than three sightings in the last three years.
In the Berkshires
George L. Darey Housatonic Valley WMA, Lenox
Northwest Hill Rd., Williamstown
Peter A. Cook Veterans Memorial Field, Clarksburg
Connecticut River Valley, South of the Holyoke Range
Fannie Stebbins Wildlife Refuge
Connecticut River Valley, North of the Holyoke Range
Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area--Boardwalk
Silvio O. Conte NWR--Fort River Division
Amherst and Granby to the Quabbin
Muddy Brook Wildlife Management Area
Quabbin Reservoir--Quabbin Park
Overflight
The murmurations were strong last weekend. Reports of sizable flocks of grackles and starlings and blackbirds are starting to pop up.
I saw a starling flock split itself in two from my third-floor home office. The halves hurled themselves in different directions. I looked for the hawk I suspected had caused the split and found it, just the suggestion of tailfeathers diving the opposite way. Behind it were two crows whom the starlings’ maneuver had alerted to the hawk’s presence.
I’m looking for flocks this time of year. Birds flock in winter when their resources are concentrated but so abundant that they cannot be effectively defended as a territory.
A few nights before I had arrived at Fitzgerald Lake’s boardwalk entrance later than I intended. I checked the lake first and found a female hooded merganser; I then decided to try to make the blind and back before dark. It was worth it to sit on the worn bench in the big shed that sits on pilings over the wet ground as a flock of blackbirds came in.
They’re talking to each other. You can have at the question of whether what they use is language all you like. They’re saying things to each other. It’s not speech and it’s probably not syntax or semantics but in the burbling creaky tones are the essence of social commitment. Through that fabric darts the cord of the whistles they use, a tooting organ pipe that I only recollect hearing similarly from old trains and Australian currawongs.
Meaning is transferred in a flock of this size and glory. Bonds are formed and tested. I’m sure you hear similar threads in the hubbub. These flocks demand everyone’s attention; friends tell you “I’ve never seen so many birds” or “I’ve never heard anything like this.” On a second evening at the Fitzgerald Lake blind this week, blackbirds plummeted from their flight paths in daredevil maneuvers to join each other in a single tree that already held hundreds.
Those flocks seemed to be blackbird-only, but many include starlings and grackles as well. Flocks of birds of different species in flight together is a feathered strategy. And for this year, it’s just beginning. Look at the graphic below, which presents the grackle-blackbird mob in last year’s sightings. It’s a funny year now but the next month is likely to bring many chances to see and experience these otherworldly wonders.
Focus
Birds of prey are nesting. The birds they prey on are reacting. Mobbing behavior is a telltale for spotting birds of prey; the drama can be a joy to watch for its own reason.
I mentioned above that when I saw a flock split in two suddenly I suspected a hawk was responsible. You might also be walking now and hear the scolding calls of crows or jays.
If you hear chickadees, especially if you hear the repeated “dee dee dee,” you can calculate the degree of threat the bird seeking to communicate in the duration of the statement. The tl; dr version of this is the more dees, the more spooked the bird is. (That link is to an excellent deconstruction of chickadee calls; they’re social birds with the good manners to have variability in their vocalizations in ways humans find it easy to interpret.)
Seeing what happens among birds expands what’s visible but also makes it richer. Sometimes you’ll discover that you’re the threat. A few weeks ago, at Ashley, I searched for the threat a red squirrel was highlighting only to figure out that I was it. One of the first times I saw an owl was because I saw the crows chasing it.
Birdscape
Mutter’s Field Accessible Trail in Easthampton is an excellent short loop. The parking lot sits right off East Street. The trail’s a good loop (I always prefer loops; they feel productive and dynamic) of less than 2,000 feet. The surface of the trail is rollable or walkable. There’s actually a variety of habitats to skirt, from woods to open land. We had the mini-flocks of neighborhoods when we walked it — so, woodpeckers, finches, chickadees, etc. It’s a good example of the value of an urban oasis as well as the value of a trail that all people can use.
Bird Books and Whistles
I read The Private Lives of Public Birds and it is a triumph for the slow birder. In contrast to the empiricist’s view that Joan Strassmann takes in the excellent Slow Birding, reviewed previously, Jack Gedney is more of a poet’s birder. While his reflections are supported by research, most of the formal language stays in the bibliography. He’s a California birder, so there are more than a few species he examines that are less relevant for the Western Massachusetts audience. His language is often lyrical (and occasionally as purple as a house finch, and yes, I do know they aren’t really that purple). All the work that’s being published that focuses on enjoying birds that are where you are is my jam.