Local birding report

With the waning of peak migration and summertime close at hand, most birds have reached their breeding haunts and are actively pursuing mates or already on the nest. In the tops of our taller, leafy trees the high-pitched, cobweb-thin song notes of the Blackpoll warbler could be heard throughout the last several days of May. This warbler’s presence, with a black cap and white-faced mask, (similar to a Chickadee) represents one of the most identifiable features of spring migration – signifying that the great vernal flight of wood sprites is coming to an end. This long distance migrant heads north and west of Cape to the climatically stunted spruce-fir forests, called Krummholz, preferring the mountaintops of western/northern Maine and wooded islands Downeast.

Although much of the action in my backyard has slowed down, whenever there is anything going on the House Wren and Grey Catbird, ever consumed with curiosity, are always first on the scene. And on these late spring days I appreciate the prying ways of the Catbird, scolding me one minute and accompanying me along the well-worn path leading to our garden the next.

Additionally, starting in early June, a Wood Thrush began regularly singing from the depths of the nearby woods. This pot-bellied, long-legged thrush’s scientific name is Hylocichla mustelina, meaning “weasel-colored woodland thrush,” and refers to the bird’s rich, brownish red head, back, wings and tail. On one occasion this woodland minstrel sat in an ash tree behind our house and uttered its serene A-olee notes. Henry David Thoreau said of this creature, “The (wood)

thrush alone declares the immortal wealth and vigor that is in the forest. Here is a bird in whose strain the story is told... Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring, when he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of heaven are not shut against him.”

Stepping into the more interior, intact wooded sections of Cape just before dark, Great-crested Flycatchers, Eastern Wood Peewees (another forest flycatcher), Black-throated Green Warblers, Pine Warblers and Ovenbirds all sing in earnest. The latter of the warblers prefers rather open, dry deciduous forests and can also be found in the wetter lowlands and swampy forest lands with heavy undergrowth. A walking warbler, the Ovenbird with its dandy orange-brown cap atop its head steps daintily along the forest floor in search of food. On a related note, in the twilight hours of June 2, while walking in Robinson Woods III, I was startled by a sudden burst of wild song - a medley of hurried, warbling notes coming from a bird fluttering some thirty feet above me. I later learned that what I had witnessed was a courtship display or flight song from a male Ovenbird. Prior to witnessing this remarkable performance, I had only seen Ovenbirds calling from the ground or low perch.

On June 3, three Red-eyed Vireos were located along Shore Road. The unfamiliar musical soliloquy coming from an old elm tree was the tip off. The Red-eyed Vireo’s song is a broken series of slurred notes, each phrase ending in either an upswing or a downslur, as if the bird asks itself a question, then answers and repeats it. Additionally, a first of the year Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was spotted foraging within the understory vegetation along a nearby seasonal stream.

Other noteworthy mentionings include: on June 5 in Robinson Woods II – a raspy cry from a fledgling Barred Owl accompanied by the mechanical rattle of a Belted Kingfisher and three different singing thrushes, Hermit, Wood and Veery. Also, hundreds of Cedar Waxwings could be found throughout our woodlands in early June, perhaps Mother Nature’s way of helping protect our treasured oak trees. Waxwings are almost always zeroed in on berry yielding trees, the exception being during peak spring inchworm periods where they feast on these destructive pests. Waxwings also love blossoms which contain the plant embryos that are a rich source of nutrition. While we do see Cedar Waxwings throughout the year, the masses of birds that are seen in spring are most surely migratory flocks from far away. Be sure to listen for their high-pitched flight calls that ebb and flow across the upper canopies of our forests.