After a week of cool, cloudy, rainy weather, the sun returned with cloud chaperones. I seized the opportunity to bird by bike along Exit Glacier Road this morning. The new, spring-green leaves of the cottonwoods, alders, and willows are now large enough to easily hide the birds, requiring birding by ear. The exception were the many ROBINS and a few HERMIT THRUSH that flushed up from the roadside or flew across. I found and buried one beautiful car-strike Hermit Thrush.
Just before the parking lot, I heard my First-of-Spring upward spiral of a SWAINSON’S THRUSH singing off in the woods with VARIED THRUSH and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS. I braked to a halt and started recording with my phone. The recording is not as loud as I’d like, but as an experiment, it sorta works.
Also heard along the way were TREE and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, though not as many as in May, HERMIT THRUSH, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, YELLOW WARBLERS, WILSON’S WARBLERS, and many FOX SPARROWS.
On the way back, I thought I heard the quick, jumbling song of the GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH by the USFS pullout. But when I tried to record it, all I heard was a cheerful Fox Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warblers, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and a distant TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.
Recording a video is an interesting way to bird, and to share, learn, and remember the songs and other vocalizations.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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