Bird News
On Feb.
The Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival has been going on for 14 years. It is based in Titusville, Fla., which is next door to Cape Kennedy/Canaveral, but more to the point is near several great birding areas including the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Flip Harrington and I have attended almost every one of the 14 festivals. It is a great chance to get together with other bird-watchers, participate in field trips to great birding areas in Florida and learn from workshops and classroom presentations. Flip also uses the festivals to check out all the new optics that the exhibitors are displaying. We enjoy dinners with other birders and the various field trips. This year’s keynote talks were by Chuck Hagner of Birder’s World and Lillian and Donald Stokes, authors of the Stokes Field Guides.
I swear I saw the bark on that oak tree move; can’t be. Wow, it is a tiny bird. It just flew to the base of a neighboring oak tree trunk.
There are all manner of firsts, first steps, first love, first kiss and, for birders, a first sighting of a particular bird species. Known as a “lifer,” or life bird, the view of a species which had escaped you previously or is in a new habitat is exciting. A fair percentage of bird-watchers keep life lists which contain all the birds they have seen, where they saw them and when. Other birders just sense when they are seeing a bird for the first time.
“Look, there is a rose-colored bird on the feeder that looks like it’s been in a train wreck. Its bill is all bent out of shape.”
“Cool, it is a white-winged crossbill, and that is the way the bill is supposed to be. I have been hoping the crossbills would come to our feeder; they have been seen in several places on the Vineyard and even on Chappaquiddick.”
It was warm and foggy all day, but the 51st annual Christmas Bird Count held on Jan. 2 was a great success. There were 77 observers — 48 in the field divided into 11 teams, each covering a different part of the Island, and 29 more at home watching their bird feeders.