Wednesday, June 13 – Ed

I spent all day today in Grand Rapids at a conference for Economic Developers. Could have been worse I guess. At least it wasn’t an insurance salesman conference. They fed really well too. No scrapple though. Obviously they have never done economic development in the Penn. Dutch country.

Our species counts right now stand at 270 for me, 231 for Lise, and a family count of 274. We missed a fair number of Spring migrants and it took us longer to find nesting species than it should have. A lot of the reason is unfamiliarity with the vocalizations, both songs and calls. We do have a  few of them down but nowhere the number we need know to be respectable birders.

Knowing the calls is essential part of birding. There are some species that look so similar the only reliable way to differentiate them is by call. One time I had one of the empidonax flycatchers dead in my hand and still could not tell which of the five possible species it was. There was a crowd of fellow grad students and some pressure for me to name the species. I was thinking of squeezing his little chest to force some air out of him hoping it would make his call.

Knowing the songs and calls really speeds up the process of finding new species. Or in the case of big years, knowing the calls helps limit the time spent tracking down dead ends. A great example is the American redstart. At least five times we have spent time tracking down an elusive bird with an unfamiliar call only to find another yet American redstart. Or as we have renamed them, another damn redstart. Don’t get me wrong, a redstart is always nice to see, but we could have been focusing on other species we haven’t seen.

Birds use a bony structure called a syrinx to make their sounds. They can control both sides of their trachea independently of each other and control the membranes holding the parts of syrinx together to make some fairly complex sounds. Some species can even create two notes simultaneously.

Translating bird sounds into English is kind of amusing. These are quotes from Peterson’s Eastern Field Guide.

• Tufted titmouse: notes similar to those of chickadees but more drawling, nasal, wheezy and complaining. Something like an avian version of George W. Bush.
• Virginia rail: wak-wak-wak, also kidick, kidick, and various kicking sounds. When I think kicking sounds I think Marvel comics kicking sounds. Bam, pow, wap, umph. Maybe a “holy highwater Batman” thrown in there too.
• Eastern kingbird: A rapid sputter of high bickering notes. Think of listening to the Republican primary. Or Congress.
• Western kingbird: Shrill bickering calls. Think Fox News.
• McCown’s longspur: clear sweet warbles. Not just warbles, mind you but clear sweet ones. Not to be mistaken for the “bright pleasant warble” of the painted bunting. Doesn’t clear sweet warbles imply there are also murky sour warbles? Rap music maybe?
• Bobolink: ecstatic and bubbling, starting with reedy notes and rollicking upward. Makes me think of Strasburg, North Dakota’s favorite son, Mr. Wunnerful Wunnerful himself, Lawrence Welk. Let’s go boys, a wan an a twoo…
• Scarlet tanager: Robin-like but hoarse (suggests a robin with a sore throat). So not only do you need to know what a robin sounds like, you need to know what a robin with the flu sounds like.
• Scrub jay: A rough rasping kwesh. Also a low rasping zhreek or zhrink. Do these guys smoke or what? The avian version of Marian McPartland maybe?

So imagine trying to translate Peterson’s for say, Japanese birders. These are the English versions of birds sounds straight out of Peterson’s; whoooleeeeee, wheeloooooooooo, skyow, skewk, kucks, oong ka’ choonk, ker-loo, garooo-a-a-a, zayrp, ker-lee-oo, tchack, chick’-a-per-weeoo-chick’, quee-ee, ji-jiv, frahnk, dzeeb, swee-ditchety…. and the list goes on. I’m pretty sure you won’t find these in the Official Scrabble Dictionary.

This weekend we will be going a bit north with our friends Barb and Ellen to listen for a song that “..resembles a Northern Waterthrush’s song; at times suggests a House Wren’s. Typical song starts with 3 or 4 low staccato notes, continues with rapid ringing notes on a higher pitch, and ends abruptly.” Yes, we are going for Kirtland’s warblers.