McGolrick Bird Club Issue 004
May 20th Bird Walk
Last week’s walk, despite rain, saw a good number of great birds (including several migrating warblers — more on them in the novel length section below.)
The highlights:
A large, good-vibes-only crowd
Discovering two Downy Woodpeckers, and their home above the playground!
Long looks at a continuing Wilson’s Warbler — a migrant who’s more common to the western than eastern US, and who for real looks like he just got his hair done:
The peak of migration is certainly behind us, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be beautiful, strange, and yes radical birds to see this Saturday. So see you on the 27th at 9AM, by the park’s Russell/Driggs entrance.
Let’s get zen and be punk and go birding together!
But until then, an ode to:
Warblers
You’re in McGolrick Park. A group of super cool peeps wielding binoculars, looking up at the London plane sycamores, is shouting, high-fiving, and shaking with excitement. You tilt your head, but don’t see much, other than what look like tiny, jumping leaves.
One cool peep hands you a pair of spare binoculars. The tiny, jumping leaves become:
The colors… the weird markings… the variation…
These tiny, diverse, improbably patterned birds — the cool peeps explain — are the warblers of spring migration!
Warblers. You’ve heard that word before right? But what are warblers?
Simply put, warblers are tiny songbirds that travel from southern wintering grounds, up to summer breeding grounds in the northern US and southern Canada.
Here, for example, is the range map of the above grid’s top right warbler, the cheeto-headed Blackburnian Warbler:
Pretty impressive for a little berb, no?
Yeah, but they’re sort of like sparrows, right?
In the sense that they’re small birds? Sure. In other respects? Not really.
Not Really Reason 1, shape and size: Sparrows are slightly bigger and plumper than warblers (no body negativity), and their bills are much shorter and thicker.
Here are the sparrows most common to McGolrick Park:
Can you intuit a sort of shared shape, especially head and beak, for these birds?
Not Really Reason 2, color: Besides shape and size, sparrows traffic in more greys and browns than male warblers: who are way more painted (in order to attract mates at breeding grounds, of course.) That’s arguably true even in the few instances when warblers are brown-ish and plainer. See:
*JK JK JK: The rightmost bird is a Song Sparrow — NOT A WARBLER.
Do you see it? It’s OK if you don’t. It just takes practice, and perhaps some gazing at resources like this or this.
Not Really Reason 3, migration: Sparrows don’t migrate nearly as far as warblers do (if at all.) This third reason relates to the second one: It’s understood that warblers embark on migratory treks to distant lands in order to occupy territory far less busy than their southern hangouts, and boom-chicka-pow-wow baby-make among abundant space and resources.
Not Really Reason 4, buzzy calls: The name warbler comes from to warble, or to sing softly and with a succession of constantly changing notes. For example, if you walked into McGolrick Park on May 24 with your ears especially perked, you might’ve heard:
This (a magnolia warbler) or this (a yellow warbler) or this (a wilson’s warbler).
Not Really Reason 5, movement: We described warblers as tiny, jumping leaves. That’s very much how they move: branch to branch. So stand still and look up.
Sparrows on the other hand? You’re much more likely to see them on the ground, or chilling in plain view, or even flying at eye level.
Warblerheads?
Are you into warblers yet? For your humble correspondent, warblers, in their diversity, their scarcity, and their totemic power, are reminiscent of small figurines from some dreamy childhood.
With that in mind, here, for you newfound warblerheads, are the 20 or so warblers that’ve been logged on eBird while visiting McGolrick Park (check this chart for reference), rendered as said figurines:
Conclusion
We’re lucky to be visited by gorgeous, tiny, brave warblers. Places like McGolrick Park provide migrating birds like them with needed nourishment (bugs and plants) as they follow their mysterious and harrowing and ancient routes north (then south, this fall.) We must give an asterisked thanks* to our New Yorker forebears: in their imperfect wisdom, they retained a few wild-ish spaces, like our McGolrick Park, among human settlements of concrete and tarmac.
*Why, oh why, not more wild, unpolluted places?
Figurine key:
Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, American Redstart, Wilson's Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Canada Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Pine Warbler, Ovenbird
That’s it for this week!
Let’s get zen and be punk and go birding together—and see what other birds show up!
