A sure sign of spring

I can't believe that it's already time to be talking about spring arrivals. Where was our winter? On the coast there were a lot of birds that never even bothered to migrate this year. Where was the February challenge of driving the winding, icy roads around Coeur d'Alene Lake, searching for the last of the eagles and winter ducks?

But here we are, March, and time to gear up for the return of our earliest nesting species. In fact, some are already here. In years past, I have seen killdeer feeding around the edges of iced puddles formed by slow-melting drifts of snow. This year I saw red-winged blackbirds on fence wires along the highway in February.

Mid-March, however, is when bird life comes alive in the Inland Northwest. Violet-green swallows, western bluebirds, spotted towhees, tree swallows, mountain bluebirds, and osprey typically arrive, roughly in that order, throughout March.

Then things really start to get busy in April as more migrants return, and in May there is positively a flood of new arrivals, all intent on taking quick advantage of the sudden abundance offered by spring in North Idaho. Of the 50 most common migratory nesting species found here, almost one-third arrive in April and more than half arrive in May.

These conclusions come from data compiled over a 30-year period by Shirley Sturts, whose chart summarizing the earliest, the average, and the 2001 arrival dates for 52 species may be found at www.cdaaudubon.org/March2000.htm#SPRING.

This year, though, many species are on the move earlier than usual. There was a western bluebird visiting a nest box in Lewiston on Feb. 8. Western bluebirds don't usually arrive until about March 10. One morning recently I had two ruby-crowned kinglets at the feeder in my back yard. They don't usually arrive until about April 6. Reports of earlier-than-usual returns for many species are similarly popping up all over the northwest.

For those who like to add a little challenge to their spring birding, trying to document these earliest of the early migrants can turn into a fun sport. In fact, quite a bit of friendly competition can erupt from a group of winter-weary birders, each trying to be the first to find a new arrival.

Last year, the Coeur d'Alene Audubon Society sponsored just such a competition in Kootenai County. The result was a lot of fun in the searching, the beginning of a tradition of competitive and frantic spring birding, and the gathering of important data that will, over the years, provide interesting and even valuable information relative to the migratory trends of our nesting species.

Kootenai County's 2003 challenge can be followed at www.cdaaudubon.org/ KootenaiCo2003.htm and is updated monthly. Anyone is welcome to participate by e-mailing early Kootenai County sightings to [email protected]. Similar efforts are springing up all over the Northwest in communities where birders are using the Internet to keep in close and constant touch.

Some take this spring competition among birders (as the nesting migrants mount their own competitions for nest sites and feeding areas) a step further by trying to see how many of these bird species can be found and identified in a day. The American Birding Association even has rules governing the sport to standardize competition and the ABA Code of Birding Ethics to protect birds against overly aggressive and intrusive searchers. Such a birding adventure, covering a 24-hour period and restricted to a particular geographic area (a county or a state, generally), is called a Big Day.

I have carried out such a search each of the past five years on the fourth Sunday in May. My competition is with myself, trying each year to better the record of the year before. In 1998 I found 65 species in my daylong search. Since then I have refined my routes, found new corners of my area to search through, and figured out how to time my arrival at key locations within the area for optimum bird activity. As a result I had 108 species on the list for my 2002 Big Day.

This year, on May 25, I'll be out there, covering my area from well before dawn until late into the evening. I'll be taking advantage of the new little secrets I will have learned in my normal routine of birding, looking for each of those newly arrived spring migrants, endeavoring this year to see 115 species. I think I can do it.

What about you? How many species can you find this spring in Kootenai County, in your neighborhood, or even in your yard? This year, amidst the spectacle of the spring migration, see how much fun such a challenge can be. See how good you can get at predicting where and when to find each of the colorful and noisy little species that has chosen our area for its summer home.

In the process, see how much you end up learning and how deep your appreciation of these amazing little creatures can go. But be careful. You may become as obsessed as I am!

This sidebar appeared with the story:

Birding questions

Birding in Kootenai County is a monthly feature of Handle Extra. Are there birds at your backyard feeder that you can't identify? Do you have questions about a bird that you saw on a walk around your neighborhood or during a drive around the community? Stephen L. Lindsay is an avid birder and encourages readers to send him their birding questions via e-mail. When possible, he will respond to questions in future columns. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

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