Watch the Birdie!
Image from Google Free Images
I look forward to January 1 every year. Not for another chance at my resolutions, but because that’s the day of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count where I live in Lake County. Not that I have great luck with it. Tons of birds of many species zip about in the days before. But on The Big Day? Next to nil, as if they all migrated at once. But on January 2, they're all back -- taunting me. So, I've come to think of them as my "mocking birds."
John Elliott’s excellent program on June 17, “Migration: Birds and Other Animals,” was chock full of the wherefores and the where-tos of migrating birds. Migration can be spurred by reproductive reasons or changing food or climate/seasonal conditions. John shared some amazing research on migrating birds that fly thousands of miles, sometimes nonstop, on one tank of gas, as it were. Incredible!
Image from Google Free Images
Migration isn’t limited to birds. Lots of marine animals migrate. Monarch butterflies, of course, and certain dragonflies, too. People migrate. Nomadic peoples of the Middle Eastern deserts, for example. Also, the snowbirds among us who head to Florida and Arizona when cold weather arrives, and me, who heads to the front door when the pizza delivery person arrives.
John is a member of the board of Chicago Audubon Society and offered these resources for birdwatching and bird reading:
National Audubon Society (including birdsongs)
Chicago Audubon Society (including birding apps and resources)
Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including lectures and ways to volunteer)
Birdcast (bird migration routes in real-time)
A Natural History of the Chicago Region by Joel Greenberg
Here are some of my suggestions:
Read/listen
What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley
Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght
Son of the Wilderness, The Life of John Muir by Linnie Marsh Wolfe
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson
Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Lloyd
Audubon Magazine article How Xavi Bou Makes His Mesmerizing Portraits of Birds in Flight
Vice.com article Lockdown Helped to Create a New Generation of Young, Black Birdwatchers
Watch
Read/watch/listen
Scientific American article Mockingbirds Are Better Musicians Than We Thought
Other resources from Chicago Public Library: books about birds and books about migration.
By Diane Laux, member of Friends of the Edgewater Library