Birding in Neighborhoods South: April and May Sightings

Birding in Neighborhoods South (BIN South) meets every other Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Contact Cathi Bower.

April 30: At the always satisfying Deer Lagoon back at the end of April we identified nearly 50 species, including Ospreys and Caspian Terns who have arrived, and the most glorious Cinnamon Teals hanging with about eight other types of ducks all mingling together! A Savannah Sparrow posed for a long time for good looks. Everyone is sporting their very best breeding plumage, and busy! We looked and looked for the nest that a pair of Bushtits must have been working on, and eventually we saw it exactly where we’d been looking and sitting, just feet away. That’s some superior camo and fortressing among the wild roses.

Mid-May we gathered at my home birding patch in Maxwelton Valley, where we saw and/or heard at least 35 species during the morning, despite a bit of noise and disturbing activity next door, the day a huge neighboring fir tree was being removed. Be sure to share far and wide that it is upsetting to everyone to disrupt habitat between — say — March and September. After decades of landscaping and experiencing life-altering encounters, personally, I’ve now opted to live with garden chaos until everyone is finished with reproducing. You can’t unsee injured young or a toppled or abandoned nest.

A beautiful Osprey swooped down low in the field to gather nesting material, we presumed. If they aren’t going after a fish, they are going after clumps of grass or other nest additions. Except this one — it took off with a piece of black plastic from the neighbors’ garden, and it probably wasn’t just picking up trash.

We watched a pair of Bald Eagles grab talons and spin toward the ground until we lost sight of them behind the trees! Throughout all the drama, we were easily distracted by the gorgeous Cedar Waxwings, Black-headed Grosbeaks, foraging Wilson’s Warblers, Brown Creeper, Swainson’s Thrush and Hairy Woodpeckers, an active Bushtit nest, and a female Purple Finch singing away!