Birds know something you don’t know. They are amazingly aware of their surroundings. Never has that been more apparent to me than during a freak storm in Texas last month.
Picture this: my wife, Sandi, and I were in a sand parking lot next to a Galveston beach. It was devoid of people, since thunderstorms were in the neighborhood. Our intention was to hike out along a spit where we had spied a variety of roosting birds. Before we could leave the car, however, the heavens opened up. The torrent lasted about 15 minutes. By the time it ended, the parking lot was an unwalkable quagmire, and we sullenly decided to leave.
Before we could even turn the car around, we were startled to see thousands of birds coming in off the ocean. Thousands. Six kinds of sandpipers, four species of plover, three species of gull and two tern species settled into the rain puddles around us and commenced bathing. All of the birds we had intended to sneak up on had instead come to us.
In Texas, fresh water and clean bathing opportunities are hard to find. Birds that spend their time around saltwater like to clean the crust off their feathers now and then. Somehow, several thousand birds knew that this huge parking lot, which had been a desert moments ago, would now be full of puddles. They knew. There had been no time to spread the word. They all came in at once. Every corner of it writhed with birds splashing.
We see bathing behavior in Maine, too, though to a lesser extent. We have plenty of fresh water, so there is no Texas-style rush after a storm, but gulls can be seen bathing in small numbers in all freshwater ponds near the ocean.
This lesson is this: you can increase your appreciation for our fine feathered friends by asking yourself one simple question: “Why did they choose to be in that particular spot?”
There are countless overpasses on Interstate 95 from Bangor to Kittery. A few of them — very few — have pigeons roosting underneath. Why? There must be something about the ones they choose. Perhaps these overpasses get the early morning sun on a cold winter day.
Perhaps they are located in an area with great visibility so that the pigeons can see danger coming. Perhaps there are food sources nearby. They know something about these locations that we don’t.
There are certain rooftops in every seaside community where gulls gather. I’m thinking of one home in Lubec where the gulls collect, even though the home is nearly identical to all of the others nearby. Why this roof? There are certain fields where gulls gather to loaf. Inevitably, the 360 degree visibility means they can see eagles coming from a mile away. Warmth, safety, food: birds pick these spots because they know something.
Backyard birds know where your feeders are. They know where your neighbor’s feeders are. They even “make the rounds” in a daily feeding routine. They know where water is. Years ago, my wife and I carpooled with Judy Markowsky for a winter visit to Stacyville where a rare Townsend’s solitaire had wandered in from the west. Although it was known to be foraging the local berry bushes over a wide area, it habitually visited a particular corner of a particular house where the morning sun melted the night’s frost into a trickle of water even in frigid weather. The bird knew.
Birds get accustomed to people who behave predictably. In refuges with boardwalks, the wildest duck gets used to people who stay on the elevated path. Even ducks that have just escaped hunters know that they are safe there. My Maine favorite is Collins Pond in Caribou. Thousands of geese and ducks congregate there in the fall, unconcerned by humans on the walking path nearby. In Sackville, New Brunswick, there is a waterfowl park where the shorebirds, ducks and rails forage beneath the boardwalk as you pass overhead.
Essex Woods in Bangor is the best local spot to see this phenomenon in action. A walking path surrounds the wetland. People and leashed dogs never go in the water, so the wild ducks quickly learn to ignore any threat that stays on the path, presenting great viewing and photographic opportunities.
Birds know your backyard better than you do. Observe where they sit, watch how they behave, and try to figure out what they know. You could learn something.
Bob Duchesne serves as a Maine Audubon trustee and vice president of its Penobscot Valley Chapter. Bob developed the Maine Birding Trail, with information at mainebirdingtrail.com. Bob can be reached at duchesne@midmaine.com.