Backyard Birding Beneath the Bosom of Interstate 5 - Feb 5, 2009

About a week ago Cecilia and I moved into a new apartment. It is a much nicer place than the one we had been living in so naturally we were pleased. What I had not expected in the course of moving across town was the big increase in bird activity. Just moving from the bottom of a little valley about 2 miles away to the base of a ridge and about 500 feet higher, there is an amazing difference. These first few days living here I feel like I have never in my life seen anything like this sort of bird activity. It is literally staggering. As I sit and type this I can see movement in a 60 foot tall oak tree just up slope of the driveway. I can hardly stand to sit here and type this afraid I am missing something. The difference could be many things but is likely that we are now placed at the edge of two habitats; a ridge of steep dry oak savanna behind and above, and the noisy sprawl of an urban forrest below.

The first thing you notice would notice on a day like this day as you drive up the steep driveway and get out of your car is the robins.





Clamoring and perched all throughout the skeletal oaks they seem completely at home. With equal variance some fly and follow each other from tree to tree while other’s perch and preen themselves with what looks like total indifference towards those busy scurrying throughout the trees.

If you ever grow too accustomed to the appearance of a Robin find one with his (or her) chest puffed out. Some individuals will sit like this and they seem stronger and more confident, even less skittish when perched like this compared with the sleeker more nervous look of a bird standing up and leaning forward. Normally they perch somewhere in between but the point is even amongst the most common birds there is a whole world of individuals, a world which we have barley glance.

The fun hardly stop’s with the robin’s. When examining the flock which spreads out over every tree in sight I began to occasionally find bird’s of other species. First it was a Cedar Waxwing. A pleasant surprise and baffling to me because he just hung out with the Robins as if he belonged there. European Starling’s have been popping up like this also. And both the Waxwing’s and Starling’s have been appearing in flock’s of their own species, by the 10 or 20, and again almost integrated and completely unthreatened by the Robbins.

At the feeder first I had a Scrub Jay. Surprisingly though the jay’s have not been hitting the feeder too hard, seemingly preoccupied with something else amongst all of the fluttering chaos. The first song birds at the feeder were a couple of House Finch.

The Oregon Junco’s as a pack have stuck to the ground and nearby bushes but a few individuals have found the feeder. Likewise with a few Chickadees who nervously take a seed and fly! A single Oak Titmouse has shown up acting confident and taking seed from the feeder repeatedly.

I can’t help but wonder if the flocks are normally here now or if they are early, already migrating because of the unusually dry and mild winter. And if the flocks are moving through, just 80 yards from the flash of I-5, then they too must be travelers on a much older highway coming through this same valley. The robins have been along the Rouge River, just a mile from our apartment, all winter long in various spots for many miles up and down the river. Are these birds from our own mountains taking shelter down at our river or flocks gathered from distant locales? What a mysterious life these soaring creatures live!