4/22/04 — WARBLERS, THE HALLMARKS OF SPRING

While some birds such as robins and phoebes speak “spring” to us, the true heart of this season doesn’t arrive until the warblers appear. Eagerly anticipated even by those who find them difficult to identify and often cannot hear their high-pitched songs, warblers are the darlings of the spring migration.

In recognition of this absorbing interest, Donald and Lillian Stokes, America’s “first birding couple,” have recently published a book about these colorful sprites of spring. As with all their prior books (27 to date!), they know just how to get inside our heads and explain field marks and answer our questions before we even know we have them — or so they always seem to me!

If you’re new to birding, or if you’ve never had the chance to look for these small and mostly beautifully-colored songbirds, you may feel over- whelmed by dealing with as many as 20-some species, often within a week’s time. The Stokes have taken an unusual approach to helping with this impending confusion by arranging the birds by their most prominent color.

So, instead of the scientific order found in regular field guides, this book presents birds the way you are apt to see them. Along with the identification pages describing each particular bird, the Stokeses include valuable information about when to look for warblers and where you are likely to find them. They provide detailed migration maps for each species along with 170 magnificent full-color identification photographs.

Of the more than fifty different warbler species in North America, 21 are regular breeders or migrants in our area. An additional 11 are apt to appear in small numbers, most of which we consider to be “Southern birds” but which are now more gradually expanding their breeding range into our area. Occasionally a species that has somehow strayed from much further west will give warbler watchers a real thrill.

Those of us on Cape Cod are a bit shortchanged when it comes to seeing a plethora of warblers. Not only is most of our habitat not what warblers look for when heading for their nesting areas, geologists tell me that migrant birds had established their routes north long before the Cape was formed. However, the Cape does have one reliable location for viewing these representatives of the spring migration. It is the Beech Forest in Provincetown. The guide,“Birding Cape Cod,” states, “The Beech Forest is ... an oasis among the dunes with small marshy ponds surrounded by beeches, alders, six species of pines and — most notably — oaks.” It is these large trees that are especially attractive to spring migrants.

If you would like to witness this annual rite of birds’ passage at the Beech Forest, go to the first stop light on Route 6 as you approach Provincetown; turn right on to Race Point Road and watch for the sign for it on the left, about a quarter of a mile from the turn. The earlier you get there the more active and vocal the birds are apt to be. On weekends at 8 a.m. during the month of May, members of the Cape Cod Bird Club lead walks along the trails. On every week day, there are many birders, any of whom will try to help you if you’re not sure of a bird’s identity. Of course, you’ll be able to identify most of the birds yourself if you come prepared with the Stokeses’ book as well as a regular field guide. Studying each species’ song is also a great help, and there are many tapes and CDs available from which to learn.

Although the Beech Forest is the best place to see the greatest number of migrating birds in one morning, warblers can be anywhere on the Cape. The most widespread, perhaps, is the pine warbler, not too surprising considering the number of pines that grow here. These warblers actually arrived in late March and early April. Unfortunately, their song is not one to grab everyone’s ear. It’s a short, steady trill all on one note and not unlike our summer chipping sparrow.

Other warblers that also call the Cape home are the yellow and the yellow-throat. The former is attracted to shade trees and has a fast expressive “sweet, sweet, sweeter than sweet” call, while the latter prefers wet areas around a marsh, bog or beside a pond and fervently repeats “whitchity, whitchity, witch.” Some of the yellow-rumpeds that have wintered with us may also stay to nest, or they may head way to the north. If you walk along in the opening under a power line, more than likely you will encounter the prairie warbler, which, unlike its name, prefers the thick brushy growth off to the sides. Its song is a measured ascension of notes which I liken to a person running his thumb nail slowly up the teeth of comb.

Warblers are not all that we await each year. Most of us also eagerly anticipate the arrival of Baltimore orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds, which have most likely been active in your yard before this column appears.

BTW, today as we celebrate our country’s 34th Earth Day, we should be conscious of how important the migration of birds is to us and how necessary it is for us to assure our birds and animals that they will continue to have the proper habitat and refuge that they need in order to survive. Next week, on the 30th, is National Arbor Day, another chance when we can make a difference in the lives of wildlife.

Please send your comments and anecdotes about birds to me in care of the Cape Cod Times, 319 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 or, if you use email, to emiller@seepub.com. I regret that because of an overwhelming amount of mail, I cannot respond to each of you personally. However, I have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to the web page with my current and past bird columns, now found at http://home.comcast.net/~elliemiller/index.html. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, try Bird Watcher’s Digest at 1-800-879-2478 or check out their FAQ at www.birdwatchersdigest.com.