March was another whirlwind month, and I did not manage to get out to any of my local birding spots even once. But, thanks to some work travel, I did manage to go birding at opposite ends of the U.S. Pacific coast!

First, I traveled to Olympia, Washington, to speak at the annual banquet of the South Sound Bird Alliance. My hosts took me for a hiking and birding outing at the Woodard Bay Conservation Area, where the highlight for me was spotting a single male Barrow’s Goldeneye mixed in with a small group of Common Goldeneyes. I like a lot of things about where I live in eastern Washington, but every time I get to take a walk in the lush forest of the west side of the state, I wish I could spend more time there. I’ll be back on that side of the Cascades for a family road trip to Olympic National Park in June!

Then two weeks later I made a similar quick trip, this time to Southern California to speak at an almost identical event for Sea and Sage Audubon in Orange County. There, I was treated to a warm and sunny walk around the San Joaquin Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary, a water treatment facility turned nature preserve. We enjoyed snipes and avocets, Clark’s Grebes, and pugnacious Allen’s Hummingbirds.

Now it’s my spouse’s turn—he has work travel three weeks in a row in April. Meanwhile, “enjoy spring migration” is high on my list of goals for the next few months, so I need to make a plan to squeeze in time to see our returning Lazuli Buntings, Western Tanagers, etc. I hope that you are also making time to get out and enjoy birds, and I’ll be back next month with another bird biology deep dive for you!

Words About Birds

I have a story in the spring issue of Living Bird (the Cornell Lab of Ornithology magazine) about a series of clever field experiments investigating Red-breasted Nuthaches’ quirky habit of painting the entrances of their nest cavities with conifer resin. Co-opting trees’ defenses helps nuthatches deter both predators (like egg-eating squirrels) and competitors for nest sites (like wrens)!

In case you need some good news: Wisdom the albatross has a new grand-chick! Wisdom is the famous Laysan Albatross who’s been nesting on Midway Atoll since at least the 1950s; a son of hers, hatched in 2011, is now raising his own chick on the island. I tried to figure out if Wisdom has a fresh egg of her own this year, but the most I could find for sure is that she at least did show up on the island with her mate. Regardless, she’s a true legend.

Spring is the perfect season for a deep dive into Purple Martins and the people who love them, and this story from bioGraphic delivers. In the eastern U.S., Purple Martins nest exclusively in apartment-style birdhouses maintained by dedicated martin “landlords.” Like other bird species that forage for insects on the wing, these unique swallows are facing challenges driven by insect declines, but there’s a whole subculture of people devoted to preserving and promoting them.

Finally, something fun: Researchers in the UK found that putting fake eyes on takeout containers deters gulls from approaching and pecking at the containers, kind of like eye spots on moths scare off predators. So if you’re heading to the beach this spring and you’re worried about gulls stealing your fries, pack some stick-on googly eyes!

I’ll level with you, there were some more depressing bird conservation stories out there in the last month that I could have highlighted here… but we’re all being bombarded with enough bad news lately, I think.

Book Recommendation of the Month

The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind by Simon Winchester. I’m really enjoying this book about the science of wind, the history of human’s relationship with this natural phenomenon, and how climate change might alter winds globally in the future. I hadn’t read anything by Simon Winchester before, but his writing style reminds me of John McPhee. Highly recommend!

Thank you as always for subscribing, and have a great April!