Bird of Passage: November 2024
A bit of housekeeping: This newsletter is going to go on hiatus for December and January, but it will be back the first Wednesday in February. Thanks so much for reading!
When I started this newsletter, I arbitrarily decided that it would go out on the first Wednesday of each month. That means that although I’m writing this in October, thanks to the magic of pre-scheduling and a quirk of the calendar, it’s hitting your inbox the day after Election Day in the U.S.
Look, no matter what the headlines are like today, I think it’s going to be a stressful time for a lot of us. So last month, in the interest of providing a little respite, I asked all of you to tell me what’s been bringing you joy this fall. Here are some of the responses.
Subscriber Mike Gerity: “The colors—in the spring there are all these colors of green, but in the fall there are all the reds and oranges, warm colors, the leaves turn to patches of fire blazing in the lowering sun.”
Subscriber Craig Messerman: “I just retired after 35 years of teaching high school science. I realized that having started my schooling around five years old, it’s been 56 years since I got to fully experience September! I’m enjoying a more gradual transition to fall without the time-compressing hubbub of school and work!”
Subscriber Tim Kashuba: “Joy lately has been doing deep dives into life histories, and even histories of life histories, focusing in on Steller’s Jays as they are common here in Northern California. It is fascinating reading about them from initial descriptions and illustrations up to ongoing DNA work anticipating possible splits.” (Yes, it’s possible Steller’s Jay will be split into multiple species in the coming years!)
Bluesky user @birderk.bsky.social: “Seeing the various borbs using our yard to fatten up before their next step on migration, especially all our Winter Wrens this year! Also, getting to see the aurora again.”
Bluesky user @summerjackel.bsky.social: “I live near a creek with historic high steelhead and coho density, but they have been locally extinct for years. In ~25 years here, I've seen little steelhead twice. Conservation efforts are working: there are several steelhead in the pools now, and I THINK I saw a coho fingerling!”
Bluesky user @patrickmccray.bksy.social: “Autumn fly fishing...color in the leaves, gin-clear water, and spooky trout.”
Instagram user @shaneanigans17: “Coming up on one year of marriage with the love of my life and I think that's just awesome.”
Instagram user @jhowarddc: “Watching the bumblebees and other pollinators going crazy over the late-blooming native plants (the boneset and asters have been big hits) in my DC rowhouse yard.”
Instagram user @patriciaheglund (via DM): “Seeing the comet!” (ME TOO, Patricia! I missed most of last month’s aurora but the comet was an excellent consolation prize.)
There were more responses, but I couldn’t fit them all in without making this far too long! Regular bird writing will resume in this space next month, but whoever you are, wherever you are, I hope you’re finding a little joy in your life this fall too.
Words About Birds
I was honored to be asked to write a story about the nonprofit Field Inclusive for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology magazine. Founded in 2022 by two Black women graduate students in ornithology, this organization’s mission is to make field work (across all fields of study, not just bird science!) more welcoming and inclusive to people with marginalized identities. Lauren Pharr and Murry Burgess, Field Inclusive’s founders, are delightful, inspiring women, and I loved getting to know them a little bit.
I do a little part-time communications work for the Wilson Ornithological Society, and I was pleased to see a paper published in their journal be covered by Smithsonian Magazine. Researchers in New Hampshire documented a female Black-throated Blue Warbler apparently incubating an empty nest for eight days, strange conduct that they think may have been related to the heavy wildfire smoke moving through the area at the time. The Smithsonian story does a nice job of putting this in the larger context of what we know about bird behavior and wildfire smoke.
Is it too late for a “spooky season” story? I liked this essay from The Conversation about how whip-poor-wills’ eerie calls have been used iconic scary fiction, from Washington Irving to Stephen King. Watch a scary movie today and you’re more likely to hear owls than whip-poor-wills, and the author here argues that as whip-poor-wills’ numbers have declined, so has people’s familiarity with their calls, leading to a simultaneous decline in their cultural relevance.
Just for fun: Male riflebirds, members of the bird-of-paradise family that live in Australia and New Zealand, make weird percussive noises with their wings during their extravagant displays. Now researchers have used slow-motion video to figure out just how they do it. It turns out they have hyperflexible wrist joints that let them flex their wings in a dramatic arc over their head, and then they whack their beak against their wings as they thrash their head back and forth. Wild!
Finally: I was deeply saddened to learn that Dr. Keith Hobson passed away in October. Keith originated the use of stable isotope analysis to study bird migration, and when I was researching that chapter of my book, he spent two hours on the phone with me, answering all of my questions on this highly technical topic with incredible patience and kindness and going over it with me until I was confident that I could accurately describe how it works. He was a giant in the field, and he will be missed.
Book Recommendation of the Month
Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future by Mya-Rose Craig. Writing a memoir at the ripe old age of twenty is a bit of a bold choice, but I enjoyed Mya-Rose Craig’s story of growing up in a family of avid, globe-trotting British-Bangladeshi birders, becoming an environmental activist, and dealing with her mother’s mental illness. Sometimes birding memoirs can be a drag (we went to this place and saw this bird… then we went to this place and then saw this bird…) but hers is moving and fun!
Upcoming Events + Miscellany
Nov. 15: Book talk for Delaware-Otswego Audubon (virtual)
Dec. 5: NSWA Book Club (virtual - rescheduled from Sept.)
Dec. 7: Signing books at Wild Arts Festival (Portland, OR)