Peterborough, N.H.
mledger.com
A Column By Francie Von Mertens
The tide has turned. It turns slowly, and then really gets going. Mid-May brings the biggest surge of birds — a combination of species that nest locally as well as some passing through to nesting grounds farther north.
I’ve kept a birding calendar for 10 years now, and this time of year each day gets an entry. Today’s came late, in the sunset hour.
Overhead, elegant as always in flight, its rust-colored front accentuated by a sunset glow, a backyard favorite made its first appearance of the year. I checked to make sure both barn door and hayloft door were opened wide and welcoming.
Barn Swallows arrive in late April with the same general punctuality as other migrants — sometimes arriving the same day as previous years; sometimes within the week.
The Barn Swallow high overhead had Tree Swallows for company, their fronts showing white and their tales squared rather than swallow-tailed. It took a search with binoculars to finally find a companion Barn, and then, in time, a third among the majority Trees.
They were foraging high. As light faded, I wondered where they would spend the night when two swallows swept lower and lower. For the first time since last Aug. 28, our barn will host Barn Swallows for the night.
Aristotle is quoted as saying, “One swallow does not make a summer.” The day the first Barn Swallows returned to our barn was a glorious summer day, but we all know there’s more cold to come. One glorious, T-shirt day, however, and we forgive the long spells of wet and cold.
Aristotle’s swallow was the same species as our Barn Swallow. In Europe it’s called “Swallow.” As one of the most cosmopolitan species, it’s at home throughout the northern hemisphere.
My birding calendar has a new entry under April 28. In capitals. “HAWKWATCH!”
The fall hawkwatch is a big deal, marked by school field trips, birding groups, hawks-in-flight workshops. The dramatic fall flights draw crowds to certain hawkwatch hotspots. Come spring, hawk migration is more dispersed, and as mortality is high far more hawks depart in fall than return in spring. There’s no such thing as a local spring hawkwatch.
That being said, while working at the local community garden last Sunday with two friends who are ace birders, we were distracted by an Osprey, a kestrel, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, all heading north as blue sky returned.
Two days before, Don and Lillian watched over 80 hawks from their backyard during a two-hour period. Most were Broad-winged Hawks; 16 were Ospreys. That day offered a clear patch of weather surrounded by rain. Don said the hawks read weather well, and often move ahead of a cold, wet front.
Garden chores rushed to completion, we formed a mini-hawkwatch in their backyard as hawks rode wind currents along what they call “Bobcat Hill” and then Crotched Mountain across the river. Don and Lillian’s backyard is a sloping field down to a Contoocook River made wide and slow by the Bennington dam.
Migrating birds favor flyways along north-south rivers, ridgelines and coastlines. Besides navigational assistance, river corridors provide unequaled food resources and ridgelines provide updrafts to ride. The Stokeses’ backyard benefits from both river and ridgeline, but under certain conditions every backyard in the region can have hawks overhead.
Last Sunday’s “HAWKWATCH!” was the first-ever spring hawkwatch entry in my calendar. Next year the entry will remind me it’s time for the second annual spring hawkwatch.
We also watched a multitude of swallows bickering over nestboxes and foraging above the Contoocook for emerging insects. When we found a few Barn Swallows in the group, Lillian pointed to their barn where a broad hayloft door was open. Fixed open.
Besides an open door policy, they nailed small platforms to the loft rafters. As still further inducement and an experiment, they placed two decoy Barn Swallow nests (manmade) in prominent view.
Declining in New Hampshire, Barn Swallows are “a species of conservation concern” in the state. So open your garage and shed doors wide, nail platforms to the rafters, and keep your fingers crossed.
The poet Robert Lowell wrote, “One swallow makes a summer.” He’s right, too. The sight of the first Barn Swallow overhead summons summer thoughts of Barn Swallows swooping low to country fields that shimmer in the summer heat.
Note: Don’t miss the talk on climate change next Wednesday by George Hurtt from UNH. He’ll give the topic a regional and national focus, and make clear what is known with scientific certainty. As added interest to birders, he’ll explain the role of the northern forest in moderating climate change. The topic deserves a full house. Time and place: Wednesday, May 7, 7 p.m. at ConVal High School in Peterborough.
Backyard Birder appears every other week in the Monadnock Ledger.
