Every year, as a birder, you look forward to your "First of Season" sightings. Usually. Sometimes you see those birds that you know mean that migration is closing down, and soon it will be the same ol' same ol'. I'm rethinking my thinking on this subject tonight, mainly because I know how I'll feel about the birds I saw today in January.
The specific bird I saw today, that harbinger of doom and end of the migratory period (although none of that means anything because there will be many birds that don't arrive until well into December) is in many ways my best friend during the winter. Small, drab and bouncy, the only herald it wears of color is in a yellow vent, a truly "butter butt" but that's not the name of this bird. I call them "Pam Wobblers", you call them "Palm Warblers", but "Setophaga palmarum" usually heralds the end of migration. Today I saw five. Surely that means the migratory end is near. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I'm glad to see them. They're a reliable indicator that ornithological life exists outside of Limpkins, Gallinules, and large waders during the mild Florida winter. They're loveable little brown jobs, who arrive and stay when everything else is just passing through. They fight the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in a complicated dance. They are the good guys, twitchin' tails and taking names. I recently reviewed a list of the birds i saw in mid October at the local warbler trap. My buddy Chris and I saw 17 species of warblers that day, including 16 (at least) individual palm warblers.
what a crazy day.
Truth is, once the palmies come, I begin looking for sparrows and weird warblers, like Wilson's, and Orange-crowned. These birds come through occasionally, sometimes staying the whole winter too.
The palmies in the background don't care, their chip making my day as the temps mellow out, sometimes dipping below 60F.
Then, they get new feathers and move on..
I suppose there's a lesson in that somewhere.
