Birds Say 'Bye!'

This morning, it was far too dangerous to go outside the house.  For reasons not entirely clear to me, the near yard was filled with birds this morning, many kinds, whooshing to and fro so fast that it seemed like you would be impaled on a passing beak if you were out there, put well off your stride by a beating wing.  Pretty exciting stuff.

There is a mountain ash tree outside our kitchen windows, about 15 feet from the house.  Earlier in the week, I noted that it had an excellent crop of berries this year, that they were ripe, and that they had as yet been untouched by the birds who usually clear them out the minute they ripen.  The elderberry tree has already surrendered its crop (usually to cedar waxwings, although I didn’t see them this year), and this morning it was the mountain ash’s turn.

First came a flock of flickers.  Flickers are big birds (about a foot long and with a wingspan of 18-20 inches), and a kind of woodpecker. I don’t recall ever seeing them in a flock before, although the google tells me they migrate in ‘loose flocks.’  This was a small flock, but because they are so big, it seemed like a lot more than 6-8 birds.  When one of them lands on the end of the mountain ash branch where the berries are, the vibration makes all the branches shake and the particular branch can spring up and down a foot or more.  It makes for a lot of commotion in a tree.

And then, right after the flicker flock flew in (How many times do you get to say that?  Not enough.), a big flock of robins came in to work the other side of the tree and then passed five or so minutes while the two brands shook each other out of the tree, with an occasional grab of berries in between the action.  On the ground beneath the tree there suddenly arrived a few juncos and chickadees to pick up the leavings, and then they were joined by a couple of spotted towhees.  From the fir tree behind the mountain ash, a pair of woodpeckers started bouncing up and down.  And then strolled across the deck, in front of them all, a yellow-rumped warbler.

It was like being at the opera.  Dramatic exits and entrances, big actions, and in the background a steady chorus.  The hard news?  We’re finished with the good weather.  They know more about this than meteorologists is my guess.  Time to go south.  Happy that we could send them off with a luscious berry picnic.