Phew! My Bird is Back

I was a bit worried early in the week. The yellowthroats had not returned, and last year they arrived on May 3rd. There were no frontal systems or storms holding them up that I could determine, so where were they?

In the early spring every birder worries about late arrivals, wondering if the winter season in Central America, South America, Mexico, Texas, Florida, or the rest of the southern U.S. was too difficult for them. But believe me, winter weather in their southern habitats is the least of the songbirds' problems. What is causing alarming declines in songbird populations is the destruction of their winter habitats to development and agriculture, which deprives them of food and shelter. Every year fewer and fewer birds return to their summer breeding grounds in the North.

Of course, loss of habitat due to development is a crucial problem here as well. If birds don't have the space and the places they need to breed and raise their young, they are unsuccessful in producing offspring.

In any case, if you are concerned about this issue, there is an excellent new book available written by the Canadian biologist Bridget Stutchbury, Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them.

If you would like to listen to an outstanding hour-long interview with Stutchbury, go to the May 9 broadcast of Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" program. You can listen to it online or download it. Ken and I listened to it during dinner last night and were quite moved by it.

On Wednesday morning, May 9, I shuffled out in my bathrobe with my binocs and lo! I heard the yellowthroats singing their hearts out. I ran back inside and dressed hurriedly, then rushed down to the stream and the very young deciduous woodland that surrounds it. And I found a couple hopping around and flying from tree to tree, singing the "witchery witchery witchery" song. Hurrah!