Birdwatching with Phyllis Yochem
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Tuesday, May 2, 2000

Recent bird sightings have certainly been colorful, although not plentiful

Feathered visitors display scarlet, bright yellow, olive, deep-blue plumage

 

While we haven't really missed many species in the spring migration this year, still I can't remember a single day when there were so many birds that you didn't know where to look next.
   Birds arrived in little spurts of two or three warblers or flycatchers at a time. Thrushes have been sparse, and so have orioles. A few memorable sightings stand out.
   Backyard birding
   I had rigged a hose in the back yard of the house where we are living while the plumbing in our 47-year-old house is being repaired. A small drip fell into a clay dish that belongs under a flowerpot. The water, with the splendid mulberry tree in the corner, were all the invitation needed for two vivid blue indigo buntings. My daughter saw them late one evening and duly reported it, so that I was up early next morning and on the lookout. Sure enough, they were still there.
   Another morning, I looked out the kitchen window at the mulberry tree and saw a red berry. . .only it wasn't a berry, it was a splendid scarlet tanager. It stayed most of the morning, ignoring the protests of the mockingbird and a dozen European starlings.
   Kentucky visitor
   In Blucher Park, there is a winding shady path which I like to think of as a "senda cabra, escondida," a hidden goat path. This is a poetic phrase I remember from some long-ago Spanish-literature course.
   Before me on that path one morning, a little bird was working its way back and forth, hopping jauntily on its tiny legs, picking up tiny crumbs. At the other end of the path several birders were studying the Blucher mulberry tree. Bird and birders were completely unaware of each other. The bird was a Kentucky warbler, making himself at home during his visit to South Texas. Male Kentucky warblers are bright olive on their upper parts with bright yellow beneath. Bold yellow spectacles separate black crowns from the black on their faces and the sides of their necks.
   Virtual birds
   Could you say you have seen a bird vicariously? My sister, visiting from the West Indies, came in from the back yard, all excited. "Oh, Phyllis," she said, "What is a bird that is black and white and has a big red spot on its breast, a big bird?" I dropped everything, but was too late to see the male rose-breasted grosbeak. There could be no doubt about the identity of her bird. . .the rose red spot is unique. I will keep trying.
   Then there is the enhanced value of birds well shared. Several Audubon Outdoor Club members had participated in a field trip of mostly memories. . ."Remember the bobolink we saw out in that meadow?" said our leader. "And the yellow-headed blackbirds that hung out on the roof of that tall house?" We all did.
   Secret spa
   Then, in desperation to see a bird in real life, we went to a secret bird spa in some dunes near Packery Channel Park. We all perched on the sandy hillside and kept quiet as mice. Into the water dish filled by Mel and Arley Cooksey came a hooded warbler and took a splashing good bath. Then a wood thrush jumped onto a log, and a commotion overhead in the willows turned out to be a bay-breasted warbler. As we quit holding our collective breath, we noticed that each of us was sliding slowly downhill.
   The Coastal Bend Audubon Society will meet tonight at 7 p.m. at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. The program will be about the Asa Wright Nature Center at Trinidad and Tobago. Spring Birdwalks at Blucher Park continue through the first two weekends of May.
  
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

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