Round Up Newsletter: ”For the Birds”

During the springtime the bird activity at our place is off the rails. I know that I have expounded on the Brewer’s Blackbirds in the past, and I don’t think any more of them now then I did then. There are pests, as you well know if you have been attacked by the Wells Fargo bank parking lot in Point Reyes Station.

I recently downloaded the Merlin bird app and let me tell you, there are more birds than you can shake a stick at around our place. I also think it’s pretty funny that it records YOU while you are pondering aloud the different birds while recording. You could make a whole radio show out of that! Just watch what you say…

I had three interesting bird situations this past weekend. First, I was out for a run and saw a Pelican resting on the Rift Zone trail in Olema. I do not know if this bird was ok or not, but that was a strange place for it to be chilling. It let me pass with only a shrug. The second was the discovery of an Oriole nest in an oak tree on the property.

I had seen two different oriole nests in a different tree in previous years and was wondering about them. They make the coolest nests woven out of string, hair, grass, etc. They make the Thursday knitting group at the library look like mere amateurs, mostly because they do their home building “sans” opposable thumbs.

The third was the discovery of six House Finch eggs in the nest near our back door. This is the third year for them. The first year ended tragically during a spring windy spell, when the nest and babies were struck down. Last year they fledged three babies, and this year there are six eggs. Maybe because of the wind, she laid more eggs to hold the nest down? I wish them good luck with these offspring.

I was wondering about how all these birds get along on our acre, there are so many. The usual suspects such as the sparrows, Spotted and California Towhees, Scrub Jays, Crows, Warblers, quail, Starlings, Brewer’s Blackbirds, Hummingbirds, Wrens, Finches, the Robins, Stellar’s Jay, Phoebe’s,Red Tailed Hawks, Woodpeckers, Barn Swallows, and Eurasian Collared-doves, to name a few.

I read that different bird species get along through a mix of mutualism, resource partitioning, and interspecies communication. They don’t always become best buddies, but they work it out. It reminds me of people. I am not saying that people always get along, neither do birds. Bird on bird violence, sometimes within the same species, is some hard-core stuff. Same with people. 

We all sing different tunes, like different flavors of food, and manage to coexist pretty well on this planet, for the most part. 

Just a reminder that you never know who is sitting on their eggs, seeking a good worm, or looking for a string for their nest. And it’s better if we can all just get along.

Amanda Eichstaedt
KWMR Station Manager,  Executive Director & Development 

PS: Thanks again for the amazing support during our recent Annual Pledge Drive!

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