Enjoying nature’s not just for the birds. As spring arrives, I joined a group of local birders in Columbia County.
It’s about 8 o’clock in the morning and a dozen members of the Alan Devoe Bird Club are out for a walk along the Empire State Trail.
Marian Sole organizes the group’s near-weekly field trips. She says this stretch of the trail in Niverville is special, adding this part of New York is a haven for birds. The trail, close to the Valatie Kill, is a stopping ground for migratory birds, who are just returning from their winter homes.
“Right now, there's a few migrants are coming through, so just starting. So, we might get lucky on a few things. Might find a wood duck, we might find a winter red, but they're going to be small and they're going to be tough to find,” Sole said.
As the group walks the gravel trail, avoiding puddles and mud, they raise their binoculars at any sign of motion in the trees.
But while it’s called birdwatching, Sole says birdlistening can be more important. She says listening for the calls most people may be familiar with, like the chickadee’s, might actually mean you’ve scared the birds off.
“With the chickadee, they say that the more dee-dee-dees they do, the more danger there is, so and other birds, not even the chickadees, will pick up on that and listen for the chickadees,” Sole said.
Most of the group knows their bird calls by ear.
Joanie Scheu, who’s keeping track of the trip’s sightings today, identifies some of the calls in the trees.
“There's another one that you can hear. It's going here, here, here. And that's a little gray one. It's called a Titmouse, and it has a little cap on it, like a cardinal. Do you know the red cardinals? This one has a little gray bird, but it has a little cap on it,” Scheu said.
The birdwatchers also pull out their smartphones to help identify calls. Scheu pulls out her device, where she's using an app called Merlin to help.
On this relatively warm morning, with sun shining through a few clouds overhead, the birds are active.
“There's another one that you can hear. It's going here, here, here. And that's a little gray one. It's called a Titmouse, and it has a little cap on it, like a cardinal,” Scheu said.
Group member Kathy Schneider says spring also brings angry birds.
“They're singing, they're yelling at each other, these songs. We are singing back and forth, the pileated, are, you know, chattering back and forth, and this is all defending territories,” Schneider said.
Angry or not, Schneider says the black-capped chickadees, a non-migratory species, are her favorite bird.
“They have little, little short bills. You know, that's not, not like a woodpecker, right? But they, they pick soft wood often things like birches that are starting to decay, and they excavate their own cavities. And you see them sometimes come out with a whole mouthful of wood. It is so fun to watch them excavate a cavity. They're often at eye level too. They're pretty low in the trees, and they get started early. And they're tame,” Schneider said.
While winter’s fading in the Capital Region, club member Jim Costello says this particular patch of woods is a sweet spot year-round.
“There's a stream that goes through, the Valatie Kill. So, you go down here, maybe half mile inside the stream. And that's a good spot, you know, you'll see different depending on the type of year, different waterfall. You know, you see a lot of the, you know, regular forest birds to see wood ducks sometimes,” Costello said.
Club member Bill Schneider says birding is also great for his mental health. While a biology undergraduate in the 1960's, Schneider says he took an ornithology class.
But he didn't revisit birding until about a decade ago, and it became a lifeline for him when COVID hit.
“You could go out and feel normal because you were by yourself in the woods and on the trails and you weren't you didn't have to worry about other people, you know, being too close to other people,” Schneider said.
The group says they recorded 300 birds and 30 species during their morning on the trail, including 253 Canada geese.
