It’s Walkabout Time
Late July was a very busy time in my neighborhood in the Sierras. Junco eggs in a tiny nest hidden under violet leaves in my neighbor’s planter box hatched and two weeks later they were gone. Once they’d fledged and left the safety of their nest, their parents had to find, feed, and teach their baby birds how to survive in the world. My history with such matters goes way back to the days at Breakfast Creek when I raised ducks and geese from hatchlings and literally had to teach them to swim before releasing them in our pond. My greatest success was Gilbert, a duck that hatched in an incubator in our sunroom, and upon seeing me quacked “Mom!” For both of us, it was love at first sight.
Last week while I was about to water the base of a rosemary bush, I stopped when something moved deep inside the plant. A butterfly I thought at first. But no. It was an adorable tiny fledgling that had left its nest and most likely hopped to the safety of the rosemary bush. What to do? I knew I should and eventually would leave it where I’d found it, but first I gathered it into my hands and walked to my neighbor Anita’s yard for her sage counsel.
She immediately googled her bird app and learned that it was a two-week old Lesser Goldfinch fledgling. Why lesser? I made a mental note to read more on the subject later. We then walked back to my rosemary bush (Goldfinches build their nests in shrubs and dense bushes) and I gently placed the little fledgling back where I found it, hoping the parent birds would send out a distress cry, find it, and guide it to a more secure shelter.
This event came at the end of a week of bird activity that brought a number of surprises to our backyard and local woods. I’ve dubbed late July as walkabout time when parent birds large and small organize “field trips” to teach their fledglings and youngsters how to navigate their new world while continuing to feed them at the same time.
Walkabout week began with the arrival of a flock of 17 wild turkeys in our back yard near the bird feeders. Three very large gobblers and their youngsters scratched the ground below the feeders in a great demonstration of digging and strutting, then finally trooped off down my meditation pathway to the yard upslope from ours. A few days later the flock was seen in a wooded preserve at the bottom of our road by another neighbor walking his dog. A chase ensued, the big gobblers stood their ground, the dog backed down, and onward the turkeys strutted unharmed.
Another day a pair of pileated woodpeckers went to work with their chiseled beaks pecking for ants and wood-boring beetle larvae at the base of a tall fir tree. The repeated drumming of the two parent woodpeckers that mate for life was loud enough to attract our cat Peekay to the window where he watches the daily antics of squirrels and birds. Together we observed these enormous Woody Wood Pecker birds that I’ve only rarely seen up close in our yard. A third woodpecker—their one rather chubby summer brood—remained close to one of the parent birds that was stuffing masticated insects into its open mouth.
Another day, while driving down the four-mile winding road that takes me to Nevada City’s historic downtown, I came upon a gaggle of five Canada Geese on a morning walkabout right in the middle of the two-lane road. I immediately stopped my car, rolled down my side window and waved them off the road so they wouldn’t get hit. To my relief, the big gander leading the march didn’t honk its displeasure, and opted instead to lead the immature goslings into the safety of a nearby yard.
Later that day, I let Peekay have some birdwatching time of his own from the safety of his Catio. Listening to bird chatter is his favorite late afternoon pastime and gives me a chance to sit down on a nearby rattan chair with soft cushions and an ottoman for my feet. I spread a large cloth cover on the chair at night to keep droppings from nearby pine trees off the cushions. However, the cover has become a popular hideout for local tree frogs, thus relegating me to the ottoman and the frog family to the bigger cushion.
That’s my backyard bird and frog chronicle as August gets underway. Stay tuned for the next encounter, as I’m certain there will be one when I least expect it. And to my darling Kit, a happy 87th August 6th birthday! You remain the light of my life.