(This 1041st Buffalo
Sunday News column was first published on March 6, 2011.)
It
has been six years since I updated and revised the spring bird arrival dates
for western New York and nearby Canada. I do so now because friends tell me
that their old list, faithfully kept on a family bulletin board or by magnet on
their refrigerator, has become illegible.
These dates are derived from the Buffalo
Ornithological Society's very useful Seasonal
Checklist of the Birds: The Niagara Frontier Region, a compilation by a
society committee headed by Dave Suggs, who also mans the extremely useful
"Dial-a-Bird" current information hotline at 896-1271. That checklist
should be in the hands of everyone interested in birds; it provides much more
information than this summary column. Copies may be obtained at the Beaver
Meadow Nature Center, the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and other nature
centers as well as nature stores like Wild Birds Limited in Blasdell.
Here then are
the dates at which new arrivals should become, according to that Checklist,
"fairly common" in appropriate areas:
February 21-28:
tundra swan and Northern pintail.
March 1-10:
American wigeon, American black duck and red-winged blackbird.
March 11-20:
wood duck, gadwall, Northern shoveler, green-winged teal, lesser scaup,
white-winged scoter, horned grebe, Northern harrier, red-shouldered hawk,
American coot, killdeer, American woodcock, Eastern bluebird, American robin,
Eastern meadowlark, rusty blackbird, common grackle and brown-headed cowbird.
March 21-31:
snow goose, ring-necked duck, hooded merganser, pied-billed grebe, great blue
heron, black-crowned night heron, turkey vulture, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper's
hawk, common snipe, tree swallow, brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet and
song sparrow.
April 1-10:
blue-winged teal, ruddy duck, common loon, American bittern, osprey, Eastern
phoebe, winter wren and white-throated sparrow.
April 11-20: double-crested
cormorant, broad-winged hawk, greater yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs, spotted
sandpiper, yellow-bellied sapsucker, Northern flicker, purple martin, Northern
rough-winged swallow, barn swallow, ruby-crowned kinglet, brown thrasher,
yellow-rumped warbler, Eastern towhee, chipping sparrow, field sparrow,
savannah sparrow and swamp sparrow.
April 21-31: great
egret, green heron, common moorhen, Caspian tern, common tern, belted
kingfisher, red-headed woodpecker, bank swallow, red-breasted nuthatch, house
wren, blue-gray gnatcatcher, hermit thrush, American pipit, yellow warbler,
pine warbler, black-and-white warbler, Northern waterthrush, Louisiana
waterthrush, fox sparrow, white-throated sparrow and purple finch.
May 1-10: Virginia
rail, sora, chimney swift, ruby-throated hummingbird, least flycatcher,
great-crested flycatcher, Eastern kingbird, yellow-throated vireo, warbling
vireo, cliff swallow, wood thrush, gray catbird, Nashville warbler,
chestnut-sided warbler, magnolia warbler, black-throated blue warbler,
black-throated green warbler, palm warbler, cerulean warbler, ovenbird, hooded
warbler and Baltimore oriole.
May 11-20: least
bittern, semi-palmated plover, whimbrel,
sanderling, least sandpiper, dunlin, Eastern
wood-pewee, blue-headed vireo, red-eyed vireo, marsh wren, veery,
Swainson's thrush, blue-winged warbler, Tennessee
warbler, blackburnian warbler, bay-breasted warbler,
American redstart, mourning warbler, common yellowthroat, Canada warbler,
scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak, indigo bunting and bobolink.
May 21-31: semi-palmated sandpiper, black-billed cuckoo, yellow-billed
cuckoo, alder flycatcher, willow flycatcher and
blackpoll warbler.
Here too are
the dates at which overwintering species become uncommon:
March 10-20: horned
lark.
March 21-31: canvasback,
Northern shrike and snow bunting.
April 11-20: redhead,
rough-legged hawk and American tree sparrow.
April 21-30: greater
scaup, bufflehead, common goldeneye
and common merganser.
May 11-20: long-tailed
duck and red-breasted merganser.
And finally, here
are birds that may be found here all year long: Canada goose, mallard,
red-tailed hawk, American kestrel, ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse, wild
turkey, bald eagle, Bonaparte's gull, ring-billed gull, herring gull, great
black-backed gull, rock dove, mourning dove, Eastern screech owl, great horned
owl, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped
chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, Northern
mockingbird, European starling, cedar waxwing, dark-eyed junco, Northern
cardinal, house finch, American goldfinch and house sparrow.
Clearly not all
of these 183 species are equally common nor are they to be found everywhere in
this region, but every one of them is recorded here every year by someone
somewhere.
Many local
birders keep annual lists and those most active accumulate year lists of over
200 species. My own best was 259 in 1988, but with my declining skills and
stamina I will be fortunate to make 100 this year. My current list stands at a
puny 47, less then we usually count on January 1. But I will continue to
participate in this personal contest and I urge you to take up the
challenge.-- Gerry Rising