Local birds in July

George Walter

Jill Severn | For The JOLT News

The nesting season is finished for most of our Thurston County birds. The exception is the osprey, which has an exceptionally long 90-day nesting timeline.

There are also a few smaller birds that raise a second batch of young. This means that right now, it is likely that many of the birds you encounter are young of the year — fledglings. 

For some species a fledgling might look like another species. For example, I noticed a dark-eyed junco, with his elegant black head, slowly hopping along, looking for food. Trailing behind, hop for hop, was a fluffed-up, all-brown youngster, looking nothing like its parent. However, every time the parent found food it was obvious which bird was the fledgling, as the adult stuffed the food morsel into the gapping mouth of the youngster. 

For many species, the fledglings look like a dull imitation of the adult’s plumage, but with down and the odd feather sticking out here and there. It takes them a month or two before they master the task of good grooming.

And sometimes there are specific behaviors that mark fledglings. A friend has a suet feeder right outside his window. He reports that chickadees like to visit to get a taste of suet, and there’s usually only one bird on the feeder at a time. 

Then late last month there were three chickadees on the feeder. They were fledglings. After sharing a nest for several weeks, they easily tolerate each other’s company at the suet feeder. I see the same thing at my bird bath — three chestnut-backed chickadees all lined up on the rim of the bath, chatting with each other while getting their daily drink. I think of them as “the brothers.” All chickadees look alike but calling them “the siblings” just sounded too academic.  

 The life of a fledgling can be short. They haven’t learned about windows, for example, and their transparency causes fatal crashes that takes a toll on them each year. And there are substantial dangers in the natural world.

Several years ago, I watched as five bluebird fledglings, at the urging of their parents, hopped out of their nest box and flew for the first time. The last to leave was a weak flyer and, within a few minutes, a nearby Kestrel had noticed and captured it, likely to feed its own fledglings.  

Birds that prey on other birds are part of our avian neighborhood. I recently learned that Merlins were nesting in the tall firs of Bigelow Park, on Olympia’s east side. Local bird listeners, using the Merlin app (now there’s a coincidence) heard multiple vocalizations (adults and fledglings, no doubt) high in the trees and now they are travelling around the neighborhood, always calling from the treetops. 

 Merlins are falcons that hunt birds on the wing. They are larger than a robin, but smaller than a crow. Their most distinctive feature is long, pointed wings and very rapid flight. Our Pacific Northwest Merlins are dark brownish and might appear almost black. They typically perch inconspicuously, perhaps for hours, surveying the area. Then they will rapidly dive bomb an unsuspecting bird and fly off to another perch. There they pluck feathers from their prey before consuming it (or sharing it with their offspring)     

Dawn chorus 

My son Aaron and I vacationed in southern New Mexico and Arizona for the last two weeks of June. It wasn’t a birding trip — the highlights were Carlsbad Caverns and the Chaco Canyon. But I had an interesting birding experience upon arriving back home. 

The temperatures at home were warm and I had left the sliding door open in my bedroom. My internal time clock had not adjusted to west coast time, and I woke up about 5 a.m. To my great surprise, bird song was pouring in through that open door. 

 I had thought the dawn chorus was “supposed” to be over by the end of June, but apparently not. So, for two days I placed my smartphone and its Merlin app in the window to record the chorus. What a surprise.

On July 2nd Merlin recorded a total of 47 (!) species. Many of these species were “flyovers,” birds that were recorded as they flew overhead. These included several species of swallows, other non-nesting species and two hawks. It likely included birds and their fledglings flying at dawn in search of new feeding territories.  

And, just as surprising was the fact that it was all over by about 7 a.m. Had I done my usual 10-minute walk about the yard after that hour (what I would have called a dawn chorus survey), I would have only heard a handful of species. That’s a lesson — dawn means dawn, not an hour or two later! 

 Pelican alert

This past weekend both species of pelicans were seen in Thurston County. These are huge birds and easily identified, but rarely seen here. There is at least one brown pelican hanging out in Budd Inlet. Brown pelicans are dark, with huge bills and throat pouches. They feed by diving into shallow water from the air. You might need binoculars to spot this bird. 

White pelicans are all-white birds with black wing tips and a long orangish bill and throat pouch. A small flock was seen at the Billy Frank National Wildlife Refuge and other flocks have been reported up and down Puget Sound. These birds feed cooperatively, sitting on the water, “herding” small fish into a shoal and then gulping them down.  

You might keep an eye out for these two species and other unusual ones as well; we are entering the post-breeding season when our breeding birds are showing their new young the ways of the world.  

George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department: he also has a 45+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com. 

Photos for this column are provided by Liam Hutcheson, a 18-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.