morning walk

May 7, 2020

Early morning walk seeking birds at Heard Field, Wayland. Looking out over a farm field with grasses barely a foot high I see only green, but the field is singing! I hear from everywhere on the field a recognizably chaotic and energized song like the sound of R2D2 in Star Wars – the bobolinks are back! I see them then perched in trees on the side or popping up from the field, the males with their white caped backs and beige hairdo on their heads. All the way from Argentina to breed in Wayland, Massachusetts.

Walking I listen. There are songs of Bobolinks, Baltimore Orioles, Rose breasted grosbeaks, song sparrows, goldfinch, red winged blackbirds , black and white, yellow, common yellow throat and yellow rumped warblers - even a Great Crested Flycatcher. I found I couldn't really identify them all together in a chorus. Each time I listened to one or two, the others were not in my attention. Of course there was hearing birds and seeing birds (except the rose breasted grosbeak), and then there were trees and herbaceous plants, shrubs and ferns… While I notice a lot more than I would have 10 years ago, I'm aware there is so much more to notice, even on these paths I've walked so often.

Then there's the capacity of the mind….. being an observant naturalist is like a mindfulness exercise. I find I'm noticing something and the next thing you know I'm thinking about what I will eat because I'm hungry. I notice one thing and Bruce, my husband, is pointing out something entirely different to me. My little human brain can't take it all in, at least not all at once. The diversity of all this life in many forms is amazingly and wonderfully too much.

Publicado el mayo 7, 2020 04:23 TARDE por maryjb maryjb

Comentarios

That is just great!! Soo many birds!! One of my favorite times of year is spring when all the birds are back,especially the warblers. I really don't care if I get warbler neck or not haha! One good way to id birds when they are in chorus is to focus on one bird song at a time. How you can do this is to start by listening to the birds that are further in the distance and then slowly moving inwards to the ones that are closest which are usually louder.

Publicado por jobird hace casi 4 años

So true that it's an exercise in mindfulness to observe! I'm still learning about identifying birds by their songs and calls, and I'm impressed you're able to identify so many by sound. I love your description of the bobolinks, if I ever hear that sound I'll know it's one of them!

Publicado por danivaill hace casi 4 años

"Being an observant naturalist is like a mindfulness exercise." I think this is a wonderful statement! I wrote something similar in one of my last posts, about learning to differentiate the audible vocalizations of birds present while in the woods. It may seem like an impossible task at first, but choosing one vocalization to focus one and blocking out the rest would then make it easier to listen as that bird continues to vocalize. I am starting to treat my observational skills like a muscle - something that needs to be exercised and constantly worked out in order to see progression! This is a great point that you made. I think this skill may start to become second-nature once it is exercised enough. I hope to reach a point where these things don't need to be focused on as intensely but almost kick in as a sort of reflex.

Publicado por jearn043 hace casi 4 años

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