Spring Warbler Migration through Stebbins in May

If you live in a neighborhood of many homes, there will be a limited variety of birds to hear and see. To experience the full pleasure of birds in Spring, you have to find a place to walk on the wild side.

This may be a path through an undeveloped patch of brush and woods just down the street, or it may be a park with trails and tall trees. An older cemetery or a park within a city that has plenty of tall trees with areas of brush and undergrowth is an excellent place because it 'traps' migrants who descend from the sky in early morning and find mostly sterile concrete.

The Stebbins Wildlife Refuge in Longmeadow, owned and managed by the Allen Bird Club, is one of these wild places. About twenty people took three walks through parts of the refuge on the last three Wednesdays, and they learned quite a bit about the process of migration.

On May 3 the leaves were barely out after a cold, wet spell, but for the previous two days it had begun to warm under the influence of south winds. The first sign of migration were the dozens of yellow-rumped warblers that were feeding and calling in the lower branches of the trees. There were five or ten in one tree and with them were a few ruby-crowned kinglets. Along the way a few catbirds mewed in the thick bushes, while some wood thrushes caroled unseen in the meager shade of the trees.

A handful of blue-gray gnatcatchers were down the trail a bit, also flitting about in the open. Higher up and very vocal were the warbling vireos that nest here. There were also a couple of blue-headed vireos which do not. The most prominent nesting warbler in this wet, lowland area was the yellow warbler, and ten or fifteen of them sang and chased one another about the trees and shrubs.

Often, we only hear a bird singing and are unable to find it hidden in the treetops. Such was true of single blue-winged, parula, black-throated blue, and black-throated green warblers. There was also just one redstart and one ovenbird, but three of the black & white warblers.

There were two palm warblers and two northern waterthrush, both staying close to the ground. The waterthrush sang loudly from the swampy areas, but were not seen. The palm warbler was obvious, hanging around the trails and bobbing its tail. The final two tropical species were several rose-breasted grosbeaks and a pair of Baltimore orioles, larger than any of the others and plain to see and hear.

There were about 120 individual tropical migrants of 19 different species, almost half being the yellow-rumped warbler. Compare this to one week later on May 10, when the same two hour walk in the same area had about 170 such birds of 32 different species. A rare May heat wave had hit the Northeast and already we were well along on the migration calendar.

This time, three different types of flycatchers led the parade. Also added were two thrushes, red-eyed vireos, and nine warbler species. Most of these were represented by up to ten birds each. There were more than a dozen orioles cavorting through the leafed-out branches of many trees, but only four yellow-rumped warblers and no palm warblers, kinglets, or blue-headed vireos. These species had already moved through to their northern breeding grounds.

On May 17 the final walk had only 110 birds of 23 species, and the mix was changed again. New were two plain willow flycatchers, a brilliant indigo bunting, and two hummingbirds feeding in the honeysuckle. Seven warblers, one thrush, and two flycatchers from the previous week were not found, and only the nesters were common.

In May, you don't just get the sights and sounds of the bright and beautiful birds. You get a sense of their amazing passage from place to place, and you learn when each species is most likely to pass through. Perhaps there are still some birds to our south, waiting for another warm night and following breezes. Then there will be more to see when we walk on the wild side.