In these freezing temperatures, going outside may not be your first instinct, but for bird watchers, the conditions after a winter storm are perfect for catching a glimpse of our feathered friends.
Taylor Long is the field trip coordinator for the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society and a designer with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He tells Ozarks at Large’s Daniel Caruth that the recent snowfall is ideal for novice bird watchers.
Taylor Long: Birds, for me, were a very accessible way to learn about what's going on with creatures outdoors. So, you know, there's lots of them. They're colorful, they're dynamic, they move around. And compared to a lot of other things out there, you can really access and find birds in most places. So I always got a kick out of paying attention to birds and using them as a sort of gateway to just learning about all the nature around me.
Daniel Caruth: Yeah, well, speaking of nature, I think, you know, most people know we've been through a big winter storm. There's lots of snow on the ground still. And, you know, this time of year, I think maybe people wouldn't expect right now to be a good time to be out birdwatching or birding. Can you talk about winter birding and why, you know, the snow might be helpful or if it is helpful when going out and trying to spot some birds?
Taylor Long: Yeah. I personally love winter birding around here. There are a number of reasons. So first, from the bird's perspective, if you are feeding birds at your home, this is the time of year where they really will lean on that bird feeder when the temperatures drop. Birds need more energy to stay warm and stay healthy. And when we get snow and ice, that also makes it even harder for them to find wild food and open water. So this is a particularly great time of year to keep bird feeders well stocked for the birds’ sake, but also for your own enjoyment.
On a snowy day like today, when the sun comes out and the light is really bright and everything is reflecting, you can really see the birds well at your feeder, so it helps them out. And it's just a particularly nice time to look at all the birds that are coming to your feeder.
So that's the first kind of angle on bird feeding, but there are other benefits to winter birding beyond your backyard this time of year. There are no leaves on the trees at all, right? So it's actually much easier to find and locate birds after a snowstorm. Also, it's usually pretty quiet because of the way the snow absorbs sound. So it's a good time to hear birds. And then, you know, with the snow and light reflectivity, it's also just very good viewing conditions if you can get a bird in the binoculars.
So if you're willing to brave the cold, you're going to have a better chance of hearing and seeing those birds, and they're just going to look excellent, the ones that you come across. So, you know, getting out into the woods on a nice sunny day after a snow is just a really nice time to go find and appreciate birds.
Daniel Caruth: And have you been out birding at all since this storm came through?
Taylor Long: The farthest I've made it is around my block. But I brought the binoculars and have enjoyed our local birds hitting the neighbors' feeders and whatnot. I do know that there are others in this community, other kind of more hardcore bird watchers, that I know that if they've got four-wheel drive, they've been out.
Once the snow settles, the default mode for birders around here after a big storm like this is to get out to the lakes and check any remaining open water. Because cold weather like this, particularly when water starts freezing up north of us, will drive down waterfowl further south. So you'll have more than usual ducks, geese, things like that out on our lakes.
And if half of the lake is frozen, they actually end up getting concentrated kind of into the middle open spaces. So it's an exciting time to just get out to those normal spots and see what the weather has shaken up and brought in that might be out of the ordinary.
Daniel Caruth: And when we think about the birds that you maybe will spot in the winter here for this region, are there any specific that you think are really quintessential winter birds or some special species that people get to see during this time of year?
Taylor Long: Oh, yeah. There's a lot of special winter birds here. I would say, you know, in your yard you're going to see a lot of the year-round residents are going to be really kind of highlighted in the winter, but you've got birds that don't spend the summer here that only spend winter here.
The classic example is a bird called the dark-eyed junco, which, you know, locals might refer to as snowbirds around here. They breed further north of us in the summertime, but come winter, they'll show up here. And they're pretty common in yards underneath your bird feeders.
A little bit more exciting, maybe, is birds like red-breasted nuthatch, which show up only in the wintertime here. And red-breasted nuthatch is a fun one because they don't come every year this far south. Their population really changes and moves with cone crops and things that are going on north of us that kind of ebb and flow from year to year.
So some years we might see no red-breasted nuthatches at all in Fayetteville, and then the next year you might have them on almost every bird feeder in town. This year happens to be a really good year for red-breasted nuthatch. So that's a fun bird that I associate with the winter here.
And then, you know, getting outside of the yard, I mentioned these beautiful big white swans that sometimes will show up in Arkansas during extreme weather. The trumpeter swan, and more rarely the tundra swan, are both birds that I've seen a handful of times in Fayetteville. And it's always been after a big freeze, a big snowstorm. Maybe one or two days you'll have a group of them out on some lake, and then they just magically disappear.
Daniel Caruth: Well, if someone is thinking about picking up, maybe they're going a little stir-crazy at home and they're thinking of a hobby to pick up during this, what's some tips maybe you have for people who want to go out there and start bird watching?
Taylor Long: Yeah. Get yourself a pair of binoculars and just walk out the back door. You don't have to drive. In fact, with the way the roads are right now, I would probably discourage it still. Just a casual walk around the block and noticing the yards that have bird feeders up, you're going to see more birds around there.
But they're really just anywhere after an event like this. The birds are very active. They're really trying to get food. So I think in weather like this you're going to see more birds just around your neighborhood.
So, yeah, I just encourage you to take a walk around the block and bring some binoculars and stop and look at anything flying and moving. And there's lots of really colorful, delightful birds out there just in our own backyards and neighborhoods.
Taylor Long is the field coordinator for the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society. He spoke with Ozarks at Large’s Daniel Caruth over the phone earlier this week.
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