Queston: I live in Murrysville, and for decades I've enjoyed the sound of varied songbirds, cardinals, sparrows, bluejays, the usual variety, but now and for the last several weeks I'm able to stand in my backyard without hearing a single sound, bird-wise. There are still a few, but most seem to have vanished. The bird feeder I had to replenish once a week now needs to be filled maybe every three weeks or so. Can you adviseâ¢
Answer: What a marvelous question! You are one of the very few persons who are curious enough to notice that the daily sounds of the forest and field have changed from the numerous calls of various species of birds to the cicadas during the day and the katydids, conehead grasshoppers, field crickets and to the ones who will eventually be the only singers in November, the tree crickets at night.
I remember a story from Paul g. Wiegman in the Tribune-Review some time ago when he spotted a Prairie warbler somewhere south of the equator and asked, "Did you ever hear it sing?" The answer was "no." It seems that the "song" birds nest and rear their young in the north and then join many species of birds to travel south for the winter. In Western Pennsylvania there are many birds -- this year, without any special field trip or effort, I've recorded 93 species. In years when I've visited Presque Isle near Erie or Hawk Mountain at Kempton, I've seen as many as 134. A really good active birder could find even more.
Do I see all of them⢠Not always. I hear them. But, if I have the time to get out of the car, walk through the field and climb the slope to actually see the fantastic feathered creatures that make all of the sounds that now you do not hear and sadly miss, I am doubly rewarded.
The reason is this -- calls are property claims. While mating and nesting, the male birds sing constantly, and even fight members of the same species for space. I had this year a cardinal in a Kousa dogwood, a robin in a yew, a phoebe on my porch lamp and a Carolina wren in my garage in a wreath my wife had hung as a door decoration.
Similar species are spread carefully across the acreage. We had a robin fighting his reflection in the bathroom window, a song sparrow attacking the complete (glass) back of the house and a bluebird beating itself to death in my car mirror.
Now, after all this is over, they not only change their point-of-view, but they also change their feathers. It is called "molting" and at this time they are shy, reclusive and quiet . The cardinals and towhees seem to let out a cheep every once in a while, and the garrulous red-eyed vireo was the last to quit singing in the tall oaks.
Don't be discouraged, however. You now can go out at night to hear the owls or perhaps a woodpecker, and the Carolina wren sings loudly all winter.
