Noon. Birds are quiet. Even bugs are on break. A better time for bird watching is dawn, if you can get your butt out of bed. But you take what you can get. It’s spring migration. You want to see what’s going on, and you’ve only got lunchtime. You head to the wild area.

There’s a van in the parking lot. Two house painters relax inside, eating sandwiches, listening to the radio. Everybody takes lunch in their own way. You’re going for a hike. If you spot birds, fine, but you’ve got small expectations.

You lean on a tree and wait. Then you see a speck of blue in a lot of green. An Indigo Bunting. As you glass it, sun comes from behind a cloud and the blue brightens. You look until you get bored.

At noon, birds must be tired. They’ve worked all morning, up early, putting in their time. Like the guys in the van, they need a break. There’s an “out to lunch” sign on the forest.

You can still bird-watch, but you have to do it a little differently. In the early morning, you’d look for movement. Hey, a Wilson’s Warbler. Gotcha. But lunch hour requires a different tactic: Glass the trees without waiting for movement. You’ll see empty branches. But keep at it. Soon you’ll see a bird on break.

Today there was a Brown-headed Cowbird on a low limb, doing nothing. Then there was an Eastern Phoebe at the forest edge. This bird rarely sits still; it’s a flycatcher. Also sitting quietly was an Eastern Bluebird. Another scan and you see an Eastern Kingbird.

(Why all the “Eastern” names? Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Kingbird. Well, that’s what they’re called, if you play by the rules. Not always easy. In a minute there’s going to be an incorrectly named oriole).

Glass the nearby clearing. Nothing. The prairie’s out to lunch, too. But wait. There’s an iridescent Tree Swallow on a reed. And a Song Sparrow. No song from this sparrow, but why would there be? He’s on break.

So it goes. Before leaving the preserve, you’ve seen birds that you don’t see around the house. You got fresh air. Some exercise. Not a bad lunch.

The van’s gone when you get to the parking area. Work cannot be denied. As you pull away, you hear birds. They’re on the job again. To make this point, a Baltimore Oriole zooms in front of your windshield. Okay, everybody, back to work.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 3:31 pm and is filed under "Daily Sightings" A Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.