Greeting the Dawn

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. -- Marcus Aurelius

A few weeks ago my husband and I spent a few days on Cape Cod, the windswept peninsula of eastern Massachusetts sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean. We spent the daylight hours birding. One day our travels took us along the western coast of the peninsula, which faces Cape Cod Bay, far beyond which is the mainland.

This particular day we stopped at the many beaches, with a break for lunch. Our last stop, late in the afternoon, was First Encounter Beach in Eastham. What we found surprised us - not ocean birds blown closer to shore in the strong wind as we found at other beaches but a parking lot full of cars pointing toward the water. Even as we slowed down more cars came in behind us and parked.

We realized these cars were coming to watch the sun go down.

We have seen this in other shore areas. Find a west-facing beach and you'll see people arriving to watch the sunset. The sun lowers into the ocean and when it disappears people applaud. Then they drive home.

Sunrise, Florida, 2010 (Margo D. Beller)

First Encounter Beach was a perfect spot for locals, and maybe other tourists visiting or renting nearby houses for the summer. We got out of there before the cars would be departing on the one narrow road and were back at our room by dark. We returned well before sunset a few days later to do our birding, with few cars in the lot.

I don't understand why people want to watch the sun set, and why they applaud, as if this is a show put on for their benefit. When the sun sets the darkness comes and I am not a night person.

I prefer watching the sun rise. When I started birding and could do it only on weekends I'd leave the house early on a spring morning and drive to a particular location where the rising sun would be accompanied by bird calls. It is peaceful and quiet on a marsh and I would feel blessed to be alive to enjoy it. It's also peaceful and quiet early on a winter morning at my house.

In winter the sun comes up in a position to hit me full in the face as I sit in my chair on my enclosed porch. I watch as the light increases, shining on the steam rising from my neighbor's chimney. Then the sun slowly appears at the edge of my neighbor's roof and the light washes over me. At this time of year, when the sun rises later, I don't get the full benefit for very long on this porch. If I'm lucky I get five minutes of sun before its arc brings it behind a tree. 

As the sun rises the birds become more active at the feeders, the bigger or the more aggressive birds pushing others away. When the sun is at its brightest I close my eyes and enjoy the warmth while i can.

Perhaps the people applauding the sunset are just happy they made it through another day. Maybe they prefer sitting in their cars late in the afternoon to waking early to catch the dawn. Maybe they like the sunset colors or a feeling of fellowship with strangers, like sitting at a drive-in watching a movie.

That's their choice but not mine.

Montauk (L.I.) sunset, 2017 (Margo D. Beller)

The rising sun is a symbol of new possibilities and another day to exist while, to me, the setting sun means an ending. It is the same reason why I prefer to see the colors of the budding trees in spring to the gaudy colors of the dying leaves in autumn. 

Rebirth will always beat out death, even vividly colored death, every time.

Winter Blues (Again)

Once again, as in 2015, I am at that point in the year when the cold not only affects what, if any, birds I can see but my mood.

Today I heard sad news about a friend's passing that occurred days before the anniversary of another friend's passing. It was cloudy and, while not windy, very cold. Regardless, I was restless so I left the house to calm myself by walking in some of my favorite birding sites nearby.

(Margo D. Beller)

I was not expecting much. This is not spring or autumn, when interesting birds are passing through the area. It isn't even summer when the insects that torment me are caught by birds to feed their young. This is winter, another in a consecutive string of very cold days.

I needed to get out anyway.

When I got to the path along the Whippany River, I found the river full of ice until I got to the outflow from the nearby sewage treatment plant where the water was warmer. Thanks to having less ice there were ducks - 13 mallards and three pairs of wood ducks. That was promising. There were many people on the paved path but no land birds to keep me there.

So I drove to another part of the path a short distance away where I found only a cardinal over the more-frozen river.

Then I drove to a third area. There was no river nearby but there were birds, albeit birds I could've seen from my kitchen window: titmice, cardinals, jay, juncos, white-throated and song sparrows, white-breasted nuthatch. A couple of Canada geese, likely locals, flying overhead. All that was missing were the hordes of house finches that sit in the feeders and eat relentlessly.

Front yard, a few years ago (Margo D. Beller)

After over 30 minutes of walking and looking at these winter birds I realized I had numbed myself to the point where I could not feel the stick in my gloved hand. I carefully hurried back to the car and its heater. I defrosted somewhat as I drove home, then drank hot tea and added layers to warm me.

I do this birding in the cold because there is always the chance I might find something interesting. Mainly, however, I get restless in winter and get depressed if I stay inside too long. Darkness comes early and morning daylight comes late. Most of the trees have lost all their leaves. The garden has finally been put to bed. The cold seems relentless, making my head ache and accentuating the pains that have increased as I age. It is not my favorite time of year.

What I can look forward to from my kitchen window.
(Margo D. Beller)

This day I'm writing about is a Sunday. I knew that the "birdier" sites such as Great Swamp and Troy Meadows would have people seeking birds as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count. I also knew that at this time of year many birders head down the shore to the places along the ocean where the ducks go to winter and the water isn't likely to freeze. Maybe I'll get to these areas, too, with my husband driving. 

But for now, feeling my mortality, I wanted to stay close to home. 

A Change in the Weather

 Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. -- Robert A. Heinlein

I am fascinated by weather, how one day can be picture perfect and the next cloudy and gray; 20 degrees higher than "average" one day and 20 degrees below the next.

When the local news is on I always pay particular attention to the weather segment.

Shearwater blown close to shore. (Margo D. Beller)

When I first contemplated this post, we had not gotten any significant rain since August. The ground was dry, brown and rock-hard, an amazing change from earlier in the year when we got a lot of rain. There was no forecast of rain for the following weeks, including the week my husband (MH) and I were to be away. Fires were raging throughout my home state of New Jersey and I feared some neighbor's stupidity in running a lawn mower or lighting a backyard fire pit despite a state burn ban would set the neighborhood ablaze, leaving us homeless.

So before traveling I gathered important papers, my laptop, prescription drugs and small artifacts I wanted to keep and packed them to bring with us. We left and I hoped for the best.

We drove to Cape Cod, which is the only area of Massachusetts that was not in significant or extreme drought - it is only down about 2 inches, as opposed to more than double that elsewhere in the state. Its geographical location - sticking out into the ocean - helps. The warmer ocean currents that may be a factor in New Jersey's strange weather kept Cape Cod warm and moist enough for flowers - mums and snapdragons among others at the motel - to be blooming long after my flowers became a memory.

Sheltered savannah sparrows (Margo D. Beller)

But being out in the ocean is not good when the winds start blowing hard from the north, as they did when we were on vacation. It became wintry in a hurry, although the winds that nearly knocked me down several times also blew ocean birds closer to shore where I could see them. It also forced the land birds I was seeking to gather in numbers in more sheltered areas.

When we returned home most of the backyard trees were bare, their leaves blown in clumps around the lawn. I had cut back and stored the cannas before we left but the coleus in the one pot I'd left outside was dead. The earlier darkness and the later morning light depressed me. 

Hard, dry ground at Greystone (Margo D. Beller)

This is when I contemplated this post, to try and make sense of this annual change that I find doesn't get any easier to live through. But then, a week after returning, something good happened - it rained. And when the temperature started falling it snowed, lightly.

It has been raining or snowing for two days now. After the initial runoff because the ground was so hard the soil has softened and is drinking in the moisture. The snow showers have prompted the birds to flock to the feeders in droves. When I contemplate Thanksgiving I do not fear my house will burn if we go away. The forecast is for two or three more soakings, including more snow, in the coming week. 

New Jersey is still in a drought, however, even with the current and forecast precipitation. Much of the northeast is also in a drought. We would need two weeks of rain like today's to make up the deficit. With climate change it is no longer predictable if we'll get enough rain, too much rain or no rain.

And during the time the northeast was drying up, the southeast was flooding, the west was burning and parts of the southwest had heavy snow. 

As I sat writing this post I wondered, why this wacky New Jersey weather?  Climate change, of course.

From the New York Times:

New Jersey is heating up faster than any other state in the Northeast, pacing a region with rapidly rising temperatures, according to data gathered by a nonprofit research organization

The cause of New Jersey’s dubious distinction is most likely a combination of factors, including the warming of the ocean bordering the coastal state and overdevelopment in some areas, experts say.

But what is certain, they added, is that the state — and the Northeast in general — will continue to see more heat waves like the one last month, as well as worsening storms and floods.

“New Jersey is ground zero for some of the worst impacts of climate change, including extreme heat and considerable increases in flood risk,” said Shawn M. LaTourette, the commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection.

While average annual temperatures across the country have increased by about 2.5 degrees since 1970, annual temperatures in New Jersey have increased by roughly 3.5 degrees, said Lauren Casey, a meteorologist with Climate Central, the nonprofit organization that gathered the temperature data.

According to the group’s findings, New Jersey is the third fastest warming state in the country.

When we had less than half an inch of rain in early
November I took this picture of my back patio.
(Margo D. Beller)

What does this mean? More heat, more rain (when there is rain), more humidity in summer and less snow in winter. According to my state's climatologist, 80% of New Jersey’s warmest months have occurred since 1990. And there has not been a top-five coldest month in New Jersey since 1989.

In years past, during the worst summer heat, there would usually be one day when the humidity was low, the sun was out and the breeze was cool and pleasant. I would say to MH, I wish all the summer days could be like this.

Be careful what you wish for. After this year's long string of "perfect" days sucking us dry, I don't think this anymore.

When You Know Migration Is Truly Over

As I write, October is nearly over. We have had nearly a month without rain in New Jersey, where I live, and the shriveled leaves rain down with every puff of wind. We had lovely color for a while but then the temperature, which had dropped, started rising again. Now, Halloween might be 80 degrees F, a new record.

The "Sparrow Bowl," Sept. 29, 2024
(Margo D. Beller)

Every day I check the lists to see what other birders have found and also the interactive "Bird Migration Forecast" map that uses the information picked up by the nation's radar system to track bird movement. Lately, movement has been light.

So in my head I know this year's southbound migration is just about over. But it was still a jolt to visit an area I only recently discovered to be a good place for a variety of sparrows, warblers and other birds needing a place to rest and where they can feed on the weed seeds and the fruits on assorted vines. 

This weedy area is in the Central Park of Morris County, which I still refer to as Greystone for the former mental hospital that moved up the road. The site is 5 minutes from my house, making it very convenient to visit daily. It is a very large piece of property and one can find birds, deer, even foxes if you hike early in the morning before the dog walkers and runners show up.

This particular area I'm mentioning consists of two drainage ditches located behind the playgrounds. These ditches became overgrown with weeds, as open areas like this will do. One of the ditches also has small trees in it, and that made a difference to what I now relate.

The same area, Oct. 30, 2024. (Margo D. Beller)

I came to the area today for the first time in a week. As I walked over from where I parked I saw half of what I called the "sparrow bowl," was gone - completely mowed down. The other half, where the trees are growing, was left basically alone except for the mowing down of ragweed at the edge. With my binoculars I looked up the path at nearby areas where I discovered more birds would hide in the ragweed. All gone.

Logically, I can understand why this county park would want to mow down ragweed. I don't like it in my yard either. This area of the park gets a lot of foot traffic between the dog walkers and the cross-country runners, with a birder like me showing up here and there.

Emotionally, I was ready to throw up.

There are still plenty of weeds near where I was standing in the park and in the fields beyond, but the only birds I heard or saw today were the ones I'd expect to hang around during the winter including juncos, various woodpeckers, jays.

[UPDATE: Between the time of this post and today, Nov. 3, the weeds in the second drainage area were cut down. The trees were left standing. I found late migrants in a field down the hill where they can hide among the dried goldenrod.]

The other part of the "bowl" (to the right) where only the weed
border was mowed down thanks to the trees.
(Margo D. Beller)

I was reminded of when I worked in Jersey City, on the waterfront. There were plenty of open, empty lots filled with weeds. During migration I'd find plenty of birds, including the types others reported from more typical migrant hotspots such as Central Park in New York City. But soon "development" did away with those open lots, and with them the birds.

Many weedy areas in parks and vacant lots are important stopovers for birds on the move, but most people don't look at weeds that way. What was a nearby bird paradise for me (and the birds) was just so much wasted land to the Jersey City "developers" and, I realize, those who want Greystone used by everyone, birders and nonbirders alike. So once again something has changed, and not for the better.

In this particular area, at least, migration is over. I'll have to look elsewhere farther afield and hope to find this paradise restored next year.

How I Became So 'Smart'

I have friends who believe I was born with the knowledge of being able to determine one bird from another. They are amazed when I hear a cardinal singing or a chickadee making its gurgling call and know what it is.

I tell my friends I was not born with this knowledge. It has come from many, many years of listening, looking for the bird that makes the sound and then studying my various books and recordings.

My eyes on the world. (Margo D. Beller)

In short, I get out there. They do not.

When I first started seeing birds at my first feeder I consulted one of my husband's (MH) books published by Readers Digest. It listed "North American Wildlife" including birds as well as trees, flowering plants and just about everything I could see in my immediate area in simple language and with pictures of flowers, leaves and seeds.

I called this book "The Idiot's Guide" because that is what I was at the time. It has gone through many editions since the one I used because birding and getting out into nature has become very big, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.

My second book was one I found at the old New Jersey Audubon bookstore at Scherman Hoffman, "Birds At Your Feeder." This has been very helpful in identifying birds, what foods they prefer and what predators they face. This has also gone through many editions.

Over time my library has expanded, enough to fill a small bookcase. Along with bird identification books MH has bought guides on mammals, fish, birding behavior and other related subjects. In time I discovered the "Birds of" series by Stan Tekeila and bought the ones for New Jersey and New York. These books listed the birds by color. So if I saw a yellow bird I could look at the yellow-tabbed pages and see if it was a goldfinch or an evening grosbeak. I'm sure there is a guide for every state.

Then I found a used copy of the "Stokes Field Guide to Birds" for the east. Like the Tekeila it had photographs of the birds as well as information on whether a particular warbler liked to stay high in the tree or lower. It had range maps. It was a soft paperback I could carry. (I later bought a used copy of the western bird edition and read it on the plane while I headed to California for a family occasion.)

Then came David Sibley's guide, and that showed me illustrations of birds in flight, birds in breeding plumage, young birds and birds in nonbreeding plumage. Sibley's guide covers the entire U.S. and I started lugging that book with me everywhere I went, wearing out the binding. This has not only gone through more editions but you can now also buy separate west or east bird guides - just like Peterson. (All these publishers of bird guides seem to copy one another. For instance, after Sibley came out a Peterson guide came out covering the continent.)

My go-to guides over the years
(Margo D. Beller)

Finally, if I see something and can't find it in Sibley I turn to Richard Crossley's guide to eastern birds, in which he took pictures of birds in various plumages and grouped them within a picture of suitable habitat. This volume, a paperback like the Sibley, is much larger and so is left at home to consult after I return. If I see something in dim light, I look at the pictures here and hope for the best.

Sibley, Tekeila, Stokes and Crossley have made a lot of money with their guides and other books and products (recordings, for instance). So has the man who revolutionized bird study. No longer did someone have to shoot a bird to study the field marks. Roger Tory Peterson came up with a way to illustrate identifying bird fieldmarks using binoculars, and put that information into a small book that can be easily carried out in the field.

It was the third edition, done in 1947, that is considered the "classic" Peterson guide to eastern birds. There are now many more editions of that guide plus guides to western birds, British birds, insects, etc.

MH gave me his beat-up copy of the 1947 edition, which I consult on occasion. But because MH is a compulsive book buyer and wanted me to have enough information for me to be as smart as two people, he found for me a facsimile edition of Peterson's first guide and a special 50th anniversary edition of the 1947 version done up in gilt-edged pages and black and gold cover. 

1947 Peterson (Margo D. Beller)

None of these volumes leave the house.

By studying these and other books I got to know what to look for when I see and hear birds. Like anything else, if you are interested in something and want to learn about it you gain knowledge. There is nothing magic about it. 

Although there is the one friend who went birding with me and now believes I can see things others don't, which may be true. I am so attuned to hearing little sounds and seeing movement in trees and shrubs that I find the birds. I can see partial field marks and be confident in my identification thanks to many decades of doing this.

I amaze myself some days. But I'm no expert.

Before and After

 

Scherman Hoffman field, October 2024
(Margo D. Beller)

Same field after a controlled burn in 2017
(Margo D. Beller)

Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Babies are born, they grow, they become adults and have babies of their own. Places where I used to walk often I don't visit for different reasons.

Years ago, working at a stressful job five days a week where I had to rise long before dawn to catch a train that would get me to my 7 a.m. shift, I would rise before dawn on Saturdays and go birding. One of the places I'd visit was the closest New Jersey Audubon center, one county away. I would take the 8 a.m. bird walk with the then-director or with the then-education director. 

Eventually, I overcame my squeamishness at being part of an organization and became a member. I started volunteering by putting plants in the ground. But soon I decided I'd rather write so I suggested running the center's blog. The then-director liked that idea.

The path to the river trail, one of the few areas that hasn't changed
much except for some erosion. (Margo D. Beller)

I wrote that blog for many years. It allowed me to attend various events such as an owl prowl and a program on the American woodcock. (One woodcock landed about a foot from me after doing its high-altitude mating flight during the group's subsequent night walk.)

Unfortunately, the head guy at the NJ Audubon organization decided that to strengthen the "brand message" all the centers should end their blogs and there would be only one, produced by a company that specializes in hiring freelancers to take press releases and turn them into articles. My blog was summarily obliterated, not even archived.

Luckily, I had kept copies of those posts, some of which I have republished on this blog. 

I was damned mad. I stopped going to Scherman Hoffman. There are plenty of other places for me to visit that are within closer driving distance. I did not renew my membership. The then-director, who said he was sorry I had to go, later retired. So have the people I once worked with for the blog. I even stopped buying my bird seed there.

The Passaic River from the river trail. Across is Morris
County. (Margo D. Beller)

One of the times I took my husband (MH) there was just after a spring controlled burn, done to eliminate the overgrown of invasive weeds and other plants. The 2017 picture above is from that walk.

I've written about the gnats that infested my bird seed. Slowly but surely the pail is getting emptied so I will need more seed. I went back to Scherman Hoffman recently to see if it was still selling seed grown by NJ farmers. Like everything else, it isn't doing that anymore.

As long as I was there I decided to take a sentimental journey and hike the trails again. After all, now I have much more time on my hands and I don't have to rise before dawn on a Saturday to get in my birding. What I found here, as I have also found at another place I once visited more often, the Frelingheuysen Arboretum, is things have changed, and not for the better.

At the arboretum, which is off a road that has become four times busier with traffic seven days a week because of the malls that have gone up where there were once woods, trails have been marked, paths have been blocked, other paths have been created and all have been made more "inclusive." It is too stressful to drive there unless I am going to the county library across the road, which I rarely do.

Autumn colors (Margo D. Beller)

Like the arboretum, the center was created from an estate - actually, two estates. The arboretum is a Morris County (NJ) park. The NJ Audubon center is privately run and depends on what funds it can wrangle from members and other sources. So while there are now many, many more plants providing food and shelter for the birds, the hillside paths have become seriously eroded from flooding rains and thousands of feet. Trees have been planted in some areas but some of the paths have become so rocky I was glad I was going uphill so I could steady myself with my stick and walk against gravity.

A bridge over a brook now has handrails, which is an improvement, but the path along the Passaic River - the border between Somerset and Morris counties - is so filled with tree roots as to be dangerous for someone like me who is not always steady. Another path, once marked "vernal pool" is now a "Pond Trail" named after someone I don't know and who has probably been a NJ Audubon benefactor.

Dogwood (Margo D. Beller)

Even the store where I once got my birdseed and some of my feeders has changed. Where once it was run by one woman - now also retired - it has two part-time managers; one woman who knows birds, another who knows retail. Retail is definitely important, tho the seed is relegated to the garage. High-end optics, however, are front and center.

I guess you can sum up my feelings with the old Yogi Berra-ism: Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded. I suppose it has to be that way for parks to survive. The more people who come, the more they will care about the environment. That's a good thing in the abstract. But for me those "popular" parks, even those with a nice number of birds in season, are not where you'll find me now.

The Stranger

It is a cloudy weekday morning with a chance of rain. The young woman pushing the baby carriage down the grassy park path sees a figure ahead. The figure is in black - pants, wool cap, raincoat. The woman has a moment of panic and hesitates, but as she comes closer she sees the figure is another woman who is wearing binoculars on a harness. This woman is leaning on a large walking stick and looking intently into a weedy area. She looks up, notes where the woman with the carriage is walking, and goes back to looking into the weeds. The woman with the carriage passes by. They don't speak.

(Margo D. Beller)

A short time later an older couple, each walking a large dog on a leash, also sees the woman in black. They come down the small hill from the parking area where the woman has also parked. They see her and the binoculars. The woman sees them and the dogs. She walks to the other side of the path from where the dog walkers go, her back to them, looking up into the trees. When they leave she goes back over to the weeds and continues to watch.

After a time she shifts her position as the birds' calls draw her attention. Over here, a flock of goldfinches. Over there, palm warblers, a little duller in color but looking not much different from their spring plumage, batting their tails every time they alight on a tree branch or tall weed. 

The woman looks over and sees the couple coming back. Once again she shifts her position away from them. Once again they look at her. No one speaks. The couple goes down a hill and are gone to another part of the park. The woman goes back to finding the calling sparrows her Merlin app says are in the area. She will ultimately find six types of sparrows that come out of the weeds and sit in the open just long enough for the woman to see and identify them.

I have been doing this a long time and knew what I was seeing. 

The weedy area ahead of me is in a depression that, ringed by ragweed and filled with that, some milkweed, goldenrod and other weeds, provides a deep, relatively secure hiding and foraging place for the sparrows, warblers and other birds I found there. I had discovered this birdy area, located behind a playground and picnic area at the Central Park of Morris County (formerly the Greystone Psychiatric Hospital), after birding in a different area of the park the day before. I came on this weekday morning to explore it further without the crowd of noisy people the park draws for after-school soccer practice or weekend sporting events.

The weedy field. (Margo D. Beller)

I try to imagine what others see when we encounter each other. I usually wear a hat to protect my scalp from sun and bug bites. I keep my hair down and my shirt and jacket collars up to protect my ears and neck. I wear gloves tho' if I use Merlin or write something in my notebook I have to expose a hand.

I figure the binoculars is what allows people to relax, realizing I'm just some old bird watcher and not a sex offender or thief ready to ambush them. Still, I must look strange all covered up as others are walking or running the same paths in shorts and T-shirts.

Greystone, as I still call it, is a more-open piece of property than some of the places I go to bird. Where the playground sits once stood stone dormitories for the patients. I don't know if the weedy depression where I stand was there before and, if so, its use. But Greystone is filled with weedy areas, and at this time of year they provide food and shelter for migrating birds and those that will be hanging around for the winter.

Ragweed, in another part of Greystone. (Margo D. Beller)

When I am in areas where the paths are more narrow people passing me will sometimes say hello or good morning or even ask me what I am seeing or have seen. Runners don't usually speak to me unless it is to say "on your left" as they pass. Most people on bikes say nothing, don't even ring a bell. I have to hope to hear them coming so I don't step in their way. If I hear them and step out of the way maybe one in three thanks me.

Most of the time I am not out there to be sociable or exercise, I am out there looking for birds, particularly during the migration periods in spring - when birds are colorful and singing - and autumn - when they are dull and, if I'm lucky, making soft contact calls.  

One of the narrow paths I usually walk.
(Margo D. Beller)

People with dogs can be troublesome, particularly if their dogs are not on a leash. I used to make comments but after a few times I stopped because the reactions ranged from ignoring me to downright hostility. Concerned birders know unleashed dogs can kill birds. Dog owners know these concerned birders can be troublesome, too. We pass each other and I hope they don't come back this way.

Most times the people I see with dogs are pleasant, leash their pets and clean up after them. If the dogs are friendly I pet them. Since Covid there seems to be more people spending time outside in the parks, often with the dogs they bought during the pandemic. When someone is heading my way with a dog I stand aside and let them pass.

If they look at me as strange, I don't care. They are strange to me, too.