As exciting and memorable as spring migration is, it’s safe
to say that much of what defines a “successful” migration for birding comes
down to seeing just a handful of individuals during the month or two that they
pass through the area. Of the numerous highlights Sarah and I had last year,
one sighting in particular that was especially thrilling: a Cerulian Warbler at
Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. One bird. One individual. ONE! That’s all
it takes to make the month, season, year and life (etc etc etc) lists.
Looking back over my list from last spring, there were
several birds like this- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-headed Grosbeak,
Blue-winged Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler. There were others where I saw so
many that they became unremarkable, like Chestnut-sided Warblers, Nashville
Warblers or Black-throated Green Warblers. Not that these birds aren’t
beautiful and exciting to see, but they became regulars on our daily or weekly
excursions.
But neither of these cases really capture what’s going on,
does it? I say that Chestnut-sideds were common, but our Ebird data says we saw
28 birds. Nashvilles? 49. Black-throated greens? 24. That’s still not really
anything when it comes to the birds that passed through the area. We surely don’t
see every last on of them! And it doesn’t even start to describe the
population! It’s really quite a challenge to get your mind around what’s really
going on with this spring migration: tens (hundreds?) of millions of individuals
across 500+ species moving north all in the span of 2-3 months.
