Yesterday, May 8, was the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Global “Big Day” for 2021. On Global Big Day, thousands of birders around the world collaborate to identify as many species as possible in twenty-four hours. As of this writing, yesterday saw 111,940 checklists submitted by 46,237 participants. Collectively, we observed 6,929 species, or almost seventy percent of all known bird species.
Last year I found ninety-six species on Global Big Day, so naturally my target was an even one-hundred. Read on to find out how I fared…
One of my favorite finds of the day, a male hooded warbler (Setophaga citrina) doing what warblers do - singing his heart out for anyone willing to listen. Birding by ear is an essential skill for finding birds in general, but especially for warblers. My skills are much improved over last year (which is to say, I can now identify more than zero warblers by sound!). This hooded warbler sang long enough for us to finally spot it in the very dense undergrowth.
We started our day at Cherokee Park. It was quite chilly in the morning hours, but sunny. Migrants have moved through in more of a trickle than a flood this year, and we have yet to see the excitement of a large mixed flock of warblers washing over in a chaotic wave as they scour the trees for insects and caterpillars. Still, after five and a half hours and as many miles, we managed fourteen warbler species and sixty-one overall. In addition to the warblers, we found most of the migrating thrushes: the abundant Swainson’s thrushes were joined by a two gray-cheeked thrushes, veery, and several wood thrushes singing their beautiful flute-like song. The robins (also thrushes) were present and singing. Hermit thrushes get an early start on migration and are already gone, and thus it was only the bluebirds that forgot to show up. We would find them later in the day, for a sweep of all six expected thrush species.
American Robin (Turdus migratorius), the quintessential migrant and symbol of the arrival of spring - their Latin name literally means “migrant thrush”, although much of the U.S. population is non-migratory. I often walk past robins because they are so common, but when you stop to look they are quite beautiful.
Our birding day continued in the northern part of Beckley Creek Park and along the banks of Floyd’s Fork. Bird activity continued to feel slow, so we were actually a bit surprised to end up with a final tally of fifty-two species, fourteen of which were new for the day. Highlights were good looks at bay-breasted and blackpoll warblers, and a pair of blue grosbeaks.
Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata) | Blackpolls stretch the limits of long-distance migration for songbirds. Every fall they make a 1,600 mile non-stop over water flight from the Greater Antilles to their winter grounds on the northern coasts of South America.
Finally, I made a solo quick pass through the Grande Allée section of Beckley Creek Park in the late afternoon hours, where I found tree, barn, and cliff swallows, my first yellow warbler and orchard orioles of the year, and a surprise white-crowned sparrow. I am proud to say my ear has gotten good enough to accurate identify the orchard oriole’s song through the open car window; after a quick stop I was happy to find him singing in a treetop to confirm I had gotten it right!
A yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) allowed me to get a close look (but wouldn’t look at me!) in the willows at Beckley Creek Park.
Eight of thirty-nine species in the Grande Allée were new and I finished Big Day 2021 with a grand total of eighty-eight species, eight short of last year and twelve away from my goal of one hundred, but still an amazing variety of birds. I had some notable misses - no great blue herons, bald eagles, and we could not locate the resident great-horned owls at Cherokee Park. Had I gone to shorebird habitat, one-hundred would have been within reach, but I was frankly out of gas after ten hours of birding and 8.77 miles! Next year…
As a photographer, I have a love/hate relationship with warblers. They are beautiful and interesting, but unobstructed close shots in good light are few and far between, and when they do happen, the window of opportunity typically closes in seconds. This yellow-throated warbler (Setophaga dominica) was only about ten feet off the ground, in decent light, close, and with a fairly clean background. But they have an uncanny knack for facing slightly away and always keeping at least one twig or leaf right in front of their face. So near, and yet so far!
Global Big Day is certainly fun for me. I love getting out for an entire day with my camera, but beyond the personal enjoyment, I also find it moving and inspiring. Tens of thousands of us, from 253 nations, independent territories, and subregions of this one shared planet, aligned toward a common goal. In twenty-four hours we take the pulse of avian biodiversity and create hundreds of thousands of data points that help researchers understand how to better protect our birds and this environment in which we all live. When the day is done, I find myself thinking, just look what we can do, together.
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Check out my final Big Day stats on eBird here.
Greg.
Another look at the male hooded warbler. Unlike most migrating warblers which stop here just for a day or two on their way north, this hooded warbler will stay for the summer and hopefully breed in the park.