Spring is happening, very slowly but surely. Purple mountain saxifrage has been blooming, salmonberry flowers appear, yellow violets are starting to flower. However, I have looked at countless stands of blueberry bushes and seen nary a bee, and I’ve inspected dozens of skunk cabbage inflorescences without finding a single one of the little beetles that are thought to be major pollinators. But friends reported a Pacific wren with nesting material and other birds showed signs of spring activities.
And on my home pond, a female mallard who had been hanging out with a male has disappeared, presumably to incubate her eggs somewhere not too far away. Meanwhile her male friend now cruises the pond alone, with an occasional visit from another male. These visits are typically amicable. In one remarkable instance, the two males swam side by side around the pond, pausing occasionally to preen. Their every movement was impressively synchronized.
Early April visits to Kingfisher Pond, that lovely gem of restored quarry pit, found little beyond some red-winged blackbirds up in the tree canopies, a very shy song sparrow, and a couple of nervous snipe. Then, the day after Easter, I walked the loop path around the pond with a sharp-eyed friend, going in the opposite direction from my customary way. This may have brought us luck! Bird-watching was a lively thing that day, despite a cool breeze and drizzle.
Red-winged blackbird males become active in territorial displays. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)
One red-winged blackbird now ventured out toward an island in the middle of the pond, displaying his red “epaulets” and his vocal abilities. Two or three other males called from the periphery and chased each other. There may have been a couple of females lurking in the trees around the pond, staying in concealment. Two song sparrows got into a serious tussle, pecking and flapping and rolling around on the ground; one of them took off in a hurry but came back later, peaceably. Ruby-crowned kinglets sang and fidgeted through the tree canopy; robins (both male and female) hopped and ran in the understory; juncos (male and female) flitted hither and yon. Two or three snipe took off in a hurry.
My friend spotted a male harrier cruising at the far edge of the adjacent big quarry pond, in and out of the brush. As I followed his progress, I noted an odd stump on the near side of the big pond. There was indeed a real stump, and tucked up very closely to that stump was a great blue heron, scrunched up as small as possible, looking cross (or sleepy?), trying to be invisible and nearly succeeding. I would have missed it if I’d circled the pond in my usual direction — and had not been harrier watching.
Kingfishers called as they flew over the small pond toward the big pond. Suitable dirt banks for nests are not evident around the small pond, but there may be some over by the big pond. Perhaps the most exciting observation was a violet-green swallow that flew very fast in numerous circles around us and over the pond. It whizzed by so closely and so many times that we could be very sure of the identification, although it was a bit dizzy-making for me, spinning around so much!
A violet-green swallow zips rapidly over a pond. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)
At least some of those bird observations could be called signs of spring. A few days later, another friend and I found one of the red-wing males clearly on territory, calling and displaying from shrubs near the viewing platform. Two other males chased around in the tree canopy, and a female foraged (possibly on emerging midges) among young sedges along the pond edge. A pine siskin pulled up a clump of alder cones, held it by one foot on the branch, where it could conveniently extract seeds from the cones. A heron perched on top of the stump next to which we had seen it on the previous visit while it made itself nearly invisible. A yellow-rumped warbler cavorted among the pond-side tree branches.
At a couple other quick stops, we added fox sparrow, golden-crowned sparrow, Townsend’s warbler, and orange-crowned warbler. And a female hummer came to the feeder at my house. Things are clearly underway!
• Mary F. Willson is a retired professor of ecology. “On The Trails” appears every Wednesday in the Juneau Empire.
