Seasonal Essay for June

June
The singing of birds reaches its height in June. Even though, for the most part, we find bird song to be beautiful, it is not designed for our pleasure. Just as with those flowers we call beautiful, but which evolved not for us, but because their bright colors attract pollinating insects, so also with bird song which serves to attract mates and identify territory. But we can listen and gain great pleasure, and the singing, once we have learned a song, serves to identify the bird that makes it even when we don't see it. Three walks in the Skidmore woods a few years ago produced a total of 55 different kinds of birds, some seen, some heard, and some both seen and heard. Among them were the brightly colored Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager and Baltimore Oriole and eight different Wood-Warblers. Others, like the Wood Peewee, the Red-eyed Vireo, and the Oven Bird might well have been missed had I not heard their songs.
Bird watching has become a national pastime which is fortunate for anyone newly attracted to this rewarding recreation because there are many good published guides to bird identification and recordings of their songs. Our geographic area is so attractive that with climate change, even some more southern birds over the last few decades have come to call it home: Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.