Springtime at the Lakefront

Echo Center. Lake, shoreline and urban habitats. Sporadic urban trees along the shoreline.
3/20/2021
9:30-11am
35degrees Fahrenheit, Sunny & Blue Sky, 5-15mph winds

Unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to try spishing today. There were very few chickadees or foraging flocks since we were not in a forested area. The one time I saw someone else try spishing it seemed unsuccessful. The Black-capped chickadees, Northern Cardinal and European Starling were uninterested. The birds may not have heard due to the loud noise coming from the wastewater treatment facility nearby.

Spishing seems to resemble the call of the Chickadee. These birds, like the Black-capped Chickadee, stay year round. Other birds might be more likely to be curious about the sound of a bird that stays year round in an area since that bird would have more knowledge on feeding areas or predators. Copying the sound of a "local" bird might increase the chance that other species become interested in the sound you are making and come check you out. Spishing is probably only effective with songbirds or perching birds. It doesn't really sound like other bird calls. For instance lake birds would not be interested because they have nothing to learn from a bird that sounds like a chickadee. If you were able to copy a herring gull noise then maybe lake birds would be interested.

I noticed a male Common Merganser flap its wings, stick its head out of the water and move towards a female merganser. The male seemed to be trying to communicate how good of a mate it would make by showing how healthy it was. This behavior makes sense in terms of birds circannual rhythm since it is becoming the length of day when birds begin to breed. I also saw mallards breeding displays. A male mallard was flapping its wings, trying to get on top of the female mallard. I also noticed several mallards huddled close together with their beaks tucked underneath their feathers. This behavior aligned with their circannual rhythms. During this time of the year birds are spending more time being inactive, staying warm.

In both the Common Merganser and Mallard species the males have bright colors and the females have darker colors like brown. The bright colors of the male indicate to the females that they are a good mate because they can find enough resources to produce expensive structural colors. The dark colors of the females take fewer resources to produce, giving the female more energy for laying eggs and taking care of young. The mottled brown plumage of the females may also help them blend in with their nesting sites.

Posted on March 20, 2021 04:30 PM by samharesteig