Cover Story

The early (winter) birder gets the bird: Winter bird watching in Worcester

VEER MUDAMBI

Every year, Martha Gach would find the winter berries in her yard thoroughly picked over. “For years, I always wondered what happened,” she said, as she never managed to catch the culprit. However, as the pandemic forced more people to work from home this year, she was finally able to solve the mystery when she witnessed a flock of robins decimate her berries. Throughout the summer they hunt the lawn for worms but in the winter, as Gach observed, they enthusiastically switch to fruit.

While the common understanding is that birds fly south to avoid the cold weather, migration is more about food availability than temperature. In the spring and summer, most birds are eating bugs, which become harder to find in winter. “All our warblers, for example, have hightailed it down to Central America and the Caribbean because there are bugs there year-round,” said Gach, conservation coordinator at Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. The species that can find other food sources — namely seeds and berries — are the ones that stay through the winter months, such as chicadees, blue jays, gold finches, and, of course, robins.

Not only do a variety of species stay year-round, New England is actually a winter destination for birds from Canada or even

A rare hybrid of a red-shouldered and red-tailed hawk, two species who prefer to stay local during the winter. This bird was photographed by Worcester County resident Cynthia Rand in West Boylston.

the Arctic. “It’s like Florida to amount of energy. “It’s an you can make it through the them,” said Gach. These part-time incredible journey that birds winter with a change of diet? residents start arriving around will undertake, if they have to,” Raptors, while they don’t November, including multiple Gach pointed out. “It will blow change what they eat, will also try sparrow species but also raptors your mind what these little, tiny to stay through the winter until such as hawks and even snowy creatures are capable of facing the depth of snow cover preowls. — hummingbirds, for instance, vents them from hunting. Their

Migrations, especially long can cross the Gulf of Mexico.” But behavior has more to do with how distance ones, are fraught with the birds who stay on are proba- much snow covers the ground danger and take an enormous bly wondering why migrate when CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

A cardinal takes a rest on a snowy pine. A junco - a member of the sparrow family. Juncos are one of the sparrow species that spend the winter in New England, typically arriving around November.

COVER STORY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

than the cold. Mark Lynch, teacher at Broadmeadow Brook and a hawk expert, said that even birds of the same species may have different migratory habits. He speculated that perhaps the landscape may not be able to support as many. Red-tailed hawks may change their territory in the winter, one for breeding, one for hunting — depending on snow levels. “They may move but not too far and, as local migrants, are more flexible, but the long distance migrators are more locked in.” Rough-legged hawks migrate to our area from the Arctic, and broad-winged hawks, who feed on snakes and frogs that cannot be found in the winter, regularly migrate farther south to warmer climes.

Some owl species may also find it necessary to move on once the snowpack gets too deep and hunting rodents becomes near impossible. However, the largest of them, the Great Horned owls, usually stay year-round and are among the first birds to nest, in preparation for breeding, in Worcester County, as early as the end of January.

So if you’re thinking of taking up birding, there’s no need to wait until spring. In fact, winter can be the best birding season in Worcester County. Counter-intuitive, yes. Practically speaking, it is very true. Lack of foliage provides better visibility, the smaller number of species can prevent the neophyte birder from being overwhelmed and the birds are more likely to congregate at backyard feeders.

Winter bird watching can be so rewarding that it may be the reason why the Christmas Bird Count is so popular. While not always on Christmas, bird watchers nation-wide head out on specific days depending on their area to count as many birds as they can. For the last 121 years between Dec. 14 and Jan. 3, birders have sent the data back to Audubon. This year, the city of Worcester conducted its bird count on Dec. 19, recording 42 species and 601 individual birds. “You have a geographic circle, divided into sectors, each with a team [of bird counters] led by a coordinator,” explained Gach.

The CBC is essential to monitoring the population changes of birds within a given area. Many experts have noted migration and habitat changes among certain species, but the data from the bird count provides quantifiable, not just anecdotal, evidence.

By way of example, Lynch counted over 20 black vultures accompanied by more than 100 turkey vultures a few weeks ago in Blackstone on the Worcester/Rhode Island line. This was surprising because black vultures used to be rare in Massachusetts. “When I was growing up, most vultures went south but as winters on the whole have become warmer, more vultures stay,” he said, “and now we see them all the time.” He connects the dots by explaining that the increase in developed areas and the addition of roads means more roadkill, giving the vultures a steady food source.

Both Lynch and Gach have a

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A Carolina wren (left) and a woodpecker share a bird feeder as it snows.

few tips for new bird watchers this season. Bird feeders are always useful, but even more so in winter, when food is scarce. The seed eating birds will be drawn to feed and in turn will be followed by raptors such as Cooper’s hawks who prey on them, said Gach. After dark, owls may even hunt the mice that come out to eat the fallen seeds. Ornamental fruit trees, such as berries and crab apples, will also attract winged visitors, as Gach can attest. Drive down any major highway in the early morning, said Lynch, and red tailed hawks sunning themselves will be a common sight. Or if you’re not a morning person, listen for the calls of the great horned owls in the late evenings, when breeding pairs duet with overlapping calls to create one song.

If the pandemic has curtailed any of your annual travel plans, take a moment for a walk in the woods or maybe even set up a bird feeder in your backyard. You might get a chance to see who else is skipping a flight south this year.

FIRST PERSON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

A believer in public education, Espaillat worked in New York City for decades as a teacher, and to this day she is still teaching poetry at community colleges in the Northeast. I had the honor to hear her read her poems to my students last year, as a guest speaker in my class about Hispanic writers and the diaspora at Clark University. I have invited many poets over the years, but her reading stood up and made a profound impact in my classroom. Humble,

HARVEY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

a single day of this doomed dozen of months. I’ve been wracking my brain for a positive on which to hang my hat, but all I can do is look forward. Reviewing the year makes me Zoom my therapist.

I’m telling myself that some day soon, when I sneeze I won’t think the Grim Reaper is knocking on my door. I’m thinking ahead to when I don’t have to hang a mask humorous and generous with her wisdom and her advice, my students were mesmerized by her charisma, her respect to their questions and insights, and her genuine love of people and words.

One of the ways in which she shows this commitment to cross-cultural communication and making poetry and culture accessible to all is through her work as translator. While translating poetry, she is able to recreate the beauty and nuances of meaning in the original language, while at the same time replicating the musicality and rhythm in the same place where I hang my keys.

I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t think about the president of the United States. I used to go days without checking to see what the leader of the free world was up to, trusting that he was acting in our best interests. In truth, I haven’t felt that way since 2016, but 2020 really made me feel like I stumbled into a cheesy spy novel. of the stanzas. A master of form and verse, she has the gift and talent to translate poems written in verse to verses in the new languages, creating an illusion for the reader of being able to experience translated work as if it were never translated. Translating for her is a labor of love as well as a political act, where linguistic and cultural borders are transcended.

Thanks to her mastery of language, the poetry of Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur has been appreciated by Spanish speakers. English audiences have been able to enjoy her translations into English from authors as diverse

I’m dreaming of the day when I can reserve two seats at the bar at Nuovo’s and have Tildi Froku make me a delightful pear martini without ordering it from across the room through a mask that matches my outfit. Someday I will comfortably enter the fish market when there are more than two customers in line. Someday I will once again use an elevator. But I digress. Back to Jeopas Charles D’Orleans (French), Dafydd ap Gwilym (Welsh), Marko Maruli´c Spli´canin (Croatia’s national poet), Luís Vaz de Camões (Portuguese), Bedrich Bridel (Czech) or Gaspar Aquino de Belén (Tagalog). Espaillat’s ability as a translator from Spanish into English has given us the opportunity to now enjoy beautiful translations of American some of the greatest Hispanic poets, such as Sor Juana Inés (México), Vicente Huidobro (Chile), Alfonsina Storni (Argentina), Saint John of the Cross and Miguel Hernández (Spain), and countless others. She has also ardy. dons (For $400)

The answer is: law student Ted Bundy

The question: Who would Donald Trump pardon and hire as his new personal attorney based on his reputation as a lady killer? translated the work of fellow Dominican-American poets César Sánchez Beras and Worcester Poet Laureate Juan Matos, to name just a few. In conclusion, Rhina Espaillat will be a great voice to commemorate this new presidency. As inaugural poet, she will be a great companion in the project of reuniting the country and bringing hope and healing to all.

Belen Atienza is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language, Literature and Culture

artists

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Category: Presidential Par-

at Clark University.

Category: Oh! The Places We Will Go! (For the whole enchilada)

The answer is: Everywhere and anywhere our hearts desire.

The question: Where will Americans go when COVID-19 is a memory?

See you there.

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Lord of Solitude

Author. Musician. Actor. If there’s a creative outlet, chances are that Aaron White has at least dabbled in it, from his first solo exhibit at the former Dark World Gallery in 2011 to playing the infernal Dr. Void in Worcester’s infamous and enigmatic live improv writing troupe, the Federation of Belligerent Writers. Having developed a fascination with monsters and the macabre at a young age, Aaron has brought the inner workings of his dark imagination to the public eye a few times, notably when he curated and organized the “Phantasmagoria” exhibit at the Sprinkler Factory in 2017. When he is not drawing or writing, he is sometimes making music under the name Order of the Black Pyramid. Just recently he has released his first book, “The Language of Shadows: an Illustrated Collection of Stories.” The anthology boasts 16 horror and sci-fi stories with 25 accompanying penand-ink drawings. The drawings presented here are “Lord of Solitude,” “The Stars Align” and “Phenex.”