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Spring Birding in the Kawarthas

5 Simple Steps to Starting a Cottage Bird List

Feb 11, 2009 Pat Maitland

Once the trees are in full leaf, hundreds of birds disappear from our sight. Take advantage of spring migration to see who's flying through your neck of the woods.

Most cottagers are familiar with the iconic Kawartha birds who are regular summer residents at the lake: the loons who serenade you at night, the heron who fishes from your dock, the jays who wake you up and, if you’re lucky, an osprey (the only raptor who plunges feet first into lakes for a tasty fish supper).

Birds are easy to overlook but when you give them your undivided attention you’ll never be at a loss for the beautiful colours, sounds and behaviour birds offer everywhere around us.

Here are five things you need to get started:

A Field Guide: The Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Birds is great for beginners. Containing illustrations, maps, and descriptions of songs and habitat, it also teaches the basics of what to look for on a bird to aid identification. Even without binoculars, basic identification is easy for many birds when you have a field guide at hand.
Binoculars: A decent pair of binoculars greatly enhances your ability to spot birds and take note of markings and behaviour. Test several and buy a pair that won’t tire your eyes.
Context: Narrow down a search by noting habitat (marsh or field?), size (closer to a sparrow or crow?), colour and behaviour (perching, wading or flitting?). Noting size and colour winnows a search of 10 woodpeckers down to 2.
Field Notes: Journal-style entries in a field guide, including date and location, will help you remember the bird.
Concentration: Nowhere better than the cottage for seeking stillness and perking up your ears. More often than not, you’ll hear birds before you see them. Once you start connecting the song to the bird, you won’t even need to see the bird to know who’s around.

In spring, the loons, herons and blue jays will return. But there will also be chickadees and nuthatches, warblers and finches, and enough ducks, gulls, and sparrows to keep you challenged until the leaves come out and the nesting season silences them and sends them into hiding.

In no time, your cottage birding list will build. Through summer, you’ll know who stays around and in autumn, you can see who travels through again en route to warmer climes.

There are many ways of attracting birds to your cottage community by providing food, shelter and improving the natural habitat.

Whether hiking in the forest, paddling around a marsh or sitting on the dock, the world of birds will come to you because they’re already there, just waiting for you to learn their names. All you have to do is introduce yourself.

The copyright of the article Spring Birding in the Kawarthas in Birds is owned by Pat Maitland. Permission to republish Spring Birding in the Kawarthas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Black-Capped Chickadee