Several of our friends informed us a few weeks ago of the
Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a four-day count being
sponsored by the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University.
All one had to do was to log onto [link removed, obsolete] on
your computer and go to work.
In fact anyone can look into this
web site and read some fascinating results from this interesting
North American venture. Charlotte was eager to participate and
religiously tabulated and reported all the birds we saw during
the challenging event.
Among several different lists that you can study is one
reporting the top ten most frequently tabulated birds on the
continent. They are, in order:
What made us especially interested to see that the northern
cardinal ranked number two on the list was the fact that
yesterday at dusk there were six cardinals in our front yard. It
was as though they had appeared out of the blue, like magic (for
the count?). Never before in the 18 years that we’ve been living
in our new home have we ever seen more than one cardinal at a
time, and then for only a day or two before it disappeared.
Our best educated guess is that many birds are encountering
one of the most difficult and critical food-finding periods of
their lives now. The older cardinals, for example, and the most
domineering of the young of last year are simply driving all
others of their kind out of their winter feeding territory.
When you stop to think of this outwardly drastic action, it
really serves at least two important functions. Number one, it
enables the fewer remaining birds to survive on what meager food
rations they can find and, number two, it brings about natural
dispersal of the offspring which in turn will ensure better and
stronger genetic diversity. Consanguinity, or close blood
relationship, among any creature, humans included, invariably
results in weaker offspring. As is always the case in nature,
the fittest will survive.
Another list from the GBBC that caught our eye was that
reporting the 100 highest counting locations for the cardinal.
Unfortunately no Wisconsin city made that list. The leader
turned out to be Cincinnati, Ohio, a city that also ranked number
three on a different list of US cities submitting the most
reports. It is quite obvious that citizens of this city do a
great deal of bird feeding and watching, and are also home to a
lot of birds.
Back in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s when I banded birds for the
federal government as an avocation (no pay involved whatsoever),
I belonged to the Inland Bird Banding Association (IBBA). The
group consisted of banders from 22 states and 4 Canadian
Provinces. It was during the years that I served as president of
the group that I corresponded a great deal and came to know some
of the other banders quite well.
One of my favorite fellow banders came to be Art Wiseman, a
pharmacist from Cincinnati, and it was Art and his wife who
created quite a stir with their phenomenal cardinal banding in
that city. They too were very proud to inform their banding
cronies at the annual conventions that Cincinnati was indeed the
cardinal capitol of the US.
The Wisemans banded an amazing total of 1028 cardinals over a
two-year period. His father-in-law, upon learning of Art’s
interest in cardinals, told him that he was sure he’d be able to
trap and band at least a dozen in his backyard. So the Wisemans
began. At the end of 12 months they had 202 cardinals banded,
and at the end of 23 months had a grand total of 426 cardinals –
caught and banded in one backyard, that of Art’s father-in-law.
It was easy to see why Cincinnati took such great pride in their
multitude of cardinals.
It surely is not surprising that the state bird of Ohio is the
northern cardinal -- as it also is in Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
It is quite clear that the last glacier to cover most of our
state, and the last of whose ice finally melted from northern
Wisconsin around 10,000 years ago, had forced many species of
songbirds, very likely including cardinals, southward.
Gradually, with the disappearance of the glacier and as the
climate slowly warmed, the natural flock dispersal of these
flashing red birds moved northward until around 1900 the first
ones were seen in the Lake Geneva area along our southern border.
Today they are being observed in all counties of Wisconsin,
sparingly in the north. In fact they were already in Bayfield
County, along the shores of Lake Superior, by 1948.
One day within the next few weeks I hope we’ll be standing
outdoors when suddenly a brilliant male cardinal, dazzling patch
of vermilion against the blue sky, perched high in one of the
front-yard maple trees, sounds off with his crystal-clear,
"WHIT-yeer, WHIT-yeer, CHEE-pew, CHEE-pew, CHIT-I-kew,
CHIT-I-kew, CHEER, CHEER, CHEER. Few bird songs ring of spring
as stirringly as that of the cardinal! We’re ready and waiting!
Crest raised, this cardinal suspiciously eyes the photographer.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 03/02/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
