Spring migration brings rare sights

I stepped out of my car at 6:30 a.m. last Monday and immediately had the feeling that it would be a special day for birding. I was at Ezell Farm in Mint Hill, and the previous two days had been wet and cold. Temperatures that morning were in the mid-40s, but the skies were clear and the birds were in full dawn chorus.

The first song I heard was the unmusical buzz of a grasshopper sparrow. That’s a tough bird to find in this county nowadays. They need pastures and fallow fields, a habitat that is in short supply. All of the other expected grassland birds were in full song, too. Indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, orchard orioles, yellow-breasted chats, Eastern meadowlarks, and field sparrows were all singing at once, the different sounds combining into a fine dawn symphony.

By 7:30, the migrant warblers woke up and began flitting through the trees. Northern parulas, black-throated blue warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, black-throated green warblers, and chestnut-sided warblers were there. With a flash of red, a brilliant adult male bay-breasted warbler popped right out into view. That’s another really tough bird to get in the spring. I only see one every couple of years.

I departed after two hours and 53 species identified – on to Harrisburg Road Park, where many of the same birds were found. But through the cacophony my ears pulled out a rhythmic cu-cu cu-cu-cu cu-cu cu-cu-cu: the song of a black-billed cuckoo.

I have seen that species but one time in Mecklenburg County, some 20 years ago. There have been a handful of reports over the years since, but it is a local rarity. I found the bird foraging low in some thick brush and enjoyed some brief but satisfying looks at it. Its cousin, the yellow-billed cuckoo, is much more common here through the summer. The black-billed cuckoo only passes through in spring and fall.

I quickly texted some other county birders who were out and about that day, and they were able to run over and enjoy the bird, too.

Migration is peaking this weekend. If you do not go birding at any other time of the year, go now.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Spring migration brings rare sights."