The Birds and the Stars
March 2020 :
The daytime is getting longer, and probably many of you are taking a walk before the night has totally arrived. As you’re looking up at this time of the day, brilliant Venus is lighting up the southwest, Sirius is the diamond of the south, and Betelgeuse is doing its variable thing.
But, instead of looking straight up at the sky, stop a few minutes and notice the unique shapes of most of the trees. Not yet beginning to grow their springtime leaf cover, their limbs sometimes resemble scary stick figures or winding roads; but, at this time, you might notice that in some of the branches, there might be the remains of certain former occupants: nests.
At first glance, they look as if they don’t belong there, as they are merely crowds of sticks that hadn’t been blown away, but, looking carefully, many of them are a delight in their architecture. Meant for a growing family, they are mainly formed from small twigs, but occasionally the builder might find a piece of string, or perhaps a bit of sturdy paper. Built for a season, they might even be useful in the future.
We know that many birds leave us for warmer weather in the fall and early winter, but most do come back. In the 1960s it was realized, through research by David Meisel at the SUNY-Geneseo Planetarium, that birds have an innate sense of stellar navigation, allowing them to return, often to the tree they left behind. Does that mean they return to the exact nest they built the year before, provided another interloper hasn’t done squatters’ rights? Are they even with their former mate? It is known that many birds mate for life; if so, are they willing to build another home for themselves, in the same tree, or do they just look for another neighborhood to raise their brood?
Next time you go outside during the early evening, to enjoy the stars popping into sight before total darkness, think about the nests that are left from the previous year, before the leaves virtually cover this season’s ornithological homesteads.
