Birds and sneezes tell the story; spring has arrived in SBC
While the East notes the arrival of spring with the leafing out
of hardwood forests, the season announces itself in San Benito
County with balmy days and hills turning from green to tawny
brown.
Birds and sneezes tell the story; spring has arrived in SBC
While the East notes the arrival of spring with the leafing out of hardwood forests, the season announces itself in San Benito County with balmy days and hills turning from green to tawny brown.
But there are other heralds of spring.
One of my favorites happens every year at this time at a modest urban park near downtown Hollister.
Just minutes from my office, Vista Park Hill is located at the end of Hill Street, just off San Benito between Third and Second streets. It features a ball field, a few picnic tables, a barbecue pavilion and a tot lot.
The park attracts an eclectic mix. Parents and their kids often share the space with a few down-and-outers. People bring brown bag lunches up for a respite from life in office cubicles. A group congregates regularly to share laughter – the sole purpose of the gatherings.
But this time of year, the park attracts a different kind of eclectic mix – newly arrived birds painted in the riotous colors of the tropics.
A quick visit late Monday afternoon revealed a stunning display of wildlife, set against the backdrop of downtown Hollister.
The reason is as simple as looking beyond the trees and shrubs surrounding the park. Park Hill is a bump on a vast agricultural plain, one offering water, shelter and abundant food. Food comes from blossoms in the eucalyptus and bottlebrush around the park, as well as from the seeds found in a grove of pines. The nectar-rich blossoms also attract clouds of insects, another food source.
Arriving on that recent afternoon, I expected to see little. Birds are most active early and late in the day. Torrid temperatures conspired with high winds, and my expectation was that any birdlife would be hunkered down deep in the foliage.
I was wrong.
Squadrons of western tanagers flew from the pines to the nearby bottlebrush and back. These birds are just passing through, refueling after flying up from central Mexico or points south.
Their calls are modest, and unlikely to draw attention. But their feathers make up for it. Females are yellow and olive. Males are the color of ripe bananas, with heads painted Chinese red.
As you enter the park, look in the row of bottlebrush to the right, and then check the pines next to them.
You may soon hear a chattering noise, like an old teletype. Look for a slightly larger bird than the tanagers. Both Bullock’s and hooded orioles are at the park now, both having arrived from tropical regions.
Bullock’s orioles arrive each year about when the live oaks are covered in pollen-rich catkins. Orioles, with their long bills, are well suited to a diet heavy in flowers, pollen and nectar. Both species are yellow to orange with black wings showing bold white patches.
Hooded orioles are the ones without black hoods, but rather with black throat feathers that extend back around the eyes in the males.
A song that sounds a little like a robin’s, only more richly colored and louder is likely to draw a visitor to black-headed grosbeak, a bird with an improbably large beak that equips it to eat nuts and seeds. Males are black, orange and white and both species wear lemon yellow on their underwings.
A high trilling noise – think of the sound of George Jetson’s space coupe – is likely to be Allen’s hummingbird. These birds are smaller than our only year-round hummer, the Anna’s. They’re also copper colored across their breasts, with iridescent orange-red throats in the males and a smaller throat patch in females. Green washes cross the backs of both genders.
While the park is worth a visit any time of the year, the best show is happening right now.
Pack a lunch and enjoy the show.
Nose tickling?
A recent mention that a daily spoonful of local honey seems to have alleviated my hay fever symptoms brought a tidal wave of response from people with stuffed noses and runny eyes.
For the record, the person who gave me some honey does it as a hobby, and there is no retail outlet for his elixir. But there is a local apiarist, Peavey Apiaries. You might try there.
Business tip: the response indicates that there’s ample demand for local honey. Somebody with a little time and a love of these fascinating insects could likely carve out a pretty lucrative part-time career.
Last week produced the perfect storm for allergy sufferers. A dry winter stressed many plants. Many plants produce large crops of flowers and seed as a response to crisis. Then spring weather protracted the bloom.
When temperatures spiked and the wind began to blow a few days ago, invisible clouds of pollen began afflicting the afflicted.
Gesundheit!
