Mexico and Conversations With Birds

Mexico and Conversations With Birds

January 15, 2002

Tricolored herons forage along Matanchen Beach here near San Blas, Mexico.  As I jog by along the 4-mile beach, I chat with these herons.  “Don’t worry, ” I say.  “I have no slingshot hidden in my hind pocket to shoot you with.  You are safe from me.”  But the herons are uncertain whether or not to trust me.  Maybe they have been tricked before by some sweet-talking human and suffered the pain of a hard rock striking their anatomy somewhere.  Sometimes they give a squawk (meaning liar) and fly down the beach to a safer place.  Some others are somewhat more trusting and simply wade out into the surf till I pass.  They wade as far into the water as their long legs will allow without getting their feathers wet.  One went a little too far so that a breaking wave threatened to wet its belly feathers.  As the wave passed it stood on its tippytoes as the wave passed underneath.  

Great blue herons that forage the same beach seem to have no such problem.  With much longer legs, they comfortably stand in deeper water, well out of slingshot range.  Our conversations are much more one-sided.  Maybe we even speak different languages.  But the body language is fairly clear.  When I come too close, they turn their back and walk slowly away into the water, while trying to maintain their dignity.  I try to pose a non-threatening posture and continue to jog along the beach, not toward the bird.  Birds seem to understand that if you are not approaching them, they are less threatened.

But maybe the sanderlings are the most fun.  They chase the waves on the beach back and forth.  Their favorite food seems always to be in the lowest place between waves.  They grab bites quickly before the next wave chases them back up the beach.  They have very short black legs but can run with surprising speed.  If a wave approaches faster than they can run, flight is the only option cause their legs are so short that they cannot stand in water deeper than an inch or two.  But they seem to enjoy the challenge of dodging waves and take considerable risk of inundation to challenge the advancing waves.  They time their escape of approaching waves with amazing precision.  Sometimes I think that they are just showing off – taking greater risks just because I am there to watch.

Plovers mostly run away from the water up higher on the beach as I approach.  They, too, have short legs, but also run fast.  My conversation with them is very one-sided.  

Oystercatchers on our beach seem very out of place.  Even at low tide, I have never seen oysters here.  Maybe they eat something else.  They are very wary birds and quickly show their unwillingness to communicate with me at any distance.

Brown Pelicans sometimes land for a short rest on the beach, but mostly they catch the ascending breeze as it passes over breaking waves near the beach.  On this slight breeze, they are able to glide along the crest of the waves with little energy expended in flying.  Sometimes several of them fly in formation along the waves.  Then they leave to go offshore to dive for marine food along with the Blue-footed Boobies.  I have never had a good talk with Boobies cause they live too far offshore for any communication -- even body language.

Conversations with gulls are more two-sided.  Some really brave ones will loudly call to me to feed them.  They are accustomed to humans tossing them food.  They seem to understand when I wave and say shoo!  They fly away for a short distance, but soon return to start begging again.

In the mangroves behind the beach, I communicate mostly fear to the warblers and vireos there.  Using the language of the Ferruginous Pigmy Owl, I whistle the call that brings terror into the warbler heart.  It is a simple whistle call, but it really agitates warblers.  Pigmy Owls are one of their great enemies and warblers mob them whenever it is safe to do so.  So by my mimicking a Pigmy Owl, warblers, vireos, wrens and euphonias will sometimes come very close to find the offending owl.  Pretending to be an owl is a good way to communicate with these small birds, but a very dishonest thing to do.  However, this deception allows us to see birds we might not otherwise be able to see.  My conscience bothers me very little because of this deception -- except that I know if the call causes too much trauma to little birds, their health may suffer from over-excitement.  Therefore, I try to use it sparingly.  I wonder how true my call is when it attracts a Colima Pigmy Owl instead of the Ferruginous one in the coffee and avocado plantations.  But if it attracts warblers, what’s the difference if it’s not perfectly true to the real thing.

Colima Pigmy-owl

 

In my youth, my crime against the bird world was much worse.  My Mexican brother, Roberto Garcia, taught me to mimic the call of baby redwing blackbirds.  During nesting season, this call would drive the parent Redwing blackbirds crazy.  They would fly and land close to the source of the sound, where they were much easier to hit with a rock from my slingshot.  Now, there’s not much meat on the body of a redwing blackbird, but it tasted OK in Senora Garcia’s stew.  

Deception is not unique to humans.  Birds also deceive other animals.  A mother Killdeer will feign a broken wing to lure predators away from the nest.  As far as I know, no bird ever exhibited any shame from this deception -- at least, not the way that Roberto was shamed when his mother found him doing something of which she disapproved.  “Muchacho sin verguenza,” (boy without shame) she would say.  Roberto would hang his head like a scolded pup.

Anyway, humans and birds really can communicate with each other.  We even have a CD for our computer with the songs of birds to help with our identification of their calls.  But how do wild birds learn our language?  It is instinctive for birds to be alarmed at our sudden movements or moving too close to them.  But what is the message they receive when they hear an owl call, but find only humans with binoculars staring at them?

Pat, Win and Sunset

 

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