One million birds
It’s 6:30 on a calm September morning. A great expanse of marsh is slowly materializing out of the waning darkness. Venus and Sirius hang in the sky like beacons. There are birds here, too—hundreds and hundreds of birds. Although I can’t yet see them, I can hear their calls as they migrate overhead.
From high up around Orion’s Belt comes the odd grunting chatter of a cuckoo. From Leo comes the distinctive rising of a Swainson’s thrush. From or into an indigo bunting or a white-throated sparrow. My ears aren’t the only ones trained skyward this morning. There are other people listening, counting and hoping that at least some of these birds descend with the rising sun and find their way into our nets. We are bird banders, and this is the start of yet another day of autumn migration at the Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO).
