By Jerry Sullivan
My bespectacled eyes were all I needed to name the bird at those distances. The breeding plumage of the western tanager features a black tail, black wings decorated with yellow bars, a bright yellow body, and a head of bright cherry red.
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This bird was big news for me. Western tanagers nest in the coniferous forests of western mountains. The easternmost nesting location is the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Mlodinow’s Chicago Area Birds lists only 6 sightings for this area. Bohlen’s Birds of Illinois describes the bird as a “rare vagrant” and lists only 11 reports for the state–“some of which have little or no documentation.”
That threat became quite real for millions of songbirds this spring. The spring migration of large numbers of insect-eating birds is timed to coincide with the opening of the leaves on deciduous trees. The emergence of the leaves stimulates major insect hatches, and the birds recoup their energy losses by feeding on the insects.
You also don’t get too many cars. The message on the Audubon Society’s Rare Bird Alert Hotline (847-671-1522) that weekend spoke of large numbers of warblers, vireos, and orioles flattened on roads. In their desperate search for food they were moving out onto pavement, and they were apparently not reacting fast enough to approaching vehicles.
Of course we do have serious concerns about the continued existence of many of the songbirds pancaked on our highways. And we can feel sympathy for animals that came so far only to end up dead. But what we should mostly think about is how hard and unforgiving life is for wild creatures. And how when we set aside land for nature we need to think of cushions, of how much is needed to protect species even when nature deals them a heavy blow.
