After months of effort, Bill Valentine and I have finally finalized a final report on the nesting birds of Somme Woods, 1992. I had the help of a computer, but Bill compiled his part by paging through a stack of spiral-bound notebooks and rearranging three months’ worth of sightings into a species-by-species account, using no weapon stronger than a ballpoint pen.
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The contenders in the category of Most Common Bird, were the American robin, red-winged blackbird, song sparrow, and gray catbird. The catbirds and song sparrows were tied at 20 pairs apiece. The robins and redwings more or less overwhelmed our counting ability. Robins are present in noticeable numbers virtually everywhere on the preserve. They nest in dense woods, in open oak groves, and in isolated trees out on the prairie. I found five nests in late April and another six in June. Bill located 15 others of various dates. Redwinged blackbirds make things difficult for counters by being polygynous. A single singing male may be presiding over three females, each with her separate nest. We can say with reasonable assurance that both of these species are more common than catbirds and song sparrows, but we can’t provide any solid numbers.
Three pairs of brown thrashers–close relatives of catbirds–nested this year. The males favor trees or very tall shrubs for singing perches, and their territories were all along the edges of our patches of woods. Catbirds often live in low brush well away from trees. The males sing from hidden perches inside the thicket.
The most common hole-nesting birds other than woodpeckers were black-capped chickadees, with 15 nests confirmed, and house wrens, with an estimated nine pairs. We found chickadee nests in dense woods, at the edge of an oak grove, and in a clump of dead trees surrounded by prairie. House wrens appeared in many of the same sorts of places. The most important factor for the wrens–aside from a suitable nest tree–was a dense understory of brush.
The great-crested was our most common flycatcher, with as many as five pairs. We found one nest at the edge of the large oak grove we call Vestal Grove. We had two singing male wood-pewees, one in Vestal Grove and one in denser woods along the river. The lone pair of kingbirds nested in tall trees at the edge of our largest prairie.
Another seed-eater, the mourning dove, was represented by at least six pairs at Somme. I am not happy with that number. I think there were more mourning doves than that. I am hoping that this year we will get a better handle on their numbers.
We had two raptors. Red-tailed hawks again occupied the nest they had used in 1991. They fledged one young bird in ’91, but this year they were unsuccessful. They abandoned the nest in early May. The American kestrel was present last year, but this year Bev Hansen and Bill saw a pair copulating, and that lets us list it as a probable nester.
