The Long Wait

Golden Crowned Sparrow singing. —Photo by Bob Lewis

For almost thirty years now, I’ve recorded when the Golden-crowned Sparrows arrive in my neighborhood for their winter stay. The earliest recorded date in my notebooks was September 16, the latest September 29. As I write this article the date is October 3, and I’m still waiting. Until maybe four years ago, a flock of Golden-crowns would arrive some time during the early morning hours and they would be there when I walked out the end of my street. Their presence and sweet song would invigorate all the local birds and fill this watcher with a surge of happiness which magnified all that is pleasurable about fall, when the change of season brings a new pulse of energy.

But now the Golden-crowns, though certainly not endangered, appear to be declining. They arrive either singly or in small numbers and most often are silent. Once the winter sparrow flocks are established by mid-October, the White-crowned Sparrows outnumber the Golden-crowns, unlike in the past when the reverse was true.

Despairing of seeing the Golden-crowns in the immediate neighborhood, I walked up to a swale along Selby Trail at the edge of Tilden Park, a reliably productive area with tall pines, an abundance of shrubs and brambles edging grassy areas—the kind of ecotone favored by birds. And, yes, I spotted one or possibly two Golden-crowns among the singing resident Song Sparrows and a newly-arrived wintering Lincoln Sparrow. With Pygmy Nuthatches twittering their cheerful chatter in the tree tops, my spirits were partly restored. Pygmy Nuthatches are a heartening example of a species that appears to be expanding its range.

Still, declines in bird populations, especially among those birds which have given so much pleasure over the years, inevitably batter the human spirit.

The first storm of the new season is predicted for this week. The approaching low may very well push in a new wave of birds, and Golden-crowns often save their bitter-sweet “oh-dear me” song for just such an occasion, when the freshening breeze carries the smell of rain.

—Phila Rogers