New Haven Independent

East Rock Ranger Dan Barvir (pictured below) is one of the best birders around. He exemplifies the idea that there’s more than one way to identify the songbirds that are now streaming through the park, which is a major East Coast flyway for the “tiny jewels” migrating through in May, as a fellow birder called them.

There are sight, song, shape and flight pattern. Barvir and other experienced birders called out the names of two dozen different birds in just the first hour of the two-hour walk: cardinal, warbling vireo, chickadee, wood duck, rose-breasted grosbeak, yellow warbler and on and on. We spied a chipping sparrow, its feathers all fluffed out in the morning chill; a goldfinch right on the ground that was so yellow, “it looks almost fake,” Barvir noted; a chimney sweep he said looked like “a flying cigar.” He pointed out that the yellow warbler wouldn’t sing until the sun had risen above East Rock, and opined that the grosbeak has one of the most beautiful songs — “like a robin, but more melodious.”

Click here to listen to Barvir describe a tufted titmouse and then encourage the birdwatchers to pay attention to some trees and shrubs in front of them.

East Rock Park is a major flyway for songbirds migrating north in the spring. Warblers and other songbirds are passing through by the thousands. Plus there are lots of lovely year-round residents to spot, such as cardinals and chickadees.

We also spied a red-winged blackbird (pictured) a few feet ahead of us on the trail. When the sun shines on him, his feathers are impossibly black and glossy, and his yellow and red epaulets are brilliant.

Another experienced birder, Randy Domina, made helpful suggestions to the less expert among us (including siblings Cleary and Solomon McKenzie, pictured, who live next to the park and are becoming more expert the more bird walks they go on with their mom, Rose Marie) about how to use binoculars to find birds. “Follow their movement with your eyes, then bring the binoculars up and don’t move your head,” he emphasized. He added that his binoculars have a wide field of vision, which also makes birds easier to spot.

Click here to listen to a cardinal close by, and if you listen really carefully, you may hear another male cardinal in the middle, further away and answering back.

After identifying three birds for the first time this season, Barvir declared, “I just love every day, a new noise out there.”

Barvir and East Rock naturalist Tom Parlapiano will be leading bird walks throughout May. Click here for the schedule.