Joann Merritt's Essays

Birder, She Wrote----
April, 1990

On Sunday evenings Jessica Fletcher solves her mystery in an hour. It took us a week to solve our birder mystery but we had to write, direct and produce our own show. As our story begins we are at Buchanan Ranch exercising our hearts and bodies, but before the day is over our minds also get quite a workout.

We were looking for earthstars, a type of mushroom that Donna Kelly first discovered at Golladay (see Phalarope, April 1987) . Since Donna is our heavenly star enthusiast and expert it was fitting that she find the earthstars. We were attempting to find a fresh earthstar, one that had not yet emerged from the soil, opened and dried. We were in the sand dunes where the Shin Oak was dense and the ground was covered with acorn and leaf litter. Our eyes were closely searching the ground as we scratched carefully in the damp sand. We noticed several scooped out depressions that were approximately 4 inches in diameter and up to an inch in depth. Bird droppings and a few downy feathers provided clues these might be roosting places. Some of these two dozen places were old, some new, and at least one had been made after our rain of the day before.

What birds in the area would roost in this manner? Could it be Poorwills, Meadowlarks, Lark Buntings, Bobwhite, or Scaled Quail? Poorwills were a definite possibility as it was time for them to return from their winter migration. Midland County’s only confirmed nesting of Poorwills is in this area. According to our reference books a Poorwill’s nest is usually on the ground, occasionally a slight depression is scraped in the soil and the site is perennial. I want it to be Poorwill nests! I can envision future reference books recognizing MIDNATS for contributing new knowledge about the Poorwills nesting and roosting activities.

But first let’s check out other possibilities. Bobwhite and Scaled Quail do not roost individually, a covey sleeps in a circle with their tails toward the middle where they leave a telltale pile of droppings, so we crossed them off our list. Meadowlarks are probably too big to fit in these small depressions and we could find no record of them roosting in a group.

O.K., then, Lark Buntings! We see them by the hundreds every year and enjoy their lilting song and their black and white plumage before they emigrate north in late spring. They sleep on the ground but do they make a roosting nest that they return to every night?

Several days later we went back to take pictures and to further investigate the area. After photographing the nests we found numerous depressions on nearby densely covered dunes. Lark Buntings are the most abundant bird in the area, but we heard Bobwhite and Scaled Quail calling and Meadowlarks chucking, so we decided to wait. Surely before darkness falls we could see which birds would occupy the nests. At 8:09 P.M. we heard a sweet, soft vesper as two hundred Lark Buntings rode gentle waves of
twilight to their roosting nests. As they all dropped quickly into their individual roosting places we were reminded of popping corn in reverse - all the fluffy corn disappearing as it returns into the kernels. After a short time the buntings settled down for the night.

We were thrilled by this marvelous experience. How many MIDNATS have made how many trips to Buchanan without seeing this phenomenon? We are determined to be more observant of nature’s wonders and mysteries. What is it that children say?

LOOK UP! LOOK DOWN! LOOK ALL AROUND!