How we’re birding now

Part of a series

In his job as president of American Bird Conservancy, Mike Parr spends most of his time making sure millions of migrating birds survive the trip – and have a safe place to flourish on either side of the journey.

Mike Parr on one of the birding expeditions he leads all over the hemisphere. Photo by Bruce Beehler.

For Mike, there’s never really a “normal” migration by most people’s standards. His spring migration might include a visit to the upper coast of Texas, a swing over to New York’s Central Park, a trek to Northwest Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding festival, and finally, the marathon World Series of Birding in Cape May, N.J.

So how is Mike birding now, in the midst of a pandemic lock down?

“I went from the world is my canvas to the back yard is my canvas,” said Mike. (See my note at the end of this post for a summary of the conservancy’s work and mission.) “I work and travel constantly, so backyard birding has never been a thing for me. But I thought, if I’m going to do it, I want to make it super.”

Mike and Charlie Parr work on their backyard birding wonderland. Photo by Tacha Coleman Parr.

Since mid March, Mike has set out to transform a small yard on the outer edges of Washington, D.C., into a birding wonderland.

He’s installed six hopper feeders, five suet feeders, three hummingbird feeders and four wren houses.

There’s also an “Oriole feeder” of orange sections impaled on a tree branch. A fake owl had to be added to deter squirrels that kept attacking his massive container of birdseed.

“I’ve basically tried to create a bird Airbnb,” he said. “I want to know how many birds can I see in a small yard in Washington, D.C.”

By the end of April Mike had logged 54 species, but he’s hoping for 75.

“I might get there,” he said. “I thought it would be a bit better by now but it’s been a late spring. The winds haven’t been perfect and we’ve had a lot of rain. But the dam is going to burst here soon.”

Charlie Parr in what may look like a car, but is actually a mobile bird blind in their back yard. Photo by Mike Parr.

When that happens, Mike and his 12-year-old son Charlie will be ready. The pair created a “water feature” consisting of an old fire pit with a sprinkler held in place by rocks and shells. The key component is a piece of bark for the birds to land on.

“We spent a lot of time setting it up so we can get nice photos,” Mike said.

The water feature was strategically placed adjacent to the family’s old car in the back driveway.

White-breasted Nuthatch / Photo by Mike Parr

“It looks like a car but it’s not,” he said. “It’s a mobile bird blind.”

Charlie is his dad’s partner in crime.

“He sits in the back seat and I sit in the front seat, and we can drive the car 12 feet in either direction to get a really great photo.”

The late spring has given them a chance to practice on common species like finches and sparrows before the fast-flying warblers arrive.