Think back to a time in your life when you saw a bird that piqued your interest and made you want to learn more about birds.
Maybe it was the bird's colorful feathers or the way it sang that resonated with you.
That’s your spark bird!
For this month’s Chirp Chat, Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez asked listeners to share the moment they discovered their spark bird and why it’s special to them.
Xcaret Nuñez, Milwaukee: Mourning Dove
“This spark bird is really special to me because it reminds me of the summers I spent with my grandparents in Nevada,” says Nuñez, Lake Effect producer and host of Chirp Chat. “This pair of doves would nest in our porch light every summer, and we spent so much time just watching the Mourning Doves fly up and down, building their nests with pine needles or small twigs. And it was just a really special time in my life that I look back on a lot.
… So anytime I see a pair of mourning doves, it reminds me of my grandparents and how they're looking out for me and watching for me. So caring for these birds got me interested in wanting to learn more about other birds and caring about them too. And so that's also why I started Chirp Chat. And it's been really nice to have a full circle moment and really become the birder I want to be and to get out there and get to know other birders too.”
Izora Gross, South Side of Milwaukee: Northern Cardinal
“The bird I’m going to talk about is cardinals. I saw them in my backyard today and they were so cool with their red fur and their red beautiful face,” seven-year old, Gross says. “In the front of their face, they have an orange beak, where you can see their mouth. In the moonlight, it’s beautiful, in the night. Whenever you see a [Northern] Cardinal, in your front yard or back, you might see them in the morning, noon or night.”
Rita Flores Wiskowski, South Milwaukee: House Sparrow
“I've gone back and forth — As a kid, I loved them and then I learned that I wasn't supposed to, so I stopped,” Flores Wiskowski says. “And I'm back there to loving them because, even though I understand the destruction that they can do, I also understand that there's kids like me who, the only access they have to birds and nature is just in their yard and the bushes that surround their homes. So it's accessible, the House Sparrows, and they're kind of fun and cute if you don't know any better. So yeah, that's why I still have an appreciation, or I have one again, of the House Sparrow."
Yishai Blum, Madison: Baltimore Oriole
“My first experience with a Baltimore Oriole came when I was seven years old,” Blum says. “I decided to visit a bird banding station to see what they were doing because I was super interested in birds already…So I spent the day at the station and there were very few birds all day. Except at the last minute, the only bird that we got was a beautiful, bright male Baltimore Oriole. So the station leaders banded the bird and they gave it to me to hold and release when they were done. So I got to spend this beautiful moment, holding this absolutely magnificent bird
… That was a really amazing moment for me and I think it’s what really started me on the path to becoming a big birder.”
Kathy, Pewaukee: Eastern Wood-Pewee
“I enjoy watching the variety of birds that come to my feeder and bird bath, but the identity of one bird always had me wondering who sings that distinct song,” Kathy says.
“I would hear it on most mornings. Turns out it's an Eastern Wood-Pewee. I haven't seen it yet, but I'll keep looking!”
Sierra Taliaferro, Milwaukee/Fort Lauderdale, Florida: White Ibis
“I was actually on the campus of my alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University. It's a historical black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. … [White Ibis’] would come out and be on the fields in groups at a time and picking through the grass. And so me, being from Milwaukee, to this new tropical paradise of Florida, I'm like, ‘What are those?!’ And so I would watch them all the time,” Taliaferro says.
So ultimately, I just got the nerve to be like, ‘You know what, I'm just going to look them up!’ ... That Google search alone helped me identify other birds around me … and it was kind of a domino effect from there. And so here I am, years later, a bird nerd to the core.”
Chuck Stebelton, Riverwest: Northern Flicker
“I remember when I was a young poet in my 20s living in Colorado, seeing a [Nothern] Flicker manifest itself from a haiku like a Gary Snyder poem, which goes,” Stebelton recites:
Through
The white spot of a flicker
receding through cedar
Fluttering red surveyors
through trees, the dark woods
… Like with the bird books, the poem alerted me first, then came the beautiful real life bird. I remember later in my 20s the first spring I lived in big windy Chicago, seeing a Flicker in a wooded cemetery on Easter weekend and feeling like I might make a home there. Here in Milwaukee, they were one of my most welcome sights and sounds of the year.”
Brien Lee, Waukesha: Sandhill Crane
“I was like 40 years old [when I discovered sandhill cranes], and I didn't know what the birds were that are circling over my house. … I ended up calling Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, and they were able to steer me in the right direction,” Lee says.
“And son of a gun. Unbelievably, within a week, the paper published a proposed crane hunt. And I'm 40. And I just find out about them. So they can't really be that popular. They can't be that numerous. And now you want to hunt them. Even now 20 years later, they're still proposing a hunt of these birds.
Remember, these things were almost hunted to extinction years ago and they bounced back. So after I heard about the hunt, I wrote a letter to the editor. And I actually became a crane counter … and I have done it ever since.”
Becky Mortensen, Milwaukee: Red-tailed Hawk
“When I was a kid, my dad used to point out Red-tailed Hawks, says Mortensen, Lake Effect’s Executive Producer. “When we'd be in the car, he'd do this thing where he just start pointing out the window silently. And everyone in the car was like ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’ And now I find myself doing that exact same thing, just kind of randomly pointing out the window at as I'm driving. I'll also be on a walk and just start calling out bird names as I see them.
As I've gotten more into birding and learning to identify different birds I've kind of discovered a new spark bird for myself — I am absolutely determined to see a Tufted Titmouse.”
Erin Bagatta, Milwaukee: Belted Kingfisher
“When I was little, I spent a lot of time with my grandpa, and I think I was as young as four when he took me out on his kayak or canoe for the first time, says Bagatta, WUWM’s community engagement and audience development coordinator.
… And it was magical for me to have that experience growing up because he is so knowledgeable and he would tell me all about the damsel flies and the muskrats and the fish, but what was most interesting to me was the Belted Kingfisher.
… So, as a young child, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a different bird. This is unique. This is something I haven't seen before.’ And ever since then, I've had this appreciation for wildlife and I attribute that to my grandfather.”
