Sometimes we need to try to slow the pace.

I’m not only referring to our everyday hustles and bustles.

Everything needs to be done yesterday.

I’ve retired so my lifestyle has indeed shifted gears. But the message I’m trying to convey is my pace outdoors. My quest in early May is to “cover as much ground” as possible from daybreak till the birds slow their activity.

This is their peak migration time through our region and I want to be everywhere and not miss a Canada, Nashville, or bay-breasted warbler.

I hustle from one vantage point to another not trying to miss that “wave” of warblers as they forage after a night of flying. Sometimes I cover two- or three-miles birding trek.

But maybe I should just find a spot, sit, watch and listen and they’ll feed right near where I’m seated.

I just get anxious in May knowing that missing a morning of good bird activity or not getting to that “right spot” might mean I’ll have 10 less birds on my annual bird list.

Spring birding doesn’t allow me to be patient enough. But, autumn….

For some reasons I’m a better sitter in fall. Maybe because all the pesty gnats and midges are gone, or that cold, crisp air? Or maybe when I plunk myself down or a big rock or stump the leaves have dropped, the deer or more active, I can see through the forest better, or is it the new influx of a few winter visiting birds?

I often pick a good quiet day to venture out; one with a gentle breeze or none at all.

I don’t have to sit long and a small band of chickadees, works their way among the branches grabbing insects or spiders that my eyes couldn’t dream of detecting.

If chickadees are around, I can also expect to see a few tufted titmice, and then the tree trunk birds.

Our resident nuthatch, the white-breasted nuthatch, is comical to watch. It usually alights on a tree trunk, 30 or 40 feet above the ground and then methodically weaves its way down the trunk, sometimes circling it and all the while descending head first. Downy woodpeckers are almost always tagging along with the titmice and chickadees. They’ll creep along branches or land on a trunk and “work” up the trunk from bottom to the top.

My favorite and rather inconspicuous tree trunk bird is the brown creeper.

It alights quietly on a tree trunk, and with its sharp claws and stiff tail feathers creeps up a trunk. It usually starts near the base of the tree and feeds slowly up the trunk.

What is neat to know is that with a nuthatch feeding down the trunk, and woodpeckers and creepers working up a trunk, they are able to find insects, insect’s eggs, and spiders hidden behind bark that peels upward and downward. Lucky for us they have unique niches to find so many pests. My advice, find a woodlot, find a stump, and sit, listen, and watch. So, get out there.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Downy woodpeckers are common at your feeders and foraging on the tree trunks in our area all year. Which of the following woodpeckers is not found here in winter? A. hairy B. red-bellied C. red-headed D. pileated

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: NOTE: I said it was really trivial so fras is actually grasshopper poop. But in reading about it, even though grasshoppers eat grains, its fras is actually an important “fertilizer” to those soils.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com