For the amateur, summer is a good season to engage in birdwatching; a wide variety of species are present and the weather is conducive to both field study and patient observation. But, for veteran birders, June and July are probably the least interesting months of the year.
By June, the spring migration has ended and a population of well-known, frequently-observed summer residents has settled in our parks and neighborhoods. Early summer is an unlikely time to find rare vagrants, the cherished quarry of avid birders; rather, such wanderers are far more common in late summer, during the spring and fall migrations or throughout the lean months of winter.
Of course, travelling to other regions of the country or planet is the best cure for the birding blues, but, for many (if not most) of us, such a remedy is not feasible. Those who cannot travel must wait for shorebirds to start dribbling south in mid summer or be satisfied with visits by our less common summer residents. During these birding doldroms, I suggest that birders broaden their horizon, taking an interest in the wide variety of plants, insects, reptiles and other creatures that share our home ecosystem; by doing so, we also develop a better appreciation of the environment in which our resident and migrant birds obtain the essential elements of their survival.
