Weather's creating birding paradise on Sanibel Island

Julie Andrews may have belted out "The Hills Are Alive" in her 1965 hit movie "The Sound of Music," but if Jules were visiting Southwest Florida this fall, she'd sing like a songbird about the trees being alive. Alive with movement, that is.

Have you sat near a leafy fig tree lately? Warblers and vireos are feeding on bugs like they're trick-or-treating early. In trees and bushes with fall berries, you'll see tanagers, grosbeaks and thrushes feeding on juicy nuggets.

Even if you can't ID these birds — and, c'mon, it does seem as though bird watchers sometimes speak a different language with all these species' names? — it doesn't matter. Everyone can appreciate the fall migration.

There are birds everywhere right now. Little Brown Jobs (LBJ), colorful flitters, operatic tweeters and more. (I encourage creative types to come up with their own bird names and let me know what they've developed. I think Mr. Audubon would approve.)

Thing is, places such as Sanibel and other areas are experiencing a large "fallout" of migratory songbirds, according to observations by yours truly, bird watchers and a news brief in a recent e-newsletter of the Sanibel- Captiva Conservation Foundation.

COURTESY PHOTO Summer tanager These fallouts happen when large flocks of birds get caught by frontal systems and are forced to "fall out" on the nearest land, said the e-mail from SCCF's Brad Smith. "These events happen every spring and fall to a greater or lesser degree but they vary greatly in occurrence at any one location from year to year," Mr. Smith wrote.

Get this: This year's recent fall out is one of the biggest on Sanibel in the last 10 years, both in terms of number and diversity of birds, SCCF reports. Generally, the birds will hang around for a day or two before continuing their migration into the Caribbean where they will spend the winter.

For you bird watchers who are into recording and listing recent species sighted, here's what SCCF says are the birds seen in the recent fallout: bluewinged warbler, Tennessee warbler, black-throated blue warbler, chestnut sided warbler, redstart, ovenbird, northern waterthrush, hooded warbler, yellow warbler, black-and-white warbler, black burnian warbler, prairie warbler, northern parula, magnolia warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, yellow-throated vireo, blue-headed vireo, Swainson's thrush, veery, rosebreasted grosbeak, summer tanager, scarlet tanager and eastern wood pewee.

For those of you who don't know birds but do know your primary colors, I can tell you about my best fallout ever.

It was when two indigo buntings landed in our Pine Island back yard many years back. These birds were so blue they looked like how your eyes feel after someone snaps a flash from a camera at you at night, only bluer. I literally rubbed my eyes the first time I saw them from the lanai as they flitted around. They stayed no more than three days.

Then there was the year a summer tanager landed in the yard. It looked like something a kindergartner would draw with a pack of Crayons. So bright and clear and basic, yet so beautiful.

Only twice in 15 years have I seen the indigos on the island, and the only other time I've seen a summer tanager was in woodsy southern Alabama.

Like I said, you don't have to be a birder to appreciate the brilliant colors Mother Nature offers on her feathered friends.

— Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Isla nd and a lso is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways co rdinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@ yahoo.com.