It was on one of those intoxicatingly warm fall days that I decided to take some time from my busy routine to enjoy a book on the deck. While my eyes were fixed on the pages, my ears were tuned in to the bird calls emanating from my back woodlot. I noticed the notes of a bird not known on my land as I listened to the blue jays, chickadees and titmice calling to each other. These notes were loud and clear and spoke of a visitor to the woods, an eastern towhee.

Although common throughout our region, the towhees’ presence in my woodlot was novel, but the occurrence of this bird here at this time of year made perfect sense. Now is the time for migrating birds to show up as unexpected visitors. Exhausted from long overnight flights, fall migrants must find places to rest and refuel.

They must choose the best available stop-over sites in the dim light of early morning and sometimes poor choices are made, putting the birds in strange or even hostile places. Loons, for example, have been known to land in trucking yards by accident. This is a fatal mistake since loons require water to take off. I have never seen a flock of loons land in my yard but I did have seven coots pay a visit. State-wide reports often describe similar oddities.

Likewise, the eastern towhee might have chosen more favorable habitat but my woodlot provided what it needed. Similarly, other atypical species have turned up at the feeder during the fall. Indigo buntings are by far the most stunning but fox sparrows are the most frequent fall visitors. These large rufous ground-feeding sparrows kick back autumn leaves in search of spilled seeds.

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, like other woodpeckers, often turn up at suet feeders at this time. Rarely, yellow-rumped warblers may stop for suet, too. Suet provides these travelers with the fat calories they need. How long an individual bird stays usually depends on how much fat it can put on. This has much to do with the abundance of fattening food at any given site.

Some habitats attract more species and greater numbers of individual birds than others. More needs to be learned about other factors that make certain stop-over sites so attractive, but researchers know from studying radar images that coastal deciduous woodlands make excellent sites. Since so many of our breeding species in the Northeast are migratory, such information has huge implications for bird conservation.

Because stop-over sites are vitally important to migrants, this places a responsibility on all of us along the coast to maintain and set aside local woodlands. That is precisely why I have declined offers to log my woods for profit. The intrinsic value of knowing my woods are rich with birdlife is worth far more. That eastern towhee stayed until rested and fattened, then on the third day it took to the skies and, with others of its kind, became a part of our world worth having.

Robert Tougias is a birding author who lives in Colchester. He is available for presentations and will answer questions at rtougias@snet.net.