In July, a Cassin’s kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans) calls from the edge between grassland and pine in Montana, USA. Three months later, I’m among Cassin’s kingbirds again but 2000 miles farther south, in their winter range in Oaxaca, Mexico. Over the past year, my life has traced the path of these migratory Cassin’s kingbirds—a journey that, for me, has involved falling in love and spending months far away from the Montana landscape I know and love. This is a story of migration, of the memories that birdsongs carry, and of finding a connection to the earth that spans time and space.
Along this journey, we meet many birds and hear their voices. Among the recordings featured in this podcast are Montana sounds of Cassin’s kingbird, common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum), Lincoln’s sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii), sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis), Savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus), and western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) recorded by me, Shane Sater. From Oaxaca, I share recordings of a Bewick’s wren (Thryomanes bewickii), lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus), lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria), loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), western kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis), and white-throated towhee (Melozone albicollis). Many thanks to Manuel Grosselet of Tierra de Aves (https://www.tierradeaves.com/) and Jay McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for giving me permission to use their Oaxacan recordings of Cassin’s kingbirds.
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You can find the written, illustrated version of this story here: https://wildwithnature.com/2024/12/01/cassins-kingbird-migration-connections/
