Most of the birds, including the bluebird pictured here, have returned from the Central and South Americas for our spring and summer. OBSERVER Photo by Catherine D’Agostino.

Across the street from the Dunkirk Lighthouse stands a hotel for the birds. For the last three weeks, the vacancy rate has begun to shrink as a population of purple martins begins to fill the location they will call home for the summer in the Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit parking lot.

“They’re hard to see during the day because they fly out to eat,” said Bev Ruska, who helps maintain the box at the Department of Environmental Conservation property just outside Point Gratiot park. She believes the flocks are already nesting. “They’re just beautiful to watch. They make a bubbly sound.”

Ruska, a Fredonia resident, relishes this season. As a member of the Lake Erie Bird Club, she looks forward to late April and early May when the many different species begin to arrive around our region to spend the glorious summer months.

This is prime time.

Across the nation — and in Western New York — many of the birds have returned here from the warmer climates of the Central and South Americas where they reside in the late fall and winter. With their arrival comes a rainbow of colors from the purple martins to the goldfinches and our state bird, the bluebird.

As the coronavirus pandemic enters its third month many who have been stuck homebound — here and throughout the northeast — have found a new hobby as they begin to move to the outdoors. It involves watching and identifying our feathered friends.

According to an Associated Press article earlier this month, downloads of the National Audubon Society’s bird identification app in March and April doubled over that period last year, and unique visits to its website are up by a half-million. The prestigious Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, the article noted, also has seen downloads of its free bird identification app, Merlin ID, shoot up 102% over the same time last year, with 8,500 downloads on Easter weekend alone.

Visits to Cornell’s live bird cams have doubled, and uploads of bird photos and calls have increased 45% and 84%, respectively, on Cornell’s crowdsourced bird-logging app, eBird.

All this brings a new era of discovery for many who are usually too task-oriented to take in nature, even if it could be right outside your door. Since last month, all varieties of these frequent fliers have been out and about building nests while finding homes.

A retired Fredonia Central School art teacher, Ruska is especially pleased with the purple martin box on Point Drive North. She and her husband began helping maintain the box for the past decade. It’s a more than perfect location. It sits near the lake and next to one of the best places to see a variety of birds: Point Gratiot.

A trip to the world-renowned Roger Tory Peterson Institute website, based out of Jamestown, confirms this. The link regarding the city park notes its “geographical position sticking out into the south shore of Lake Erie means that birds heading north during the spring will stop there before or instead of flying over the water.”

On a chilly and damp Tuesday, Ruska was there walking one of the nature trails seeking sights of the migratory warblers and tanagers. Though she heard some familiar songs, she said it was tough to find some of the different species and a familiar accessory during the past month.

“I didn’t see too much … but what I saw hanging on a shrub … was somebody’s mask,” she said. “They must have been birdwatching.”

One of the best places — and easiest to view the birds — is right from your back yard. Ruska urges residents to place oranges out to attract both the female and male orioles and catbirds. She also had a welcome surprise earlier in the day. “Today I got my male scarlet tanager, a bright red bird with black wings,” Ruska said.

This weekend, she and her husband, John, will be participating in the Buffalo Ornithological Society count, which annually takes place on the third Sunday in May. “It’s the one we get the most number of birds,” she said, noting the arrival of the birds from the tropics.

Both Ruska and her husband, John, are proponents of the bluebird. John Ruska served for many years as president of the New York State Bluebird Society. Over the past winter, to build on that population of species, John Ruska received some assistance from Brocton resident Al Kawski, a retired U.S. Air Force officer. He built a number of boxes to the specifications.

“They’re beautifully done,” Bev Ruska said. “He’s quite a craftsman.”

Both Ruskas are hoping during this time when residents have been forced to stay inside, some will find joy and excitement in the sightings and searches for birds in our outdoors. “A lot of people would enjoy life so much more,” she said. “It gives me pleasure.”

John D’Agostino is the OBSERVER publisher. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 366-3000, ext. 401.