FeederWatching - Week #7

Another weekend, another session of watching my bird feeders and my yard to count the birds for Project FeederWatch.

It was another pretty successful weekend, with 21 species counted. I feel that I could have done better and gotten even more species if I had had more time to spend on it. I was limited by the weather. It was cold and dreary. And on Sunday I had family over so bird counting took a back seat. Still, I'm pretty happy with the birds I was able to check off my list.

Red-tailed Hawk - 2
White-winged Dove - 3
Mourning Dove - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 1 
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Tufted Titmouse - 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 2
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
Northern Cardinal - 4
American Goldfinch - 1
House Sparrow - 23

I was delighted to be able to add the Mourning Dove to my 2013-14 FeederWatch record this week and there was a single male Red-winged Blackbird who flew over the yard while I was watching, but he didn't drop in so I didn't count him. At least, I know now that he's in the neighborhood so maybe he'll come to visit next week.

My most interesting observation this week was that pair of Red-tailed Hawks that circled over my yard for several minutes looking for a meal. They didn't find anything that interested them and finally moved on. And I was very happy to see the Orange-crowned Warbler return this week. He's become a bit of a welcome regular in the yard.

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And now, before we bid farewell to this old year, let me take a moment to wish you all the best in 2014. Most importantly, may your life list of birds grow and may you never be confused by a bird ID.

HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!! 

Backyard favorite

One of my favorite backyard birds - and yes, I do say that about a lot of different birds - is the Tufted Titmouse. A pale gray bird with orangish flanks and a small pointed crest, it is not as colorful or flashy as some of our backyard birds, but it is an ever-present visitor to my yard, one that is here at all seasons of the year and is particularly noticeable during the gray days of winter when the trees are bare of leaves.

At this season of the year, these little, relatively tame birds travel in small flocks, often mixed with other species with whom they share an affinity for both seeds and insects. In my own yard, I frequently see five or six titmice mixed with Carolina Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and Brown-headed Nuthatches as they visit the feeders or scour the bark of trees for insects. In winters in which Red-breasted Nuthatches visit our area, they, too, can be seen in these flocks.

The flocks visit the feeders sporadically throughout the day. They may swarm the feeders where they will feed for fifteen minutes or so and then they disappear for a time, only to return en masse perhaps thirty minutes or an hour later. But if one is patient one can be assured of seeing these birds several time in a day.

I love photographing titmice, although they are so active that it is sometimes hard to get them to sit still for a portrait. Still, sometimes I get lucky.

 I caught this one as he was visiting the pressed seed cake feeder, a favorite spot for many in his mixed flock.

Of course, after his snack, he had to fly to the backyard fountain to wash it all down with a few sips of water.

 

Done with the water and on to a favorite perch in the crape myrtle tree, where he will contemplate returning to the feeders, maybe for some suet this time.

Pretty little bird! And a wonderful backyard companion. One of my favorites.

This week in birds - #94

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Tom Middleton, courtesy of the American Bird Conservancy.

Feathered from beak to toe tips, the Snowy Owl, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week,  is well-equipped to survive on the frigid, high Arctic tundra. Its thick feathers make this bird North America’s heaviest owl, typically weighing about four pounds.

Some Snowy Owls remain on their Arctic breeding grounds year-round, while others migrate in winter to southern Canada and the northern half of the United States. In years when food is scarce, Snowy Owls may stage “irruptions,” traveling far south of their usual haunts in search of food, to the delight of birders and nonbirders alike. This has definitely been one of those irruptive winters, with Snowies making an appearance all over the Northeast and Midwest.

The Snowy Owl loves open areas such as coastal dunes, prairies, fields, and airports. Its attraction to airports often brings it into fatal conflict with humans. The population of this charismatic bird is declining, most likely due to loss of habitat.  

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And still more about Snowy Owls. Some well-meaning bird lovers, fearing that the irrupting birds are starving have attempted to feed them with live mice purchased for the purpose. In fact, there is no real evidence of widespread starvation, and this seems to be another example of uninformed and misguided interference with Nature.

Here are some pictures and videos of Snowies around the country, some of which feature their encounters with Peregrine Falcons that appear to resent the invasion of the big white owls into their territories.

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And speaking of raptors, have you ever noticed that movies and TV shows, even those that should know better, almost invariably use the sound of the call of the Red-tailed Hawk to stand in for any raptor or a large bird of any kind? I have noticed it and been annoyed by it over the years, but I never knew that other people noticed as well. I felt vindicated by the Salon.com article.

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Grasshoppers exist in a great variety of forms. Proof of that fact is found in this collection of photographs of the grasshoppers of Florida.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has announced that it has designated as critical habitat for the Franciscan manzanita 230 acres of open space in San Francisco. This shrub had been thought to be extinct for decades until its recent accidental rediscovery.

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Something is killing Bald Eagles in Utah. A mysterious fatal illness has struck at least 16 of the birds since the beginning of December. Wildlife personnel are attempting to discover the cause of the illness and find a way to stop it.

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The largest predator in South America, the Orinoco crocodile, is in danger of extinction. Venezuelan wildlife officials have mounted a last ditch effort to try to save animal. 

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The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to allow some of their land to be planted in native grasses or sometimes trees in order to provide natural habitat for wildlife, but now more and more acreage is being taken out of the program due to government budget cuts and a failure by Congress to appreciate the importance of maintaining this habitat. This is proving detrimental to the welfare of the animals that depend on such habitat.

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One of the beneficiaries of restoring native grassland habitat is the Monarch butterfly. Such areas that allow for the growth of milkweed, the plant on which the Monarch's survival depends, are absolutely essential to the effort to prevent the extinction of this species.  

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Dolphin deaths along the coasts of our country continue to soar. Those that occurred along the East Coast particularly during this past summer were related to a virus, but there is some evidence that those happening along the Gulf Coast may be related to the continuing effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010.

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Around the backyard: 

Here are some more visitors to my backyard this week.

This female Downy Woodpecker and her mate are daily visitors to the suet cakes at the backyard feeder system.

The Tufted Titmice are probably the most frequent visitors (beside the House Sparrows) to my feeders these days. I often see four or five at a time at the feeders. They are usually accompanied by Carolina Chickadees.

Another constant visitor is the Pine Warbler. This is the female of the species, who is much more drably colored than her sometimes gaudy mate.

And, yes, I did finally observe a visit by my favorite dove, the Mourning Dove. I'm sure they have been here all along. They just weren't around when I was looking.

FeederWatching - Week #6

Week #6 of my observations for Project FeederWatch was my most successful time of watching so far in this season. I tallied 22 species of birds.

Red-tailed Hawk - 1
White-winged Dove - 7
Rufous Hummingbird - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 4
Tufted Titmouse - 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 2
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Northern Cardinal - 3
American Goldfinch - 3
House Sparrow - 20

This was the first appearance on my FeederWatch reports for this season of Red-tailed Hawk, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Orange-crowned Warbler, and only the second appearance for Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, and American Goldfinch. Slowly, the numbers and the diversity of species at the feeders are beginning to increase.

I still haven't seen an Eastern Phoebe, a Red-winged Blackbird or any other member of the blackbird family, or a Mourning Dove or Eurasian Collared-dove. They are all species I'll be looking for in coming weeks.

Meantime, here are a few birds that I saw during my most recent observations.

 Northern Mockingbird

 Blue Jay

 Carolina Wren

 Carolina Chickadee

 Red-bellied Woodpecker

 Northern Cardinal

 Pine Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

 Rufous Hummingbird

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

And, of course, what would a day of observations be without an appearance by my friend, the fox squirrel?

  

Holiday greetings

As we near the end of 2013, I want to thank all my readers for visiting my blog this year. I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and experiences with you and I look forward to doing more of that in 2014.

For the next few days, I will be busy getting ready for the holidays and then enjoying them with my family and loved ones. I hope that your holidays find you surrounded by people that you love and who love you and that the coming year is a happy and healthy one for you.

Have a joyous and peaceful holiday season.

This week in birds - #93

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Tom Grey, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

At 3.25 inches long, the Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest breeding bird found in Canada and the United States—and the smallest long-distance migrant bird in the world. This tiny hummingbird travels over 5,500 miles round-trip during its migration! This remarkable little bird is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

This is a bird of the west. It favors open forests, meadows, and canyons in high mountains, often preferring areas alongside streams.

Calliopes winter in dry thorn forest and humid pine-oak forests in southwestern and south-central Mexico. Vagrant Calliopes are increasingly found wintering in the eastern U.S., however, much like other species of western hummingbirds such as the Rufous Hummingbird.  The population of the Calliope is considered stable.

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November 2013 was the hottest November on record since 1880. Almost every region on Earth was warmer than usual with only a few exceptions, including central and eastern North America, the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, northern Australia, and southwest Greenland. On the other hand, Russia had its hottest November since 1880 with some areas seeing temperatures 14 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) above normal.

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The emerald ash borer is a noxious invasive pest from Asia that has caused considerable damage to forests in parts of the United States. But its progress has be slowed and maybe halted by native bark-foraging birds like nuthatches and woodpeckers. It seems that these birds find the borer extremely tasty.  

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The Bar-tailed Godwit is the long-distance champion of migrating birds, flying from Alaska to New Zealand in autumn and then back again in the spring. Researchers believe that the bird is adapting its migration patterns to fit the new reality of climate change. This affords some evidence and provides hope that other birds may be able to do likewise.

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Some amazing bee portraits have been posted that provide views of bees that you have never seen before. You can take a look at those pictures here.

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Certain small birds engage in very energetic displays. A prime example is members of the manakin family. Researchers have studied the Golden-collared Manakin and found that these birds do not actually expend as much energy in the displays as one might imagine. 

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A recently discovered Emperor Penguin colony on Antarctica is flourishing and has been found to contain even more birds than originally thought. New estimates number the colony at around 15,000 birds.

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Some of our smallest butterflies are among the toughest and are able to survive lower temperatures than many of their larger and flashier cousins. Among the toughest is the tiny Dainty Sulphur.

I photographed this Dainty Sulphur in my backyard earlier this fall. It is tiny and very pretty but the name "Dainty" Sulphur is deceiving. It is able to survive some fairly rugged conditions.

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Scientists believe that the Kiwi bird, the national symbol of New Zealand, may actually have Australian roots. The bird may have originated in Australia and flown to New Zealand where it evolved into its present flightless state. This is based on new fossil evidence.

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There will be winners and losers in the climate change lottery. Research indicates that one of the losers may be the desert tortoise whose habitat is changing faster than it can adjust. 

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Research shows that birds that breed cooperatively, i.e., have more than the parental pair cooperating in defending the nest and care and feeding of the young, have a greater degree of success in repelling brood parasites such as old world cuckoos.

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Around the backyard:

This was the week when I saw my first Orange-crowned Warbler in the backyard since 2011. That was a very exciting moment. But this was a big week for all the "winter warblers." Yellow-rumped Warblers seemed to be everywhere in the yard and Pine Warblers appeared at the bird feeders in twos and threes rather than the singletons that I had been seeing.

It was also nice to hear the voices of the Cedar Waxwings every time I stepped outside this week. They were a reminder that winter really was near and now, as of today, it has arrived. Happy Solstice Day!

Let those seedheads be!

(Cross-posted from The Nature of Things.)

I have this "weed" in my garden. Actually, I have many weeds in my garden. The weeds may even outnumber the plants that I've planted on purpose, but this particular weed turns out to be special.

In the first place, it came to me from the nursery. I had bought a white mistflower from one of my favorite nurseries. I brought it home and planted it. I noticed there was a separate little plant in the pot, but it was mixed in with the mistflower and I actually thought at first that it was part of the plant I had bought. As the mistflower grew, it became obvious that this was a separate and different plant. I dug it out from the mistflower planting and normally would have put it on the compost pile, but curiosity got the better of me. I planted it in a bed nearby and it flourished.

All of this happened last year and in the late summer, the mystery plant bloomed. The plant was still fairly small and the flowers were few but I set about trying to identify it. I decided pretty quickly that it was in the aster family, but that is one BIG family and it was harder to narrow it down to a specific plant. I finally decided that it was either camphor weed (Pluchea camphorata) or marsh fleabane (Pluchea purpurascens) and it seemed that the most likely candidate was the fleabane.

I noticed that the butterflies and bees seemed to like those blossoms and so I decided to keep this "weed," this free Texas wildflower from the nursery.

The plant had another good year and when it bloomed this year, I took pictures.

The plant was covered in these purplish blossoms and the blossoms persisted for several weeks, a real treat for the bees and butterflies.

Finally, the blooms did fade and seedheads developed. They were not particularly attractive and in the normal course of things, I might have deadheaded the plant and removed those seeds, but "normal" did not apply to my late October and November this year. I got sick and didn't get done any of the minimal fall cleanup that I would usually have done in the garden. That included removing seedheads. 

After a while, my fleabane looked like this. It's in my direct line of sight when I sit in my favorite spot on the patio, and I've been thinking that maybe I should still do a bit of tidying up there, but I just haven't got around to it.

Then this week, I was sitting on the patio, watching the birds and idly staring in the direction of the fleabane when I became aware that there was a bird in the plant. I picked up my binoculars for a closer look and smiled ear to ear when I recognized an Orange-crowned Warbler!  

Now, you may not be too impressed with that. Orange-crowned Warblers are very attractive birds, I think, but they are not one of the flashy types that birders typically set their sights for. But as a backyard birder, I keep close track of the birds that visit my yard. Orange-crowned Warblers are a winter visitor, but they have never been as numerous as our other two "winter warblers," the Pine and the Yellow-rumped. Last year, I looked in vain for an Orange-crowned all winter long. I never saw one. And now, here a few days before winter officially begins, was one feeding on wildflower seeds in my yard.

I watched the bird for several minutes as it went all over the plant, plucking seeds. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me and could not record the event. I was afraid to get up to go get it, because I would surely have scared the bird away. So, I just sat and enjoyed the sight while it lasted.

And what, you ask,  is the lesson that we learn from this experience? It's simple. Gardeners should not be in such a rush to tidy their gardens up in the fall. Those unattractive seedheads can provide nourishment for birds or other critters. That leaf and twig debris can help provide winter homes and protection from the weather for any number of small reptiles or amphibians. Brush piles provide welcome cover for small songbirds, where they can escape from predators or even spend the cold winter nights.

We should look at our gardens as the homes for wildlife that they surely are, rather than as a reflection on our characters if they are not kept constantly neat and tidy. Nature actually prefers a bit of untidiness. As stewards of the land, we should be willing to accept that, too. I know that I'll be leaving those fleabane seedheads alone and hoping for another visit from that Orange-crowned Warbler.    

FeederWatching - Week #5

We have Cedar Waxwings! That is the big headline from my weekend observations for Project FeederWatch. I had thought that I heard waxwing voices coming from farther down my street on Saturday, but I couldn't be absolutely sure. Yesterday, they were in my yard and there could be no doubt of their presence. I counted nine of the beauties, a small flock, but, generally the flocks grow in size throughout the winter.

Also, I finally saw American Goldfinches in my yard this weekend. I had noted them flying over the yard on other occasions, but this weekend they landed! One of the birds was investigating my new nyger seed feeders in the backyard. He sat on the hook that holds them and looked, but I never saw him actually partaking of the seeds. It's just a matter of time, though.

All in all, this was my most successful session of FeederWatching this season, with eighteen species tallied. Things are beginning to look up.

Here's what I saw this weekend.

Cooper's Hawk - 1
White-winged Dove - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 4
Tufted Titmouse - 5
Carolina Wren - 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 9
Pine Warbler - 2
Northern Cardinal - 4
American Goldfinch - 2
House Sparrow - 15

I wonder what treasures next weekend will bring.
 

This week in birds - #92

A roundup of this week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Greg Lavaty, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy. 

The Yellow-breasted Chat is classified as a warbler, but this is one weird warbler and the debate continues as to whether it is really something else altogether. The great ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson called it an "aberrant warbler" and that about sums it up. The chat is twice as big as most warblers and has a heavy beak more reminiscent of vireos than the long, thin beaks of other warblers. Moreover, its songs could hardly be called melodic in the sense that most warbler songs are. Instead, its voice is a bizarre collection of cackles, clucks, whistles, and hoots. Its voice and behavior have caused it to be called the "buffoon of the briar patch."

The Yellow-breasted Chat is a skulker that is more often heard than seen. It prefers deep thickets and underbrush. Its population is considered stable in the mid-section of the continent and in the west, but it is declining in the northeastern area. Threats to its existence include loss of habitat through human development and parasitism by cowbirds.

The chat is one of my favorite summer visitors and it is this week's Bird of the Week as designated by the American Bird Conservancy.

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Crazy ants are something that many people in the Houston area have become familiar with in recent years. Research on this new pest has lagged somewhat because of Americans' failure to see the value of and to support basic scientific research, according to blogger Myrmecos. This is a far more widespread problem than just those pesky little ants.

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Conservation groups, including the American Bird Conservancy, have expressed concerns that a new rule announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decrease protections for Bald and Golden Eagles and will result in more preventable eagle deaths.

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Reports of dolphin deaths along the East Coast have tapered off in recent weeks, but the virus that caused the spate of deaths this summer is still active and still killing the critters. It's just that it has moved farther south, along with the dolphins, into warmer waters for the winter.

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After it was revealed that the Port Authority in New York was killing Snowy Owls around the city's airports, there was such a public outcry that the agency announced that it would work with conservation groups to relocate the birds instead. In this, the Port Authority lagged behind Boston's Logan Airport which has long employed wildlife specialists to trap and relocate the birds.

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Lapland Longspurs were seen in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Monument this week. It was only the second record of the bird reported to eBird. The other record was from 1985.

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Twenty-two pilot whales from a pod that got stranded in the Everglades of Florida died. Veterinarians are trying to determine if disease was a factor in the strandings. The status of other members of the pod is unknown and it is hoped that they have escaped the death trap.

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The Chalk-browed Mockingbird of Argentina is a vigorous defender of its nest, just like its cousin, the Northern Mockingbird. Researchers reported this week their observations of the birds furiously attacking Shiny Cowbirds which, like our Brown-headed Cowbirds, lay eggs in the mockingbirds' nests. The researchers found that, even though the cowbirds still managed to lay some of their eggs, the mockingbirds' attacks kept them from destroying the mockers' eggs and so at least some of the mockingbird clutch of eggs survived.

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The Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo has been listed as a threatened species, but conservation groups argue that it should be listed as endangered instead and given more complete protection under the law.

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In other news of endangered species, a rare California shrub, the Indian Knob mountain balm (Eriodictyon altissimum) will remain on the endangered list, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It rejected a petition from a conservative group to reduce protection for the shrub.

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Remember that gray wolf called OR-7 that crossed the border from Oregon into California in 2011, thus becoming the first confirmed presence of a gray wolf in California in 90 years? Well, he just paid another brief visit and then crossed back into Oregon. His visits have impelled conservation groups to ask for the listing of the gray wolf as an endangered species in California so that future visitors can be protected.

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Eurasian Tree Sparrows are able to recognize eggs from other birds that are deposited in their nests, researchers find, and they will sometimes remove the eggs - although not always.

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One success story of the Endangered Species Act has been the recovery of grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone Park. In fact, the species has recovered so nicely that some are now calling for dropping it from endangered status.

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Around the backyard:

Can it be? When I stepped out my front door this morning, I could swear I heard Cedar Waxwings calling from down the street. I stopped and listened intently but could not definitely confirm that that is what I heard. It is just a bit early. I usually see the first waxwings of the season around Christmas. Come to think of it, Christmas is almost here...

The American Goldfinches are finally stopping in my yard and not just flying over, but so far I haven't seen any at the feeders. They seem to be concentrating on crape myrtle seeds which they love.

Activity at the feeders has picked up this week, including at the front yard feeder which had been almost completely abandoned for a while. I'm still not seeing that much variety at the feeders, but the long-absent White-winged Doves are beginning to turn up in ones or twos again. Can fifteens and twenties be far behind?

Wordless Wednesday: "These are MY seeds!'

FeederWatching - Week #4

This is not the way it is supposed to be. In the past 10 years of doing Project FeederWatch, my counting has started out slow in early November and then built week by week. This year, I seem to be going in the opposite direction. During the weekend just past, I had the lowest total of species yet.

Now, I wasn't able to devote as much time to it as I normally do and the very cold temperatures limited my time outside, but still, even though there was more activity around the feeders, I only saw twelve species. I would have expected more.  

Here are the species that I was able to check off the list for this week.

White-winged Dove - 1
American Crow - 1
Blue Jay - 1
Northern Cardinal - 3
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Carolina Wren - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Pine Warbler - 1
House Sparrow - 14

That one White-winged Dove may be the harbinger of more to come and there was a lot of Northern Cardinal activity in the yard, more than in past weeks, although I never saw more than three birds at a time. But the majority of visitors once again proved to be House Sparrows, which is a bit depressing.

I've hung my nyger seed feeders for the American Goldfinches, but I don't think they have been visited yet. Also, I haven't seen any House Finches around the yard lately, although they had been very visible earlier in the year.

So, on the whole, things are still distressingly quiet on the avian front. Here's hoping for better luck - and better weather - next weekend.

This week in birds - #91

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Ron Dudley, courtesy of the American Bird Conservancy.

The largest hawk in North America is this week's Bird of the Week, designated by the American Bird Conservancy. This hawk is so big, in fact, that it is sometimes mistaken for an eagle. It is the Ferruginous Hawk. It is a bird of the prairie and open spaces. Its range is mostly west of here, and yet on our New Year's Day visit to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago, we saw one perched on a utility pole. This is only one of the two species of hawks in America that have feathered legs, right down to their toes. (The other is the Rough-legged Hawk.)  That makes them easier to distinguish from the bare-legged Red-Tailed Hawk which they somewhat resemble - unless you get a good look at the tail. 

The Ferruginous is stable in its population and seems to be doing well in most areas of its range.

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The big news in the world of birds on this continent this week is the continued invasion of the more southerly parts of the continent by that beautiful bird from the High Arctic, the Snowy Owl. Birders everywhere are all atwitter and aflutter with the excitement of possibly encountering one of the owls. Amazingly, one of the owls has even been sighted in Bermuda!

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Did you see the story of the confused young Sea Eagle in Australia who picked up a wildlife camera that had been set to record the activities of crocodiles, apparently thinking it was edible? The camera was in the process of filming when he picked it up and it continued to film as he flew away with it and then set it down and tried to dismember it. Thus, the eagle became the first known animal to make its own wildlife film!

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This is the season when migrating birds often wind up far out of their normal range, having either been confused and lost their way, or maybe just attempting to see a new part of the world. Recently, a vagrant Fork-tailed Flycatcher, a bird that rarely crosses the southern border into the United States, except in the Rio Grande Valley, was found in Connecticut. 

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And speaking of our southern border, U.S. policy in recent years, motivated by totally irrational fears, has created an environmental and humanitarian disaster along the border, stripping the land of much of its vegetation.

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We all know that hummingbirds are amazing, almost magical creatures. One of their "super powers" is that they are able to switch from burning glucose to fructose and back again in order to maintain their high metabolism. This is something which no other creature is known to be able to do. 

Furthermore, hummingbirds are able to function and thrive at high altitudes because their hemoglobin has evolved high oxygen-binding capabilities.

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House Finches in North America suffer from an epidemic of conjunctivitis.  The progress of the disease has been tracked for years, including by citizen scientists participating in Project FeederWatch. The data from such tracking are yielding new information about how a disease becomes epidemic and spreads. 

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What is it about the magnificent tail of the peacock, male of the Peafowl, that attracts the female, the peahen? Researchers set up cameras to determine where the peahen focused her attention and found that it was on the lower regions of the tail.

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Senate Bill 1731, dubbed the "Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act" by its author Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, would bar the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing any new species under ESA without the approval of the governors of any states in which that species resides, and require a joint resolution approving each listing by Congress as well. It would effectively gut the ESA which has done so much to protect and restore many species, including the Bald Eagle, which would probably be extinct by now without it. A similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Neither of these bills is likely to become law in the present political make-up of Congress, but we know that these people never give up. They will keep introducing these bills, hoping to wear down resistance. Meanwhile, they get a helping hand in seeking to destroy the environment from the right-wing lobbying group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 

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Studies of the Pukeko, a New Zealand relative of our Purple Gallinule, show that the fleshy shield or badge on top of the bird's head is an accurate barometer of each bird's status in the group. The badge grows or recedes according to heightening or lowering of the bird's status. 

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The Northern Bald Ibis is a migratory bird that once spent part of its year in northern Europe, but it was extirpated by hunting some 300 years ago. Now, scientists are attempting to reintroduce the distinctive bird to its former range.

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Will printed field guides finally give way to apps for mobile devices that birders can carry into the field and easily access? They no doubt have their place and they are convenient, but, for me at least, nothing can ever quite take the place of a beautifully rendered paper field guide that I can hold in my hands and thumb through at my leisure. 

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Around the backyard:  

Sadness descended on my backyard yesterday and it is the reason this post is a day late. I lost a good friend.

Bubba

03/26/98 - 12/07/13

Rest in peace, my sweet friend.

Cold day in Southeast Texas

Looks like our high temperature today is going to be 40 degrees F. Maybe 41, but that's stretching it a bit. An intermittent cold mist is falling. With wind chill, it feels about 31 outside. But, wimp that I am, I'm spending the day inside.

My bird watching today has all been done from my windows. I can see that activity has picked up tremendously at the back yard feeders, but the front yard feeder still seems to be abandoned.

As I sit in my study/office, I have a constant companion just outside my window. I've showed her to you before. Here she is today.

On cold days like today, this little Rufous Hummingbird saves her energy by staying close to her food source. She sits on top of the hook that holds the feeder, which also puts her close by the blossoms of the shrimp plant and the 'Mystic Spires' salvia. Smart little bird!

As I stood close to the window snapping these pictures, she turned to look at me. "You lookin' at me?" seemed to be her sentiment.

I'm just glad that I have at least one bird that I can watch in warm comfort on such a miserable day.

Wordless Wednesday: Avian architecture

FeederWatching - Week 3

My third weekend of observations for Project FeederWatch was actually delayed by a week because of very inclement weather. Heavy rains and cold kept me indoors on the third weekend of the project, but the weekend just past was much more backyard birder friendly

Things were still pretty slow at the feeders. I only counted thirteen species and most of the birds that we think of as our "winter visitors" were absent. Here's my list.

House Sparrows - 20
Blue Jays - 3
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Pine Warbler - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -1
American Crow - 2
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Northern Cardinal - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 1
Tufted Titmouse - 3
Downy Woodpecker -1
Carolina Wren - 1

Once again, I heard an American Goldfinch overhead, but as far as I know it didn't drop into my yard, so I didn't get to count it.

Although there were not any unusual avian visitors while I was making my observations, there were actually some never-before-seen visitors at the feeders.

We have lived in our home for twenty-five years and in all those years our yard and our neighborhood have been dominated by fox squirrels, the big and aggressive rusty-colored squirrels.

 One of the resident fox squirrels perches on our fence.

In all those years, I have never seen one of the smaller gray squirrels in our yard. Until this past weekend.

While watching the birds, I became aware of a squirrel feeding on the ground. I looked at it and did a double take. It was a gray squirrel! An adult gray squirrel - a female, I think. I went inside to get my camera to document it, but, of course, when I got back outside, the squirrel was gone. But I kept the camera close by and waited and in a while I was rewarded.

Not one, but two gray squirrels showed up. Only it wasn't the adult I had seen earlier. These were babies - two half-grown kits. Progeny of the adult perhaps.

I had crumbled some stale rolls left over from Thanksgiving dinner and spread them on the ground and the little squirrels were enjoying a snack of bread.

 Note the white - or light gray belly - indicative of gray squirrels.

  Also, the backs of the ears are the same light color.

I enjoyed watching the little guys almost as much as I enjoyed watching the birds, even though I couldn't include them on my Project FeederWatch list.  

This week in birds - #90

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Luke Seitz, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

The common name for the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is "Fool Hen." It got the name because its first defense when threatened by a predator is to freeze in place until the threat is almost upon it. Then it bursts into flight, which may startle the predator enough to allow the bird to make its escape. Those who observed this action apparently saw it as a foolish strategy. But maybe the Fool Hen gets the last laugh, because it is thriving, its population stable.

The bird's proper name is Spruce Grouse and it lives in the cold, cold North, mostly in Canada but occasionally dipping into the northernmost United States. It is a bird of the coniferous forests, especially those that feature dense undergrowth of shrubs such as blueberries. True to its name, one of its favorite foods is spruce or other coniferous needles.

Spruce Grouse are at home in the trees and prefer to walk along tree limbs or on the ground rather than fly. An interesting feature of the bird is that each fall they grow "snowshoes"—short fleshy bristles called pectinations—on their toes, which help support the bird on snow and probably help to grip slippery branches as well. These bristles are shed each spring.

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Those magical white owls made famous by Harry Potter, the Snowy Owls, are making their annual incursion into the northern United States. Snowy Owls are normally birds of the High Arctic and birders get very excited when they venture farther south.

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Tomorrow is the first day of December, which means that Christmas Bird Count season is almost upon us. This will be the 114th CBC. If you are interested in participating this year - and why wouldn't you be? - the Audubon website will help you find a count that is taking place near you.  

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Researchers have determined that Barn Owl nestlings are able to recognize their siblings' calls. Clever little owlets! 

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The bonobo, formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee, is probably the least well-known of all the great apes. It is also one of the most severely endangered. It is rapidly losing space to encroaching human populations and activities in its home range of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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It seems hard to believe but apparently some Californians mistake Turkey Vultures for California Condors! Now, vultures are much smaller than condors, and, typically, they are found in groups, whereas condors are usually solitary. But they are both black and they both have naked heads, so, yeah, I guess there is a certain family resemblance. 

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The UK had a particularly wet and cold spring in 2012 and it was especially hard on birds, but studies show that urban birds actually fared much better than their country cousins during that season.

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The effects of climate change in the Galapagos Islands  threaten the continued existence of the flightless Galapagos Cormorant. The warming of the ocean's waters near the islands' coasts is adversely affecting the cormorant's food supply, which in turn affects the bird's ability to breed successfully.

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An editorial in the Seattle Times makes an argument for keeping some totally natural wild spaces in urban parks. Actually, that seems like a no brainer to me.

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Those who are only familiar with the domesticated varieties of turkey may be surprised to learn that Wild Turkeys can actually fly. True, they are not equipped for long distance flying, but they are perfectly able to execute explosive take-offs and fly for short distances, sufficient to escape predators. Not unlike their cousin, the Spruce Grouse, actually. 

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The male Laysan Albatross is a philandering rascal that will mate with as many females as he can, but he only participates in raising one chick. So his other "wives" with their chicks will often pair up with another female albatross which will help to raise their chick.

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The okapi, also known as the "forest giraffe," has joined the growing number of animals on the Red List of Threatened Species. This wonderful animal is the national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a close relative of the giraffe and is endemic in rain forests, but its numbers have declined drastically to the point that it is now considered endangered, just one step away from extinction. Poaching and habitat loss, as well as the presence of rebels, illegal miners, and elephant poachers are all threats to the okapi's survival.

For the compilation of this Red List, the status of 71,576 species was assessed. Of that number, 21, 286 were found to be in danger of extinction. 

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Around the backyard:

I was unable to complete my regular observations for Project FeederWatch last weekend because of heavy rains and very cold weather. We had over three inches of rain during the period. This weekend's conditions look a lot more promising and I am eager to see what will turn up at my feeders.