Wordless Wednesday: Field Sparrow

This week in birds - #54

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

Always a welcome visitor to the backyard - the Tufted Titmouse.

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The annual Great Backyard Bird Count, possibly my favorite citizen science project, is coming up in less than a month, on the four-day Presidents' Day weekend in February. If you've never participated and are wondering what it's all about or how you can be a part of it, there is a free webinar coming up on January 29 that explains all about it. Check it out. You'll be glad you did.

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Many raptors nest in late winter while the trees are still bare and grass is dead, offering less cover to potential prey. Audubon's online magazine has an article about one of them, the Great Horned Owl 

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The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster caused the forced evacuation of about 300,000 people from the area and thus created one of the most unlikely wildlife sanctuaries in the world. Prior to the leak, few wild animals had lived in the area, but once the people moved out, the animals started moving in. Their populations are closely monitored, but so far, most of the critters seem to be doing surprisingly well. 

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It sometimes seems that every week we hear of another feathered dinosaur fossil being discovered somewhere in China. This week, the fossil was found in northwest China and has been named Eosinopteryx. Paleontologists believe it was flightless.

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Vultures are the garbage collectors of Nature. They clean things up and help to prevent disease from spreading. When their numbers plummet, it can have an adverse ripple effect throughout their habitat. The Indian subcontinent offers a prime example of this. Over the last thirty years, vulture populations there have declined sharply. The White-rumped Vulture, once numerous, is now critically endangered. With the decline of the birds' population, rabid dogs have become more prevalent over the area, with the result that more and more humans are dying of rabies.

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Another creature that has fallen on hard times is Australia's wombats. They have been hit by a variety of disasters, both man made and natural, which threaten their continued survival.

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Chicago's skyline is the deadliest in the country for migrating birds, because of its location along the Central Flyway, one of the major routes for the birds between North and South America. Thousands of birds die each year in collisions with the city's high-rise buildings. Their bodies are collected and studied by scientists for clues about migration and about how global warming is affecting it. .

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A critically endangered Mexican gray wolf has been released into Arizona's Apache National Forest, near the New Mexico border.

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The governor of Nebraska has given his approval to a new route for the Keystone XL pipeline. The final decision is now up to the Obama administration as to whether the pipeline will be allowed to proceed. 

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The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, one of the most critically endangered birds in the world, is being illegally trapped in China by the use of mist nets, providing yet another obstacle to its continued survival.

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Many were surprised when President Obama actually mentioned climate change in his inaugural speech on Monday and indicated that it would be a priority in his second administration. It will not be easy as long as the the House of Representatives is in the control of tea party Republicans who deny that climate change is happening and are poised to obstruct any legislation. It looks like any progress that is made will have to be through executive and regulatory action.

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Around the backyard:

Here are just a few of the birds seen around the backyard this week. It's been a very birdy week!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Another favorite winter visitor is the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. These are tiny birds, not much bigger than a hummingbird, and they seem to be constantly in motion. They pursue little insects along the limbs of trees around my yard from dawn until dusk. Occasionally, they visit feeders, especially for suet but sometimes for seeds as well.

They are very entertaining to watch, but their hyperactivity makes it problematic to get a good picture of them. I've tried several times this winter, but mostly they just show up as a blur.

Today while I was outside taking pictures of some flowers, I happened to notice a kinglet in a nearby crape myrtle tree. As I watched, he perched on a limb and seemed inclined to stay there for a moment. I trained my camera on him and snapped.

Of course, I had the macro lens that I use for flowers, so the lens really wasn't appropriate for photographing birds, but I tried anyway.

That prominent white eye-ring makes his eye look enormous in relation to his head. That and his white wing-bars and his tiny size tell us what the bird is. Other than those marks, his coloring is pretty drab except for that ruby spot on his head that, frankly, one rarely ever sees. It is raised when the bird is alarmed and is used in courtship displays. Nevertheless, the appearance and the behavior of the bird make it unmistakable. Just one more good reason to go out in your yard and look for birds on a winter afternoon. If you see a tiny grayish bird constantly flitting around the leaves of your trees and shrubs, it is probably a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Wordless Wednesday: Yellow-rumped Warbler

Doves and robins

I don't often see Inca Doves in my yard anymore. I sometimes see them passing through or hear them calling from around the neighborhood, but having an actual presence in my yard, not so much.

Since they are actually one of my favorite birds, I'm always on the lookout for them. Imagine my surprise and delight then, when, today, while planting some violas in a pot in my backyard, I looked up from my task to see four Inca Doves walking across my yard!

They were obviously headed toward the backyard feeders and were walking about twenty feet from where I stood. I would have liked to run and get my camera to record the rare event, but I felt sure if I moved they would fly away. So I just stood and watched them.

As I suspected, they headed to the feeders and spent several minutes gleaning the seeds that had fallen or been kicked to the ground by other birds. They didn't seem in any hurry, but they were very wary. I noticed they continually kept one eye cocked toward the sky, as well they might since both a Cooper's Hawk and a Sharp-shinned Hawk have been seen in the yard lately.

I finally sat down in a nearby chair to watch them as they fed. Lovely little birds! I hope they'll be coming back soon and I hope next time I'll have my camera.

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As we headed out yesterday morning for our Monday morning breakfast date at Denny's, I noticed two newcomers in a nearby tree - American Robins, the harbinger of spring to many. In some winters, I have robins here throughout the season, but I haven't seen any around from several weeks, not since early fall/late summer, so these were the first of the season.

This afternoon, I was outside late in the day and it seemed robins were everywhere! I had a virtual robin chorus going all around the yard. It was a wonderful sound.

Are you seeing or hearing robins? If so, the people who track migrations, Journey North, want to know about it. You can report your sightings on their website.

This week in birds - #53

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

A male Vermilion Flycatcher perches on a sign at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

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It seems that research shows that the ground-nesting Japanese Quail (and most likely other quail species as well) have a knack for choosing nesting sites where their eggs will blend in with the background, thus providing camouflage from predators.

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The Audubon Nature Institute and San Diego Zoo Global are set to announce a breeding program for rare and endangered species on a 1,000 acre tract of land in Louisiana, south of New Orleans. It will be different from many such programs in that the animals will be able to roam free as they would in their native habitats.

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Nature conservancy groups have purchased and will protect a 672 acre tract in Colombia that will provide safe winter habitat for the very endangered Cerulean Warbler and other neotropical migrants.

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The population of the critically endangered Malherbe's Parakeet is beginning to grow as a result of its placement on a remote predator-free island in New Zealand.

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An oil and gas field in North Dakota, where the products are extracted by the fracking process, can be seen from space at night. The lights of the rigs and the burnoff of methane from the extraction process look like a big city in the middle of nowhere.

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Plants evolve to fit their habitat and to accommodate the needs of their pollinators. Thus it should not surprise us that orchids which are pollinated by sunbirds (similar to hummingbirds) have developed a special perch where the birds can sit while sipping nectar.

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Nonnative plants can be ecological traps for native birds. Even though the birds may be attracted to them, they often do not provide sustenance for insects and other links in the food chain, thus reducing the health of the overall habitat and the birds' long-term survival chances.

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Debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami is still being cast ashore on Pacific islands. Recently, some of this debris has washed up on Hawaiian beaches.

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We think of Bohemian Waxwings as North American birds, larger and more northerly cousins of the Cedar Waxwings that visit us in winter. But these birds are also native to northern forests across Scandinavia and Russia. Recently birders in Norwich in the UK have been banding (or "ringing," as they would say) the wintering waxwings that have turned up there.

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A female Northern Shrike has returned to her wintering grounds in Wisconsin for at least the eighth consecutive winter. She is the oldest known individual of her species at 8.5 years.

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A new "garbage patch," an accumulation of floating plastic garbage, has been discovered in the South Pacific.

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The American Bird Conservancy reports that a nest of one of the most critically endangered birds in the world has been found in Brazil. The bird is the Stresemann's Bristlefront, the world population of which is thought to number less than 15 individuals.

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Around the backyard:

The nesting behavior of the Eastern Bluebirds continued to intensify this week. Just about any time I was in the backyard, I could observe the pair checking out one of the two bluebird nesting boxes on the south side of the yard.

 The female of the pair checks to be sure that this house meets her specifications.

The birds usually don't start nesting for several weeks yet. In fact, often, while they are trying to decide which  box to use, the early-nesting Carolina Chickadees will get in ahead of them and raise their family before the bluebirds have a chance to build their nest. It all seems to work out in the end though and I have no shortage of bluebirds or chickadees in my yard.

Wordless Wednesday: Nap time

This week in birds - #52

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

A Laughing Gull in winter dress dozes on a rock beside Galveston Bay this week. 

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The results are in and it wasn't even close: 2012 was the hottest year on record in the United States. Last year's average temperature of 55.3 degrees was a full degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous high set in 1998. There were 34,008 new record daily highs recorded in weather stations across the country.

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Global warming, though, does not just mean that the planet is getting hotter. It means that extreme weather of all kinds - heat, cold, flood, drought, storms - is becoming more commonplace worldwide. This is having a devastating effect on human health and safety, as well as economics.   

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The Lesser Prairie Chicken that is native to West Texas, an area of oil wells and wind farms, has declined drastically in numbers and the USFWS is studying whether it should be listed as endangered. A decision is expected by September. The listing of the bird could have very detrimental effects on the ability of those energy companies to conduct business as usual. 

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A new fossil discovery shows evidence that an ancient bird developed teeth that were specialized to deal with a tough diet. As Darwin showed with the finches of Galapagos, the beaks - and sometimes the teeth - evolve to handle the diet that is available.

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The USFWS has substantially increased the critical habitat territory for the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, a small bird indigenous to wetlands in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. The bird has been listed as endangered since 1995.

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As the Texas Legislature meets, one of the most pressing problems facing it is finding ways to improve the state's water infrastructure in the face of a booming population and a devastating two-year drought which continues to drag on.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list the Honduran Emerald Hummingbird as an endangered species. The population of the bird that is endemic to small valleys in Honduras is estimated to be under 1500 birds and is decreasing.

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A study has shown that urban birds are able to sing at a higher pitch in order to make themselves heard above traffic noise. The higher pitch automatically makes their songs sound louder.  

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One of the big stories in the human environment news this week was influenza. Federal health officials confirmed that the disease had reached epidemic proportions in the country, but, on the bright side, they saw indications that it had already peaked.

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Scientists continue to study the phenomenon of Western Scrub Jays' "funerals." When the birds encounter a dead bird of their species, they fly into the surrounding trees and call. Soon, jays from all over the area join them in a cacophonous display over their dead comrade. The reasons for this probably have to do with reaction to predators, but they are still not clearly understood. 

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South Florida, including the Everglades, is one of the most important breeding areas in the country for wading birds. It is worrying, therefore, to find that the breeding population of wading birds there has plummeted by 39 percent below the ten-year average. The decline is due primarily to the drought which has the region in its grip. 

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Around the backyard:

Around the backyard this week, the birds have been very hungry and very wet. We've had rain nearly every day, a total of just over four inches in all. I've had to refill all the feeders in the backyard twice to keep the ravenous birds satisfied. I even refilled the hummingbird feeders once.

At the end of the week, I am still hosting at least three Rufous Hummingbirds. Whenever I am in the backyard, I am entertained by their constant chatter. These are very vocal hummingbirds!

In the little time that I've spent in the yard in between rain showers, I can't help noticing that the Eastern Bluebirds seem to be beginning their courtship and their investigation of housing possibilities. Even the Carolina Wrens are thinking about nesting. I caught one with her beak full of twiggy nesting material one day this week! Yes, spring will be here before we know it and the birds are getting ready.

Anahuac - finally!

The cacophony of  thousands of Snow Geese greeted us as we arrived at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge yesterday morning for our twice-postponed January visit. We have a tradition of visiting the big refuge on Texas' upper coast on New Year's Day, but this year the weather was not cooperative and it had not been cooperative since then. Yesterday, there was a temporary break in the rainy weather and we decided to take advantage of it.

We arrived at the refuge on the tail of the day's last heavy downpour. The birds had certainly had their baths for the day. We saw evidence of that sitting on the entry gate.

This big hawk was waiting for the sun to come out and dry his feathers. He was so bedraggled, I wasn't sure of his identity, although I suspected he was a Red-tailed.

Nearby on a utility wire, an equally bedraggled American Kestrel was also hoping the sun would come out.

In the butterfly garden near the refuge entrance, I found my first real treasure of the day, a male Vermilion Flycatcher, who was happy to pose for me.

A little farther along the path, I found his pretty mate, too.

This White-crowned Sparrow apparently didn't get enough of a dousing in the rain. He plunged into a puddle and splashed around, then flew up into a tree to preen and dry off.

There were lots of White-crowned Sparrows about and among them were some like these. At first, I thought it was a different species, but upon more research, I decided that it was a first year bird that simply hadn't developed its white crown yet.

There were plenty of Eastern Phoebes around. They were doing their best to make a dent in the mosquito population, but they were badly outnumbered.

We stood and watched as skein after skein of Snow Geese passed overhead. It was impossible to count them, but my numbers man made his best estimate - 5,000. I'm sure there were at least that many. It seemed more like a million!

There were both white and blue phase geese present but the whites were more numerous.

What would a day on the coast be without a Great Egret or ten? This one was taking a stroll on the boardwalk.

There were big hawks everywhere in the refuge this day - Northern Harriers, Red-shouldered, Red-tailed. I was unsure of the identity of many of them, but I believe this one was a Red-tailed.

There were not too many shorebirds active in the areas that we visited. There was water everywhere - I've never seen so much water there - and that might have inhibited them. I did find a few Killdeer.

Both Brown and White Pelicans were present today. These Brown Pelican youngsters had found one of the few dry places to stand - the road.

The Neotropic Cormorants were loving all the water.  I found a large group of them splashing around, seemingly having a wonderful time, and managed to get three of them to pose for me.

A bit farther along, we saw one of their Double-crested cousins, standing in the middle of the road.

A Snowy Egret posed on a rock near the bay.

This magnificent hawk had gotten lucky. You can't see it because of the weeds, but he is clutching a snake in his talons. Lunch!

A Willet walked across the rocks searching for his lunch.

Of course, a day at Anahuac wouldn't be complete without seeing at least one alligator, and that's what we saw - one alligator. Also, a number of turtles, all of whom seemed intent on crossing the road.

We spent four hours birding at the refuge and came out with 47 species on our list. As always, I lamented the fact that the list could have been much longer but for the "ones that got away." But, also as always at Anahuac, it was a great day.

Wordless Wednesday: Pine Warbler

More winter hummers!

I stepped out into my backyard and into the middle of a war today. The hummingbirds were going nuts! The chittering noise and activity were incredible. It seemed like a lot for just two hummingbirds.

I sat down to watch for a while and quickly realized that it was not just two hummingbirds. There were at least three and possibly four involved in the conflicts. The little critters zip around so quickly that it's hard to absolutely confirm that there were more than three, but I saw three at the same time so I know there are at least that many.

I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures, but I really can't be sure if I was photographing new arrivals or my "regulars."

Well, this one I'm pretty sure is a regular because she's sitting on the favorite perch of my longest-term visitor. This female Rufous has been here at least since early September.

And this one, I believe, is the juvenile male who's been here for several weeks. This is the feeder that he considers his private preserve, the one where he regularly feeds throughout the day and from which he chases any interlopers.

But this one, half-hidden behind a grape leaf still clinging to the bare vines, may be one of the newcomers.

Regardless of how many there are, based on their voices alone, even though I haven't yet been able to get a good confirmed look at the newcomer(s?), I believe they are all Rufous Hummers. I would be thrilled beyond words to find something more exotic in my yard, but I know it isn't likely.

In an effort to reduce the conflict, I did pull out another sugar water feeder from my cabinet and filled and hung it in the magnolia tree. Maybe that will give me a better chance of actually getting the new bird or birds into my viewfinder so I can accurately identify them.

This week in birds - #51

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

"You lookin' at me?" 

A male Northern Cardinal enjoys a meal of sunflower seed hearts in my backyard this week. These seeds have proved to be a very popular menu item for my backyard birds.

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Once again emphasizing the potential for disaster that drilling for oil in the Arctic brings, a Shell oil rig that was being towed through the Gulf of Alaska broke free and ran aground on Sitkalidak Island. The good news is that so far the oil rig seems to be intact and is not yet leaking any fuel into the pristine waters.

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Meanwhile, Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico almost three years ago, leading to the biggest oil spill in the nation's history, has agreed to settle civil and criminal claims with the federal government for a sum of $1.4 billion.

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We've long known that the human brain responds to music in different ways based on the listener's emotions. Scientists have now determined that the same is true of birds listening to birdsong.

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Historically, there were three subspecies of one-horned (Javan) rhinoceroses in Southeast Asia. Now, with confirmation that the last of the Vietnamese rhinos has perished, there is only one subspecies left - the Sumatran, and they are critically endangered with only about 250 left in the wild.

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The Ring-necked Pheasant, an introduced species long popular with hunters in the Midwest, is disappearing from Iowa and those who hunt the birds are following. Loss of income from the hunter-tourists is having an economic impact on the area. The disappearance of the bird, in addition to hunting, is attributed mostly to loss of appropriate habitat.

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When I was in college, my freshman English literature class, at the behest of Mrs. Robinson our teacher, started a "Shakespeare Garden" on campus with the aim of planting an example of all the plants mentioned by Shakespeare. Now it seems that a painter has a similar goal. He is painting feathers of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare.

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The endangered Black Grouse is making an encouraging comeback in the UK. The surge in population is attributed to better monitoring and protection of habitat.

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It isn't only the Javan rhinoceros that is in trouble. Its African cousin is facing an unprecedented wave of poaching that is quickly reducing the continent's population of rhinos in spite of wildlife officials' best efforts to protect them. Several hundred of the animals were killed in 2012, and all the killers take from the carcass is the horn.

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The health of Chesapeake Bay, a very polluted body of water, has improved slightly according to a foundation which tracks such things. Even so, it would still only earn a grade of D+ according to those officials. Still, that's better than an F!

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Migratory bird deaths at oil and gas operation waste pits have been reduced by 50-75 percent in the last 15 years due to tighter regulations and monitoring. An estimated one-and-a-half million birds have been saved from a grisly death because of those regulations which some of our short-sighted and environmentally ignorant politicians would do away with if they could.

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Around the backyard:

It's been a cold and wet week, not really conducive to spending much time outside with the birds. Most of the birding that I've done has been from the porch or from windows. We even postponed our January trip to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge a second time because of the weather.

In spite of the weather though, there is no shortage of birds in the yard and at the feeders. I watched through my study window today as a constant parade of a variety of birds visited my front yard feeder. It was even visited by one bird who wasn't feeding but just using it as a perch.

This Eastern Phoebe has been a constant presence in the front yard this week. Every time I look up, there he is! He used the finial of the bird feeder today to perch and watch for insects.

It looks like the next several days will continue to be inclement and my "year list" will continue to lag. Oh, well, I'll just have to try to make up for it later.

First bird of 2013

What was your first bird of this new year? For me, it wasn't "bird" but birds - lots of them.

I stepped out onto my back porch in the early morning of New Year's Day to see a large flock of finches - goldfinches and siskins mixed - feeding at my backyard feeders and on the ground under the feeder. There were more than a hundred of the little birds. As I walked onto the porch, my movement startled them and they flew up into the trees, but as quickly as they left, another flock of similar size that had been waiting in the trees flew down to start feeding. I really couldn't say how many birds there were altogether, but there were easily at least two hundred and probably more than that.

An American Goldfinch waits in a nearby crape myrtle for an open spot at the feeders.

I stood and watched them for a while and imagined that I could see the seed levels going down in the feeders even as I looked! I knew I was soon going to have to replenish those feeders soon.

Today, I went out and refilled the sunflower seed hearts, nyger seeds, and mixed fruit and nuts. The mixed fruit and nuts feeder was empty and the levels of the others had declined drastically in the last few days. The cold weather this week has certainly made the birds hungry.

I don't really set goal numbers for seeing birds during a year. I just hope to see as many as I can. Normally, we start the year by traveling to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge for New Year's Day and that starts my yearly count off with a bang. We postponed the trip this year because of inclement weather. I'm hoping to go  down there on Saturday, weather permitting. Meantime, my bird totals for the year have only included backyard birds, but two of the most interesting of those were the first two species that I saw.

  American Goldfinch and Pine Siskin