Wordless Wednesday: Anhinga

Mama bluebird

Mama bluebird feeding her four babies. A mother's work is never done!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

This week in birds - #20

(Owen Deutsch photo of male Painted Bunting courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.)

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Painted Bunting. This is a bird of concern because its numbers are declining primarily because of loss or degradation of habitat. It is also vulnerable to cowbird parasitism. 

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I told you last week about the Bald Eagle in Philadelphia that had been found injured, suffering from lead poisoning, from being shot, and apparently from being hit by a car. Its fate was still in the balance at the time I reported on it. Good news! The bird has now recovered sufficiently that it was able to be released back into the wild.

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A lot of media outlets with the sense of humor of middle-school boys have been having a lot of fun this week with a scientific paper that propounded the idea that dinosaur farts may have affected the climate of Earth, helping to keep it moderate enough to sustain an environment that was friendly for dinosaurs.

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The Mockingjay was a fictional genetically engineered bird in the popular The Hunger Games trilogy. But is such a bird actually possible?

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The invasive brown tree snake has been a catastrophe for native wildlife on many Pacific islands where it has been accidentally introduced. Now Guam is waging an all-out war on the snake. One of the weapons in their arsenal is mice laced with acetaminophen. It's a pain-killer for humans but is a deadly poison for snakes. 

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In other Pacific island news, the endangered Hawaiian goose, the Nene, has rebounded in recent years but the state is still carefully protecting its state bird as it makes its comeback. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year moving birds away from areas where they might be in danger, such as areas near runways of airports. 

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The cause or causes of the deaths of dolphins and seabirds that continue to wash up on the beaches of northern Peru has still not been determined, although authorities theorize that the sea mammals may have died from a virus and that the birds could have been victims of starvation.

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Lakes in the undeveloped High Peaks area of Adirondack Park in the Northeast are covered with ice for significantly shorter periods than they were just 32 years ago. Scientists say that the most pristine lakes in the area are the most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

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In more news of global warming,  new research has shown that a sector of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is at risk of melting within the century.  

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Birds with more than one color variation are likely to evolve and split into different species faster than birds that have a single color morph, according to scientists. 

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Around the backyard:

A female Downy Woodpecker searches for insects to feed her hungry babies, next to a series of parallel lines of holes drilled by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers last winter. 

All around the yard this week the main business of Mama and Papa birds has been keeping those wide-open  beaks of their nestlings stuffed with insects. They work from dawn to dusk, flying themselves ragged to keep their families fed. In a few weeks, the nestlings will be fledglings and then, soon, they'll be on their own, and Mama and Papa can take a well-earned rest.

To all Mamas out there, I hope you will enjoy a well-earned rest this weekend. Happy Mothers' Day! 

Wordless Wednesday: Suspended

This week in birds - #19

The colorful Purple Gallinules have returned to the area for this summer. Look for them in wet, boggy areas especially at state parks and wildlife refuges. I caught this one with my camera at Brazos Bend State Park.

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The effort to establish another flock of Whooping Cranes in the wild, the Wisconsin/Florida flock, continues to be tenuous, but there are hopeful signs. In order for the flock to be self-sustaining, the first order of business is that the birds pair up and reproduce. There was good news on that front this week when it was announced that a chick had hatched in the wild in Wisconsin.

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Historical climate data assembled with the help of a NASA researcher shows that spring is actually coming earlier than the controlled climate change experiments have indicated. Birds are nesting earlier and plants are flowering earlier each year than was true in the past.

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As more evidence of the advancing of spring, the Wandering Albatrosses that nest on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia are now nesting an average of 2.2 days earlier than they did in past years, according to the scientists that study them. 

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Scientists have postulated that the extinction of species, resulting in biodiversity loss, is just as big a threat to the environment as climate change, and that, in fact, this loss is one of the factors that is driving the rapid heating up of the earth.

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A Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania has shown a remarkable tenacity for life. The bird was found recently in a pool of blood in a parking lot there. An examination by veterinarians of the wildlife services that rescued it showed that the bird was suffering from lead poisoning, that it had been shot with BB pellets, and that it had likely been hit by a car. It was barely alive when found and its life still hangs in the balance as wildlife rehabbers try to bring it back from the brink. They say they don't yet know if the eagle will survive. I'm betting on the bird. 

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A new interactive map by the American Bird Conservancy shows areas where birds are most likely to be harmed by the placement of wind farms. It is hoped that this will be a tool in better planning for placement of the turbines in spots that will be less deadly to birds.

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The development of natural gas fields in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is pushing the pronghorn antelope out of its traditional wintering grounds. This could result in a population decline of this iconic animal of the West.

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Renewable energy sources are being more widely used in many states throughout the country over the past decade, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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Ornithologists in Peru are investigating the mysterious deaths of some 600 seabirds, including pelicans and boobies, that have washed up on the beaches in the north of that country. This comes after a finding of mass deaths among dolphins in the same area.   

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Heavyweight trees measuring three feet or more in diameter accounted for nearly half the biomass measured in Yosemite National Park even though trees of that size represented only about one percent of the trees growing in the park.

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Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species protection for the declining Black-backed Woodpecker. Ironically, the bird is declining because of the reduction in forest fires in its habitat. This bird likes to feed on the larvae of beetles that attack trees that have been through a fire.

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If you think tonight's full moon appears larger and brighter than the normal full moon, you're right. It's a Supermoon! The moon averages about 230,000 miles from the earth, but tonight's moon will be only 221,802 miles away at its closest point. That's 12.2 percent closer than the beautiful orb is when it is at its farthest point from our planet. It looks like it will be a clear night, so get outside and have a look!

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Around the backyard: For the last couple of years, I've not noticed any Common Nighthawks over my yard during migration. Imagine my pleasure then when, late Wednesday afternoon, just before dusk, I was outside and heard two of their familiar voices up above. I looked up to see the two circling in the area, enjoying their late day meal of flying insects. More power to them!

And here come the orioles!

I was mulching some beds in the front yard this morning when I heard a "chuk" followed by a melodious song coming from my magnolia tree in the backyard. I immediately recognized it at an oriole song, but, for just a moment, I couldn't remember if it was an Orchard or a Baltimore Oriole. Then my brain cramp cleared and I remembered. Yes, it was the Orchard Oriole, smallest member of that family that visits us and certainly one of the most welcome.

This is not a particularly good picture, but at least you can see the brick red and black pattern of the bird's coloring which is very distinctive. The Orchard is more conservatively colored than some of its cousins, including the Baltimore and the Altamira, but even so, it is flashy enough to leave no question as to which family it belongs. Also, notice that strong, black beak and think of the Red-winged Blackbird. Yes, blackbirds, too, are cousins of orioles although you might never guess it by some of their raucous "songs"!

Red-winged Blackbird, for comparison.

And this lovely bird you would almost think is a separate species altogether, but, in fact, it is a female Orchard Oriole. I caught her with my camera at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge just about a year ago. I didn't see one of these today because they don't announce their presence like the males, but I suspect there are some around. These birds generally nest in my neighborhood, although as far as I know, I've never had one nest in my yard. But hope springs eternal in the Backyard Birder's heart! 

Wordless Wednesday: Female bluebird subdues her lunch!