when birds hit windows

This blog was not intended to be about dead birds, so I've attempted to keep such material out of the spotlight. However, FLAP.org has done an amazing thing. They've put together a guide to common dead birds of Toronto. And as expected, this makes me way too happy. You can click on the previous link to see FLAP's intro page and download the pdf. It's simply amazing.



(click the image for an article regarding Toronto's window legalities from thestar.com)

For a bit of background, FLAP is the Fatal Light Awareness Program - while I generalize my interests in "birds that hit windows," FLAP calls on skyscrapers and other tall city buildings to be responsible and turn off their lights at night during migration. FLAP has led the world in a thorough monitoring and rehab program which tracks mortality and survival rates. They have picked up 40,000+ birds since 1993 in the Toronto area alone... and they're barely at a pinch point if you're looking at migration movement for the continent!

Anyway, I'm completely thrilled to see that the awareness campaign isn't painted rosy colors with upright birds (even the Sibley IMBD poster design, below, is a bit subtle).


(image from surfbirds.com)

I was overjoyed when this poster came out, but people asked me what it was about - you can barely see the power lines, radio tower on top of the buildings, a bridge, wind turbine and, well, buildings.

Regardless, information is spreading and one of these days we might even consider ways to lessen our human impact before construction ever begins - to the point of not constructing things at all, and making due with what we already have. Ah, these lofty dreams of responsible humans.

Go forth, for the betterment of humanity and the planet upon which we live.

Black Friday

In the true spirit of consumerism, commercialism and materialism Black Friday, Matt and I were up at the crack of mid-morning and wrangling a parking spot before breakfast. Yep, Matt was out of coffee so we hit the HEB on our way to the park. So much for 100% celebration of Buy Nothing Day

Seriously though, Anakin hadn't been to the park in a while and Matt and I certainly needed the change of pace after two weeks of hectic work. Ah, stick-chasing.



Anakin's first find was a bark clump that he carried with him while running after other sticks, and it made for some lovely photo ops. The cool, bright morning really energized the little waggler and brought out the "golden" (if not the retrieving). We all found something cool to look at among the driftwood by the lake - and we even posed with the biggest stick we could find.



There were American Snouts absolutely everywhere and flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtles until proven Audubon's) were flycatching after them all over the place. One stray American White Pelican flew over along with one Osprey, several Forester's Terns and Ring-billed Gulls added to the mix. As we were neither birding nor bugging, we didn't really keep track of diversity or numbers. Wrens and chickadees and cardinals were heard, but the focus was definitely on wet paws and stick carrying, chasing and exploring. Sooo many sticks. Happy puppy.



Very happy puppy.

After this year's roller coaster of events, Thanksgiving has taken on a few new meanings this year. Being thankful for family has meant, now, two families and a flock of relatives who have supported and nurtured us through some very rough times. Being thankful for friends has taken on the lighter tones of tailgating with futile hopes for Baylor. However, much of this year's consolation also came from friends... and we count ourselves most fortunate to have eliminated the CA/TX, Waco/Abilene distances that kept us from being closer in supporting each other.

Immediately in mind, of course, is Laura. Her wisdom and guidance were impeccable throughout the year that Matt and I were two time zones apart. She was as much a friend and confidant as birding companion and biologist. The Packer family has come to be very important to both of us and it is not often with dry eyes that we reminisce.



Here's one, taken by my sister, in front of the blind now named for Laura

Indeed, as much as the Packers have been friends (and quite nearly family to us), Charmaine and Collins Ganson have kept us under their wing during our frequent trips to Houston to check on my parents. Whoever coined the phrase, "friends are the family you choose," certainly knew what they were talking about.

While the aforementioned roller coaster sure had a lot of screaming free-falls, there were gracious buoys of love and adventure across the country (FL and NM come to mind) while we both tried to figure out the job market. Or lack thereof. It is easy to discount a zoo as being the coolest place to work (except when you're actually working at one), but for the first time since 2006, I'm actually getting paid to work full time with live animals. Even healthy, uninjured live ones. Ones that are in no way, shape or form subjected to manmade hazards in the wild (just in captivity). For now, Matt and I have swapped "underemployment" status and it seems to be the price we pay for actually being in the same place - and it turns out that the Abilene wind farm gig would have ended in late October, so it's not like I missed out on a hypothetical four year contract when I left. There are definitely a few more uncounted blessings there...

Whew, long post, kudos for getting this far! I hope everyone had a happy, delicious Thanksgiving and safe travels.



Very happy people.

blatant promotion

The Moth and Me is now up! It's the last for 2009, and it will be a long winter until March and April when it returns...

Leather-colored Bird Grasshopper

The general rule of thumb in the bird/bug world is that the more names it has, the cooler it is. Names are made from words that are generally colors, sizes, abundances, generalizations or any combination of all of the above. On occasion a reference to vocalization is made as well.

Example #1: Common Grackle. How abundant? Common. What kind of bird? Grackle (probably also a bit of a vocalization reference there).

Example #2: House Sparrow. Two words that describe a drab, abundant, small, brown sparrow.

Example #3: Blue-throated Goldentail. Heck, you don't even need to know it's a hummingbird because your brain is already swirling in a magical land of sparkles and whatever this hawk-chicken (pork-cow?) is, it's probably capable of excreting rainbows.

Brings to mind Great, Middle and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.

This brings us to October's yard-bug, better late than never. Leather-colored Bird Grasshopper (Schistocerca alutacea) is the common name for a grasshopper that's huge and kind of brown. It even flies a bit like a bird (Matt found it before it launched itself across the yard, where I photographed it).



This creature definitely has a subtle grace and quite a presence - it veerrryyyy sllooowwwwlllllyyyyyy tried to make an escape, by walking up the fence. Due to my inability to weed out any single image from the next three shots, I offer thumbnails.



If you had to give this one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater grasshopper a name, what would it be? Would you name it for the yellow stripe down its back and bright antennae? Would you even call it a grasshopper, or a spike-legged catapulter? A brownish vaulting yellow-stripe? If you don't find those names too outrageous, well, we'll keep the blog family friendly and simply refer you to the Great Thick-knee. Nope, it's not a hippo.

Friday at the Wetlands

Yesterday's butterfly list wasn't too bad for a breezy day, nor was the bird list bad at all. In fact, the water was low enough that there were shorebirds among the ducks! The photos below indicate water levels and a team of birders in wader garb... whilst scanning the mud flats, we noticed an American White Pelican by itself, wings limp and head back. I ran back to the office and was graciously outfitted with waders by Nora, the site coordinator. Matt even volunteered to schlep into the mire with me to investigate the unresponsive pelican.



In the photo below (L), you can barely see a lump of pelican out on the flat. Once back on the trail, we examined the critter - no external signs of injury, nothing broken or tangled. It's a relief to see that the critter was not apparently suffering at the end, nor did we have to wrestle a stressed and injured bird out of the muck.



Unfortunately, there's not much to offer in terms of scale. This Osprey is about as close as I can get for now. (It's a collision bird from Abilene, I tried to pick the least graphic photo.) The pelican's feet more than covered my palm and the beak/head length was about from my elbow almost to fingertips.

DISCLAIMER: State and federal permits are required to handle/move/possess native bird species per the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act. I have the appropriate permits. If you're interested in "saving" a dead bird, it needs to be done through a permitted entity (most large colleges, natural history museums, etc).

Until next time, here's a lovely mystery spider:



EDIT: here's the bird portion of the post!

L. Waco Wetlands 6 Nov. 09, Ross' Goose, American Bittern and Avocet

Location: Lake Waco Wetlands
Date: 06 Nov 09
Time: 0845-1230

Notes: ROSS' GOOSE, 1, seen flying overhead for a little over 5 minutes. We'll gladly submit an RBA if needed.
Plegadis spp Ibis, 11, assumed White-faced. Water level extremely low, exposing expanses of mud; and shorebird species presence responded.
AMERICAN AVOCET, 1
AMERICAN BITTERN, 1
CRESTED CARACARA, 2, soared over northern portion.
Vacated the area heading north.

Full species list in order of encounter:

American White Pelican, 45
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Osprey
Belted Kingfisher
Red-tailed Hawk, 2
Killdeer, many
Neotropic Cormorant, 12, pretty much all sporting breeding plumage
White-throated Sparrow
Lincoln Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Marsh Wren
Great Egret
Double-crested Cormorant
American Coot, 100's
Turkey Vulture
Pied-billed Grebe
Plegadis spp. ibis, 11
Ring-billed Gull
Great Blue Heron
Northern Cardinal
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Brown-headed Cowbird
European Startling
Red-winged Blackbird
Gadwall
Redhead
Common Yellowthroat
American Bittern, 1
Black Vulture
Ross' Goose, 1
Mallard
Greater Yellowlegs, 6
Northern Shoverler
American Avocet, 1
Northern Pintail, 50+
Lincoln Sparrow, 2
Crested Caracara, 2
Cooper's Hawk, 1 adult
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Long-billed Dowitcher, FOS, 24
Vesper Sparrow
American Widgeon
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warblers(Myrtle), we didn't work too hard drawing out all
the small chips or we would have listed more of the usual suspects
listed in previous weeks
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

***

Whew, it's definitely not summer anymore and birds are on the move! The Ross's Goose was a peculiar little fellow. We were watching an aerial tower of pelicans slooowly shifting and circling (it felt like home) when a tiny, flapping, gull-sized, black-and-white figure cut through the formation. It was lucky to be Mallard sized, with a very round head and barely a beak to speak of... hence, a Ross's Goose. A Snow Goose would have been expected, but the size and profile would have been significantly larger. In typical "good bird" fashion, the Ross's never slowed nor stopped. C'est la vie.

I'm done with this post now, I promise =)

(un)Common Buckeye

A condensed summary of yesterday's butterfly notes, per Matt:

Observers: Matthew York, Heidi Trudell
Location: Lake Waco Wetlands
Date: 06 Nov 09
Time: 0845-1230

Butterflies included:
Empress Leilia, a nice lep for this far north
Fiery Skipper
Dun Skipper
American Snout, 100's a-migratin'
Red Admiral
Common Buckeye, one individual had a seriously trippy genetic color deviation, completely dull-red on both underside hindwings
Little Yellow
Cloudless Sulphur
Painted Lady
Sleepy Orange
Gulf Fritillary
Queen
Variegated Fritillary
Phaon Crescent
Clouded Sulphur

***

I shall reply to my own post...

Regarding a note on the Common Buckeye individual I researched and took this excerp:

"Many autumn individual ("dry season") Common Buckeyes show rich brick red (often described as rose-red) under hindwings"

***

The text above was posted (along with a bird list) to the Central Tx Audubon list, and the photos below are to be taken in context with the post. Starting, of course, with the startling Common Buckeye who impressed us so much (the bold text in the list is mine, added for emphasis).



Here's the top view of any normal Common Buckeye, which this one appears to be. Generally you also expect the wings, when folded, to continue the drab grayish coloration (sans markings). The photo on the right betrays a hint of warm rusty color underneath. Brace yourself!



Holy seasonal-variation, Batman! That thing is BRIGHT. And gorgeous. And remarkably cooperative, for a buckeye (who are notoriously skittish). Neither of us has ever, to our knowledge, encountered this morph before. Perhaps Texas isn't a prime location for fall colors, so this fallen leaf mimic is in sub-prime habitat. Regardless, we're thrilled to see such a stunning creature (not to mention, wondering how we've missed this morph in the past if they're supposedly common).

Now, for two mini-portraits - Empress Lelia and Matt:



The Empress is deceased and Matt is reflected in a window. I'm familiar with insects bumping into windows, but this coincidental location (dead butterfly in front of a highly reflective window) doesn't seem causal in the demise of the empress. Tis a window, after all. Not a windshield.

Now for your upside-down Red Admiral of the day:



...it's always fun to see variations on normal things (melanism in Least Sandpipers, for example) but it's not always easy to document the sightings or research how common the variations are. The internet now allows folks to document partially albinistic sparrows and follow up on leucistic hummingbirds. Have you spotted any of these anomalies in your yard? Or were you startled to learn that red morph Eastern Screech Owls actually DO exist? (I was quite certain they were imaginary, like Black Rails and Henslow's Sparrows)

Let us know (or send us pictures), we'd love to hear about the critters that keep you on your toes!

sapsucker, meet "c-trail"

We met at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in February of 2006. I'd jumped at the chance to kill time in the Rio Grande Valley while waiting for my transcripts to get sorted out (they never did), so I was a bird walk/canoe trip minion at Matt's weekend haunt.

In January of 2006, a wayward Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) turned up at SANWR's "Pintail Lakes" near "C-trail." The winter range in Texas is pretty much the El Paso area, so the bird was quite unexpected. It wasn't until the 5th or 6th of February that I was able to hit the trails and see it, so Matt and I can place our meeting sometime shortly after that, but before Feb 25th, when it was last reported (thanks to Mary Gustafson for the sleuthing!)

Here's a link to a decent refuge map. On the map, you can see that the rightmost highlighted trail is "C-trail" and to the right of the "Pintail Lakes" label is an uncolored circle... that circle is the body of water along which the Red-naped Sapsucker was being seen. It, of course, was on the east side of the pond and the viewers were stuck on the path on the west side, just to the north of the official "C-trail" route.

Ever since early 2008 I've been looking through boxes in Houston, unsuccessfully, for a photo of the bird that brought us together. Jim, one of the refuge volunteers, had printed out a photo for me and autographed it upon request. It only resurfaced about a week into October when I dug up a box that had a lot of paperwork from college and it was tucked in with a few other photos from friends (one of whom is now my regional e-bird editor! *waves at Chris*)




...there it is. The "wayward sapsucker" that collided these lives. I should dig up a photo of the birders who went to Nick's wedding, since that was the group that caused the second bumping-into and ultimately led to exchange of phone numbers. There might even be a photo of a certain Green Violet-ear or soggy Heidi from Colorado Bend State Park to add to the mix.

For now, however, The Wayward Sapsucker portrait should suffice.

bugguide

Matt has gotten me distracted by bugguide.net on occasion - here's a snippet of what can happen when people contribute to citizen science.

When we were in Kerrville at the end of September, we found and photographed a large, green caterpillar on the house where we stayed. Unable to come up with an ID on our own, Matt submitted the image to bugguide, where some helpful folks narrowed the ID.

Drab Prominent Moth (Misogada unicolor) caterpillar

...check out the link above - it has fake antennae/eye stalks on its rear end! Pretty snazzy, eh? So if a bird/bug aims for what it thinks is the head, it's only a bit off the rump that goes missing. Kind of like the hairstreak butterflies and swallowtails as well - better to lose a showy wing extension than your head! If the critter is thought to be a slug, with the fake eye stalks, it's still doing pretty well... but a green slug mimic? Pretty crazy.

Here's an adult Drab Prominent Moth from bugguide:




Another of Matt's previous caterpillars, a Hemileuca is also in the bugguide archives, but it is a far fancier creature and looks like quite the formidable opponent!

It's interesting to see how the internet is making ID a rapid, paperless process. Photos and human opinions are now outweighing wordy descriptions and otherwise scarce (as well as incomplete) resources. Yet we still have so far to go.

"There's A Hair In My Dirt"

Oh, Gary. Yesterday's mail included There's A Hair In My Dirt! A Worm's Story by Gary Larson. It came via Paperbackswap.com, which rocks my little world.



This is an absolute gem that must be read without a beverage, lest it be laughed out the nose. Laughing any beverage out of one's nose can be remarkably painful. Here's the wiki summary:

There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story is a short illustrated story of a worm who feels his life is insignificant. The main plot is told by the young worm's father and follows a beautiful maiden named Harriet, who takes a stroll across a woodland trail encountering different aspects of the natural world. She admires it, but knows little about the land around her, and that eventually leads to her downfall.

...so, yes, go forth and procure a copy to read the best bedtime story ever!

how to get rid of grackles

How do I get rid of grackles?
How does a city get rid of grackles?

Wait, what's the actual underlying question here?
Why are grackles even a problem to begin with?

Abilene, Waco, Houston, Austin, this post is for you. Cities with "too many grackles" in general - this post is for you.

Back on Oct. 9, this column by Gary Clark showed up in the Houston Chronicle. Yesterday's HouChron gem of blog wisdom was more of a cry for help. Tis a response, of course, to yesterday's snippet of "Trained falcon fails to rid downtown Houston of grackles." Ya think? There is no miracle cure, folks.

Shall we look at what makes grackles a problem?
Power line roosts (along streets, near parking lots)
Car-poop
Parking lot trees (leading to car-poop)

Basically, human-induced perching options along human infrastructures leads to human inconvenience (health threat potential as well as aesthetic nuisance) about human personal transportation options. Wait, wait. Mass transit doesn't sit around all day getting pooped on. Carpool and only one person's car gets pooped on. Cut back on the number of power lines and you cut down the available perching space. Those little trees in the parking lots? Pretty feeble human attempts to appease the sun baked parking lot curse.

The overlying theme? Humans. You can blame Great-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) for a lot of things, but it ultimately all boils down to homo sapiens. Take the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), for example. You wipe out the bison, you fence in the prairies, you disrupt a pattern of natural rhythms... and then suddenly Brown-headed Cowbirds become an overwhelming pressure on certain other songbirds - a pressure that didn't exist when their overall patterns mirrored the bison.

Right, so we were discussing the grackles. Grackles will follow in the footsteps of humans as long as we keep creating awesome habitat for them. Only when we modify our surroundings will it impact them. Older neighborhoods in Houston that are packed with huge oaks and diversely landscaped properties don't have the grackle problem. Yet a block away, the strip malls are laden with epic proportions of feathered scapegoats. Think about it. Plan for a different impact. "Open" urban plan designs that call for mowed grass or parking lots with scarce vegetation may not be the answer for everything. Nature had a pretty nice landscape worked out before we went and urbanized it - grackles had a nice niche in the world as well, before we vilified them.

Now, go forth and admire the super adaptable creatures who have exploited human-made loopholes. After all, we're an awful lot like them.