Birding Diary

Bald Eagles in Robert E. Lee Park

2011-05-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

It was not the first time I had seen one. My previous experience was about two years ago and the circumstances similar. I had entered Robert E. Lee Park from the northwestern entrance on Falls Road and hiked (slowly) for about 40 minutes; it takes time to stop and examine the wildflowers, butterflies and dragon flies.

Down the path and across the trestle bridge (where I saw an Eastern King Snake sunning itself) then down the slope that leads to a path along one of the streams that eventually empty into the Jones Falls went I. Oh was it hot and not yet 9:00 am. It was Memorial Day.

I was hoping to find marsh birds and wading birds and shore birds but not one did I see that morning. There were no Sandpipers nor were there Kildeers. Instead there were the rather brash and conversational Red Winged Blackbirds. They are attractive and interesting but plentiful and so my imagination was not piqued. There a million Robins I suppose but there are nearly that many in my neighborhood. No Yellow Legs or Green Herons though.

I went to my favorite spot which is a cement slab about 15"x15" that looks out upon the confluence of a couple of streams the names of which I do not remember. On my way to getting there I could hear a large number of Carp jumping out of the water to nail a morsel of the low flying dragon flies. As I trekked I was reminded of a similar event in which I got to that slab of cement and laid down hoping to photograph one of those Carp as they jumped. I failed at that and failed to photograph a spectacular scene only about 25 feet overhead. As I laid on the slab I could see in the water's reflection, a swooping Bald Eagle as it grabbed one of the unfortunate Carp out of the waters and flew off. The reflection was about as cool a bird image as could be and I was able to rise up an follow the Eagle as it flew off laden with a large lunch but I could not photograph it. It was an exhilarating moment none the less.

Those memories were brought back to me as I heard the splashing of exuberant and hungry Carp jumping about. I always take some time at this slab to sort of meditate which may be called wishful thinking. I never scan the area and leave if there is nothing interesting to see, I need to spend 10 or 20 minutes there because things can change.

As I entered my zen like moments just enjoying the presence of being there I was interrupted by a noise that I had heard but could not identify. It was sort of a shrill scream not the sort one would associate with America's symbol, but thathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif is how it is. I did not immediately know what it was but as a birder I had to find out.

As fate, kismet and fortune would have it, about 15 feet above me on a branch, in clear view against a crystalline azure sky was a Bald Eagle and I had my camera. So I snapped off as many photos as I could failing to catch it in flight but satisfied with the several regal poses that I was able to secure.

Maybe it is motivated by some sort of patriotism. That term has been exploited by the less than conservative Neo-Cons these days; maybe it is a joy that was once considered endangered as a species is again thriving; maybe it is simply the excitement that such a regal species finds a habitat only a couple of miles from my home, none the less I was really excited to see and record a Bald Eagle a few feet above me.

Here is one of the shots I took of it on May 30, 2011.

Something you don't see everyday...unless you are looking.

2011-05-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

If one looks at birds and their behavior every day, they will see trends that no one else comes upon. Since I read a lot of literature about bird behavior (I am better as a researcher than a real birder) I have learned that Chickadees have alert signals to their tribe (to steal a Darwin term for species) about potential peril. They have a signal for ground animals such as cats or raccoons that differs from the signal given if a hawk is spotted. This signal lets their brethren know which way to protect them.

Another article that I read described a study that had students’ deliberately tough Mockingbird eggs in nests on their campus. The study indicated that the Mockingbirds identified the interlopers and dive bombed them as they walked the campus; the birds were able to single out the students specifically and did not bother other students. This went on for several weeks suggesting that the Mockingbirds targeted those that they identified as the interlopers. This in my mind is absolutely fascinating-the study found that the birds were able to do facial recognition. I read this article many years after wondering why I was so harassed by Mockingbirds while on my deck or mowing the lawn. The study suggested that I had somehow encroached their nesting territory. I probably did.

In the house that I have lived in four years now I do a lot of backyard bird observation and have noticed that particularly, House Sparrows take umbrage at the sight of Grackles coming to the feeder in the summer. There are many Sparrows to the infrequent Grackle visitor. So at a ratio of about 20-1 (I did not count exactly) the Sparrows ganged up on the Grackles and in short order the latter just flew off. It simply was not worth the hassle I told myself.

As I arrived home from work this afternoon I heard an irritated chirp coming from a single Robin in my yard. It was long and consistent. I saw that there was a cat in my yard and chose to observe the events. That Robin it seems was making a call to arms as within about twenty minutes I had some twenty or more robins in the yard and they chose to dive bomb the cat who by now was actually cowering. It appears as if they had a sentinel standing guard to let the locals know of this impending peril. The Robins were relentless and the cat stuck close to the ground. Finally it escaped the yard and the activity stopped…until the cat returned an hour or so later. The whole drama replayed itself.

I did not read about this in an article, I simply watched it. I have no studies or statistics to back up my claim but I am confident that like so many other birds, Robins have ways to protect their own (derivatively other species as well) from cat predation. It was pretty impressive and next time I’ll take a video of the event.

Silence of the Songbirds by Bridget Strutchbury

2011-05-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Silence of the Songbirds by Bridget Stutchbury, New York, Walker and Company, 2007 256 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8027-1691-0

As an ornithologist, Strutchbury divides her time mostly between Toronto and western Pennsylvania (with field trips nestled in). She uses the songbird as a method of tracking the history and progression of species decline. She has written a personalized scientific monograph to describe the ecology of the oscine. That suborder of the passerine is capable of learning and memorizing songs of their fathers and then writing their own. It is a fascinating group of avian and the author laments their decline from several perspectives. Since all species are in this life together, as they decline our human lives are weakened.

The skeptic will demure and suggest that there is no relationship between the fate of some warbler and the flycatcher. Any understanding of symbioses will point out concepts like food chains or the adaptive reliance of one species on another (or more). There is a simple scientific reality going on.

Likewise there is a political and economic fact of life going on. As we sprawl out in our neighborhoods and in our farm practices we eat up the habitat of many creatures including the songbird. It is all for short term gain, maybe a generation or so. As trees (read habitat) are sawn and mountain tops sheared a less habitable environment exists for the flora and fauna (which includes humans). Rebirth of a species does not happen. The human gain from such activities is simply too brief to equivocate the actions with the outcomes.

Strutchbury captures the entire ecology of songbirds by outlining six reasons for their decline. Deforestation in places such as Central America has changed winter habitats dramatically. Strutchbury makes the scientific case that the alpha male birds get the prime residences in forest land and that the younger ones are left with the hinterlands. Not only does this leave them more available to predators but it also deprives them of the foodstuffs required for the calories needed for spring migration. These birds leave for their nesting destinations in weaker conditions and are more likely never to make it to a nest at all.

She makes a case for best coffee growing practices. Those would be the shade grown beans. Those who savor their java read the labels of the local offerings and see quite a few options often tugging at their morality. Organic for instance sounds right to many of us but should we delve deeper into what the appellation “organic” means we may find that it can be unsavory. The author is concerned with the symbiosis of speciation more than any other motivation and her case is that shade grown coffee is ultimately better because it adds to the diversity of life. It creates a good environment for healthy wintering birds.

Pesticides have had a devastating impact on bird life and it seems to be an issue that actually has talons as governments everywhere have recognized that pesticides have impacted the conditions for many animals, not just birds. Pesticide bans internationally have rallied several endangered species back to healthy numbers. This includes our national symbol, the Bald Eagle.

She discusses a growing concern regarding species loss that is now becoming a louder issue. Migrating birds are dying in large numbers as they migrate through urban North America. Since their patterns of migration occur at night, they use earth’s magnetic forces as well as stars and the moon for guidance. Urban areas have historically been pleasing to the eye with grand nightscapes. Buildings would keep their lights on all night in order to make their city look glamorous to the visitor. This has led to migration confusion and woodland birds caught in the city by the lights have been killed and injured by flying into windows. This problem has alerted many conservationists in the last few years and many cities have volunteers going out to collect bodies and to secure injured birds for transport to people who are trained at rehabilitation. In Baltimore where I live there is a very active group called Lights Out Baltimore which I am proud to be an active member.

On the local scene where breeding occurs we have the same problems as Central America. As we sprawl further and further into exurbia we encroach upon nesting grounds and compromise the populations of many species. We entrap both birds and predators into smaller habitat creating a situation whereby both predator and prey are forced to more dramatic lifestyles in order to survive.

Lastly she presents the hardest to handle circumstance leading to population loss. Pet cats and Cowbirds are menacing our songbirds. Her argument is weakest here though it remains compelling. It is true that cats prey on birds (more for fun than nourishment) and that preventative measures need to be taken but that is a tough argument to make in America in 2011. Cats go outdoors and do their feline thing and owners are not likely to try to keep an outdoor cat indoors. It requires a lot of attentiveness and we are not known for that. As to the cowbirds, those Mafiosi of the avian world, she describes a situation that is detailed with the nefarious nature of the bird (you’ll have to read the book if you do not already know). It is very interesting the depths that this bird will go to have its offspring raised by other species. The problem is that in the various blogs I am privy to there is an overwhelming number of articles indicating that songbirds and other species have adaptation skills allowing them to thwart the ill intentions of the cowbird. I am less convinced of the critical peril presented by cowbirds than the other circumstances that Strutchbury describes.

The author shows the conditions of song bird species decline from a mix of objective scientific reality and the emotional morality that comes from simply loving birds. This works well for this reader because any problem needs to be fixed due to the objective problem it causes. Yet all of us have a heart that we use to attend to our subjective nature and mine includes bird life.

For Strutchbury birds act as a bellwether for our whole way of life. As species populations become smaller their ability to maintain becomes more fragile. The gene pool is smaller affecting their diversity but they also are then more prone to catastrophes such as disease or conditions such as hurricanes.

Species diversity means many things to people. Certainly I want future generations to appreciate in this case, seeing live birds. More importantly we all live in an ecological niche that depends on other life forms. Ignoring dying populations of avian life may seem mundane but all living things have a reliance on all other living things regardless of how remote that may seem.

Yellow Crowned Diary

2011-03-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2011
Of course the birds are long gone but I wanted to spend a few moments of this fine day to see if enough leaves have fallen to be able to count the nests from the bridge. They had not but I wanted a photo of one of them for a discussion group.

September 4, 2011
There is not much to report. I took my daughter to the site and we could only see a few of the nests as the leaves are still too abundant. The birds of course are long gone. I'll check back in a month to see if enough leaves have fallen to view the many nests from the bridge. I'll let you know.

July 17, 2011
I was camping at Point lookout last weekend and therefore missed the final fledgling of the season. The youngest threesome were nowhere to be seen on this visit...nor were any others. It was a good spring, none of the hatchlings died. They all looked healthy and were maturing as one would expect.

I'm not sure where they head to but since a few miles north is a popular Yellow Crowned Night Heron summer resort. It is Robert Lee Park where I have visited many times but not during the last 19 months as it has been closed. It was there on the banks of the 150 year old man made falls that represent the headwaters of the Jones Falls that I have seen copious numbers of Yellow Crowns both mature and otherwise. I have also seen both in the stream that runs through the Mount Washington neighborhood of Baltimore but none were there when I looked early Sunday morning.

I am determined to keep a routine vigilance of the rookery despite its desertion. When this blog is complete it will be about a year and a half because I am interested in the early mating season towards the end of winter.

I'll keep you posted.
July 2, 2011
From my vantage point on the bridge overlooking The Jones Falls, I can see four nests, obscured as they are by dense foliage. In two of the nests I can no longer see any activity. I have to guess that the new birds have fledged and are out their learning to eat real food by watching their parents along nearby streams.

In the other two nests the hatchlings remain but are actively touring the large branches. They do some sunning and stretching their wings.

June 25, 2011
As usual I go to the park to check the new borns out pretty early in the morning. Its cooler and there is less traffic. For a while the dense foliage obscured the view from the bridge but the young ones are growing fast. They are not ready to fly as their wings are not developed enough. That at least is how I surmise it. They do a lot of wing stretching and there is a lot of gap in the feathers at this point.

From underneath the nests there is a lot more to view. It is not possible (at least with my technology) to get a good photo as the trees canopy the area into a nice cool shady spot. Here is a photo of a few of the young ones taken this morning.

June 19, 2011
I was out of town last week but got out to Stieff early this morning. This time with a friend in tow who not only enjoyed the hatchlings but also saw her first Baltimore Oriole which are regular visitors to the area. The hatchlings appear healthy and the nests intact.

With lush foliage one can only see four nests from the bridge but climbing down into the park below one can see seven nests.

After a good long walk we hiked up to Druid Hill Park and I was exposed to a path that was brand new to me and quite lush and beautiful. We ran into another friend and three of us walked for a few miles. When we got to the reservoir we found a pair of Cedar Waxwings only a few feet away and at eye level. They flitted around some and we could watch them for quite awhile. In my mind they are the most beautiful bird that Maryland has to offer and it was a first for my friends. I do not see them so often to ever get bored with them.

June 5, 2011

The herons are hatching now. Here is a photo of a mother and young. From below I count 6 nests. From the bridge I can only see three since the leaves are out and are broad.

May 22, 2011

Finally, a beautiful spring like weekend morning. Today I saw my first hatchlings in two of the nests north of the bridge. Here is an early photo.I'll keep you posted.

May 15, 2011
It’s pretty quiet at the 6 nest rookery over the Jones Falls near Druid Hill Park. It would appear that all nests have eggs as there was a bird on each one at 7:30 in the morning. It is all quiet to the human observer that is. There is a lot of gestation going on.

May 8, 2011

In my weekly (or more when possible) visit to the Yellow Crowned rookery I chose to walk under the nests to see what new discoveries I might find.

From the vantage point of the bridge the nests are getting more obscured by the leaves that are in abundance and view blocking. From below I actually found 6 nests rather than the four reported earlier. Judging from the nesting habits I would think that eggs lay in each of them. I can only see eggs on the north side of the bridge.

Last year the one on the north side of the bridge disappeared shortly after the eggs hatched. I thought (and reported) that young boys successfully destroyed it but calmer and more knowledgeable heads prevailed and told me that there were plenty of natural events that could have occurred to sink the nest. One such notion as I have learned from research, suggested that first nests are often too fragile and ill made to endure the time necessary to render chicks free to live their lives. I have also learned that nests get reinforced even after chicks hatch, by the more experienced parents. I am seeing that in action this year.

Let’s see what happens. I know a bit more than last year and will learn more this year as I watch as the late spring unravels.

May 1:
Once or twice a week now, I go to the Jones Falls bridge near Druid Hill Park to keep fresh on the Yellow Crowned Night Herons that nest under that bridge. I am learning more about their nesting habits and photographing them routinely. Currently there are five nests that can still be seen from the bridge. Four on the south side and one on the north. You can look into the one on the south side and on April 30 there were two eggs visible. Since it is easy to spot herons sitting on the south side nests which were constructed prior to the south side one it is hard to imagine that they are not egg filled as well. You just cannot see into the nests to confirm the existence of eggs.

The adults continue as couples at least through the mating season and rear the young together so there are a lot of these herons hanging around the branches or on the nests themselves.

The Peregrines are back on the downtown buildings and I often hear them and less so see them. It is clear that years after the DDT ban, Peregrines are rebounding as a species. Curiously it seems that the last few generations are making urban America and Canada their habitat. I suppose that is fine though I am not convinced of it. There are plenty of Rock Doves and other birds available for their sustenance but are those birds, with their urban diet of french fries and other scraps, providing the nutrition either for their own survival or that of their predators? It seems like it wouldn't be but I do not know.

I'll keep updating on the success of the herons.

This morning I walked the reservoir at Druid Hill Park and saw approximately 1 billion Red Wing Black Birds. They are not too afraid of humans and will perch very close allowing a really good view of them. In the water itself I saw one Bufflehead and one Barrows Goldeneye neither of which I expected to see there.

Stay tuned.
March 28:
It is migration time. In February I came home to something like 50 Robins in my yard, eating the dried berries that were fruit last summer. Within a few days I came home to about as many Grackles. The latter was reminiscent of Hitchcock’s The Birds as these starkly black birds hovered everywhere.

On my morning walk of about a mile from the Light Rail stop to work is still in the dark (owing to the recent change to Daylight Savings Time) and as I head east I can hear the Peregrines screaming above. One morning shortly after daylight became real, I saw two of them on the roof of the old Community College building on Lombard Street. They will become more obvious for the next couple of months.

My big news has to do with a life bird. One morning about 3 weeks ago I found a nearly all black small duck in the inner harbor during one of my walks. I did not know what it was but do keep a field guide in my office and determined that it was a Black Scoter. Several days later I saw another one (or perhaps the same one a second time). Within a week I saw them everywhere including at one sighting, ten of them at once. I did some research and understand that they summer in the Hudson Bay so I expect they will be leaving soon. It is nice to see a visitor. It is also nice that they are good posers so I have some photos.

Last fall on a beautiful day, many Terns came by the harbor for one day. I am not sure if they were Least Terns or Common Terns but they were Terns and they crashed into the water with a boom in search of victuals. No camera that day though.
Down near the Stieff Building above the Jones Falls, the Yellow Crowned Night Herons are back building nests and getting ready to brood. There are no leaves yet so the view is clear. Here is an early shot of some of them. I saw five perching within view of the bridge.

In the backyard I have a dearth of birds on most days. The nuthatches that wintered here are gone as are the Juncos (of course 10 minutes after writing that I saw two of them bouncing around the porch eating the spilled seeds of a feeder). Today it is pretty boring with only the standard Cardinals and Song Sparrows hanging around. There are crows above (yesterday I looked up at all the caws and saw what appeared to be a Crow Tree as so many perched on it). They looked like fruit.

I still do my volunteer work with Lights Out Baltimore and that began a few weeks ago. We walk a four mile downtown path around particular buildings in search of compromised birds. They are in their state mostly because they have crashed into buildings while migrating confusedly through a downtown area. We are apt to come upon some exotic birds because it was not their intention to stop here. Sometimes we can save them thanks to the volunteers who are trained to restore as much of them as possible. Unfortunately we still have about 75 carcasses to donate to science every season.

If I learned anything during the last 12 months is that if you look every day, you will see something new.

Kingbird Highway

2011-02-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufmann, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 20066 320 pp. 978-0-618-70940-3

Kaufman is a renowned name in the world of bird watching. He is widely published both in magazines as well as field guides of all sorts. My respect for him first wavered when I read that he had panned some writing of Roger Tory Peterson when he did not know who the author of the text was. He capitulated like a republican criticizing Limbaugh when he came to understand that Peterson was the author. This book did little to help me regain my respect for the author.

When I was young I collected baseball cards avidly. It was my goal to get them all as fast as I could. That worked well when I was eleven. In my early adulthood I went to a baseball extravaganza dinner and my disillusionment with this sort of adventure began. Sitting amongst the greats of the game felt incredibly banal as it occurred. I had the same sense of disappointment as I read Kingbird Highway.

Kaufman acquitted himself in the last few pages by admitting that his quest to set a record for the most bird species sighting in one year really was not worth the effort. His goal to chart every species that he saw as opposed to learning what he could about that species was in his own mind futile and it was too bad he did not reveal this until the last few pages.

The book did not inspire us with tales of naturalism nor did it invigorate us with notions of conservation. It was a tale of his zeal, one that was misguided. The reader was simply regaled with the saga of a year on the hitchhiking path around America with the effort to see as many birds as possible. There was a level of description of the sighting that was weak as the story was more about how he got there and why. The reader learns very little about the bird itself.

Kaufman also uses the hindsight of 25 years to tell this tale of those youthful wanderings. Mistakes and embarrassments get the band aids requisite with the additional knowledge and cozying of the various exploits that a quarter century of experience provides. It was not good as a memoir because he could coax memories into what they should have been so many years hence. It was not good as a travelogue either because his continual relocation via thumbing across the country was like his bird quest-it was a list of places he got to without any story. Places were simply places that he got to and could check them off of his list.

Everyone who writes a memoir wants it to exclaim the author’s unwillingness to play purely by societal rules. All of these authors are rebels of some sort and when this book first came out in 1996 the public had less of an imagination of the joys of hitchhiking. That endeavor certainly had a rebellious lure to a reader, sealing Kaufman’s credentials as a renegade. Yet in the days of his actual exploits, traveling by that method was not very strange. I am only a few years older than the author but I remember my own hitchhiking trips well (they were never as extensive as Kaufman’s but often spanned many hundreds of miles). Traveling in that fashion and being bearded and long haired just was not that unique. It was very popular at the time.

Kaufman’s prose in this case was pretty good. The book was highly readable and those who enjoy reading the books of icons will find this to be an entertaining addition to their lists of readings. Kaufman has proven himself to be a leader in the world of bird watching and there is nothing wrong with that. Kingbird Highway won’t teach us much about that activity however.

Nuthatches!

2010-12-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

I think that the most regal bird in Maryland (this is arguable of course) is the Cedar Waxwing. It perches like it rules the world, with all of its subtle coloration and its tail tips that look as if they were tipped in a bucket of yellow paint. Yes it is a beautiful bird but it is not a Nuthatch.

The Whitebreasted Nuthatch stalks the tree trunk from top to bottom then back to the top. It seeks it prey and sustenance upside down and it is a finicky eater. At the feeder it discards to the ground, the offal that it will not eat. There it is for the Mourning Doves and Juncos and Song Sparrows that seek their own sustenance on the ground.

The Nuthatch has its own bearing. It flies so swiftly from a trunk to a feeder or another trunk and it really does not linger. It determines the efficacy of its place pretty quickly; it departs if not satisfied very quickly.

Its smaller cousin the Redbreasted Nuthatch has the same feeding habits. It does not dally long where it is not sated. The Redbreasted has the noted eye streaks that immediately identify and distinguish it from its larger cousin but they both seem to see the world prettily similar. They make their moves quickly. They are very businesslike in feeding. They are picky eaters. The nuts and raisins please them and the little seeds do not. They also like the suet.

Nuthatches only come into view in my yard during the cold and not every cold. In 2007 they teemed, both species from about November until the spring but it has been a rare one that I have witnessed until this fall when both appear with some regularity for the last few months.

Last spring I chopped down many very ugly Yew Trees that populated the yard and were damaged by last year’s winter storms. I have used the stalks in an attempt to re-establish the canopy that was my back yard porch. I say re-establish because last winter, our massive snowfall collapsed the roof that I had then. My plan is to re-establish that canopy with ivy and I am using Yew Stalks in an effort to do that. They are filled with prey for the Nuthatches. I can see both species now (after a 3 year gap) regularly exploring the Yew Stalks and flitting so quickly to the feeder to selectively pick their food and toss to the ground that which displeases them. I would not accept that sort of fussiness in a human. I would avoid such a person but I enjoy seeing it in my Nuthatches.

A season of watching birth.

2010-09-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

It began in mid spring when I noticed a Thrush prancing around a downtown little green space under a canopy of Willow Oak tugging up worms after a rain. I was a bit startled as I only knew of Robins as the Thrush of the inner harbor of Baltimore. Rushing to my office where there was a field guide to consult, I was embarrassed to discover that these spotted breast birds were in fact Robins…they were just real young ones.

In mid-summer some freshly fledged Starling chicks were feeding on the ground along with adults. They were tiny and still had the downy sort of feathering that one expects from chicks. As I got too near they flew off along with the adults. Around the same time however I found myself on I Street in Washington DC where I saw two birds that likewise had the size and shape of Northern Starlings but they were clay colored rather than the militaristic looking black with gold brocade. I watched for several minutes as they did everything that a Starling did but had the coloring more of a wren. I had to get to my field guide and it was then that I discovered I had been watching other Starling youths this time not knowing it. They were just further along the maturational chain than the little ones I just described.

I have become more familiar with the Inner Harbor Gulls over the years so was not fooled by the different morph of Laughing Gull or Ring Billed Gull newbies. There have been plenty of both since August.

The Double Crested Cormorants are no strangers to the commercial area of the inner harbor but the large numbers of them during the summer of 2010 has been startling. I can count up to 14 in view on any given morning (though some mornings there are none). I only surmise here as I do not recognize the young of this species, but I do imagine that amongst the small flock are newborns.

The real story of the summer has been the rookery of Yellow Crowned Night Herons (I’ve blogged on that experience previously at http://respectfulbirding.blogspot.com/2010/06/2010-yellow-crowned-night-heron-journal.html). That story is wonderful and I won’t elaborate too much here but to say that I watched the cycle from eggs laid to hatching, nurturing, and maturing to fledging. It was really cool. Next winter and early spring I am going to try to catch the nest making as well.

Young birds as young anythings, will come out for the first breath of air as startled and awed as can be. If they spoke English their first thoughts are likely something like “What the hell?...” They should be too because they have entered a rather marvelous world but one that presents the perils that incubation in an egg do not.

I wish them all the best of luck.

Please...Correct me or confirm me...

2010-07-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

I first saw it during the leafless pre-spring of 2010. It was in the man-made copse of Willow Oak in front of the Holocaust Memorial and to the east. The Memorial is located in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore on Lombard Street. The copse is an area well known amongst birders as a haven for birds in all seasons and for the homeless, a protection from the heat of the day. It sits just to the west of The Community College of Baltimore City.

On the cold morning as I did my morning search for species during early migration, I came upon a bird that I had never noticed before. It perched quietly on a bare limb some 10 or 12 feet above and it did it for a long enough time that I could size it up. It was an overcast morning and I did not suffer the ill-effects or enjoy the boon that good lighting could offer.

In this small woods are many birds year round. They are mostly common birds such as the Robin, House Sparrow and Starling. This one was different. It was very dark-from my vantage point it appeared solidly and satinly black. It was about twice the size of the local Starlings and sported a tail that was much longer. The tail had the broad end feature like a Common Grackle. It was much smaller than a Grackle however. It was also much quieter than that bird and when it did squawk, it was not close to that of a Grackle.

Sans any sort of recording material including a pen and paper (I would have wrote on my hand had I a pen), I had to make as many mental notes as I could about the bird. Knowing that it also was not a Fish Crow, I took note of those things described above but also of the distinct gold ring around the eyes. With my memories as fresh as possible I went to my office; I gathered up my Peterson’s guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America.
I came to the conclusion that it was a Brewer’s Blackbird. I shared this information with several birding friends, some voicing enough skepticism for me to defend what I had seen and others remarking that what I had seen was a rarity (forcing me to doubt my sighting). Then I did not see any reminder of this bird for several weeks and thought it a vain quest to correctly identify it and was left wondering what I had seen.

In April as I returned to the little brushwood in order to get a vantage point on the Peregrines that perched high above on two different building. There some 20 feet away and pecking at the ground was what looked to be the same species that I had seen before. I tried to close in a little bit for a better look but before I could be even a bit definitive, it flew off. It was too big for a Starling and lacked the array of golden breast dots; it was too small for a Grackle and as it launched it squawked a noise that was not a Fish Crow (why would the Crow be in the little haven anyway?).

This new information led me to do a daily look in the area. The bird apparently feeds between about 7:30am and 10:00am as I found by taking a daily excursion to the area. I continued to examine it as closely as possible to determine its behavior-for instance it is a ground feeder and discovered that there were several of them living in the tiny urban woods of about 300 feet by 50 feet. Every day they pranced and lunged in the gravel, often flying over a tall fence to a grassy area on the north side of the Monument where all of them would catch very large food bits which I imagined to be larva of some kind as they could devour them in a few minutes. Still it was difficult to see them in good lighting as they remained either in or under the canopy of the now fully leaved Willow Oaks or other trees on the north side. They would only let me get about 20 feet away and none of the photos I had tried to take had the lighting required to really gain some confidence in accurate identification.

I turned to my better skill. I am a much better researcher than I am an observer. Here is what I found:

The Brewer’s Blackbird is a very adaptable animal and is known to observe the feeding habits of other birds and mimic (quite successfully) the others. I saw an article that described this species hanging out in the parking lot of a western American mall and attacking the grills of parked cars for sustenance. They also flock with other species of similar (sort of) habits one being the Red Wing Blackbird. The Brewer’s likes marshy and reedy areas and small crustaceans’ best. They won’t find any of that here and the skepticism of my own early identification increased.

None of my field guides suggested that they could be found in Maryland. They are a western bird living from Mexico to Alberta but not in Maryland except in very rare circumstances. My doubt grew and yet they are listed in the “Checklist of the Birds of Maryland”. The bird sure looks like a Brewer’s but I had to wonder if I merely wanted it to be a Brewer’s.

So I continued to study and look for similar species and the best one I could come up with was a Rusty Blackbird. Here is why-they forage off the ground, have a territory (according to the many guides used) that could include on its fringes, Maryland. It’s physical appearance and sounds are very similar to the Brewers buts its habits more closely related to what I keep seeing in my early morning constitutional through the shaded copse in front of the Holocaust Memorial.

One day late last fall I took another one of my constitutionals, this one a day break brisk walk around the National Aquarium to see if any unique Gulls show up. I was thrilled to see for only one time, two Greater Black Backs. It is worth my 10 minute walk to see if something unique occurs. It rarely does. In the fall the gulls are rife and they are about 90% Ring Billed and about 10% Laughing Gulls; one day there were Greater Black Backs as well. It may never happen again but I will continue with my quick examination every morning.

Today (07.26.2010) while walking past the submarine museum that flanks the Aquarium on the west, I saw perched, one of my mystery birds and discovered something I could not detect under the shade of the arbor by the Memorial. There actually is a little “brownness” to the bird I have been watching daily for the last 90 or so days.

Today I convinced myself that there are several Rusty Blackbirds living in the cool shade of the little copse in front of the Memorial and to the west of the Community College.

The sad end to the 2010 Yellow Crowned Night Heron journal

2010-06-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

June 28

Since my outburst Friday night, several people have made plausible suggestions about how the Herons disappearred that were kinder than my own.

In one case a peer recalled an incident where he found a "crashed" nest with dead chicks on his roof. The suggestion is that a nest not built well enough or perhaps not lodged securely in a tree could possibly fall. I have to agree that this could happen as it did happen in his story.

The nest itself was pretty substantial but perhaps not lodged well enough into the limbs of the tree. While not convinced, I cannot rule that out.

Another story was relayed to an observer by a local person who claimed to have seen a hawklike bird, extricating these chicks. Again I think it possible but that story does not explain the missing nest.

So I am reminded that there are other conclusions than the one I drew Friday.
June 25

I need to get anachronistic in this update so that any reader will see it first. The rest of the blog is chronolical order.

The only thing I have hated worse than writing this is when I had to tell my Catholic parents that I was getting divorced. I hate to write it because the youngest hatchlings are gone…they can only be dead. The nest is gone and what is left is the shit on the branches. It is a story that turned to shit.

One June 7 the newest of the eggs hatched. Today they are gone and can only be dead. The entire nest is gone which can only mean that it was stolen or destroyed. The hatchlings could certainly not survive at their age. The mother Heron were she to find chicks that died of a disease or something would not have dismantled the nest. She would have discarded the dead young in order to devote energy to the survivors.

The chicks were growing fast and were significant and getting their taupe early coloring. They were maturing on schedule so there is little reason to imagine that they were in physical trouble. I suppose it could happen that some predator killed the thriving chicks but what would that predator be? Why would the nest be totally gone?

What other reasons could the nest be gone? It wasn’t an international company clearing the area for development. It wasn’t Tea Baggers because even if they knew of the existence of the nest would have nothing to gain by destroying it and there has been no evidence that they have any issues with herons that are thriving in a natural habitat that is not on a list of new developments. There really are no “anti-environmentalists” who have some goal to cite nature and destroy it for the sake of destroying it.

The naturalists who were politically correct in the 19th century may have taken it for specimen reasons but they are all long dead. No naturalist today would take it. Maybe collecting a nest long after the chicks had fledged would be in their purview. The chicks were 2 weeks old.

It is difficult to conclude that the destruction of the nest was anything but the ill intent of specific humans. The tree is climbable by a small person and with the aid of a hearty branch could have dislodged the nest which would have plummeted to the Jones Falls some 25 feet below. It seems unlikely that anyone could crawl out to the nest itself and dislodge it. This is especially so since the mother who is not of an insignificant size, would not idly sit by and watch.

When I was about 11 my family moved to a new area that included a natural habitat that was about ¼x ¼ mile. We were pretty urban and this was all new to me. I loved my first experience with nature and became determined to understand it to the extent that I could. There were many rabbits and I was excited about watching them and determined that I would bring home a rabbit that I had hunted so that my mother could prepare it for dinner.

I made a bow out of a flexible branch and bought three arrows at the local hardware store. Several days of “hunting” proved fruitless and then I found a rabbit that froze at my presence and I shot an arrow with all the force that my skinny little body could muster and I heard the arrow as it hit the hip with a thud and was immediately sickened by my plan. I ran home and sought the solitude of my room, shamed and feeling reviled for that action.

Later I ventured back into my “woods” with a sense that maybe this event had not really occurred. There it was in the snow…blood. I followed it some 50 or maybe 100 feet where I found a dead rabbit with a wound to the hip. It bled out so to speak and I was nauseated. I wept and puked at what I had seen and what I had done. I was a very sad 11 year old and I never picked up those arrows I had bought and I destroyed the bow. I have never told anyone this story til now.

I am hoping that whoever destroyed the nest has the regrets that I have had for my wanton disregard for nature at that age. It is difficult for me to understand the destruction of the nest without recalling the idiotic hubris of youth and finally I cannot imagine who, other than a young boy would do this.

If I am correct I hope that young boy is contemplating his actions. What seems so adventurous one second can appear to the same kid as idiotic stupidity a few seconds later. I am hoping that with the destruction of the nest, some lessons were learned.
What started off so sweet on June 7 turned to some branches covered with shit between June 22 and today-June 25.

I fixed all of the "too big" photos.
June 5th
This story is a real birder’s delight; discovering a veritable rookery of Yellow Crowned Night Herons. These Herons makes their nest out of large twigs about 20 feet above a running stream. They are prone to “coloniality” and experts suggest this is for training purposes. The young learn from their elders, the craft of seeking prey. In the case of the Yellow Crowned that would be small seafood and from my experience, crayfish are a favorite.

Several months ago M. told me about their nesting spot in North Central Baltimore along the Jones Falls (a small river that runs south through the city and into the Patapsco River). The day before Memorial Day this year, W. let us know that she had seen this community of these birds at the walking bridge just west of the fabled Stieff Silver building. I had to go.

Here is what I found on Memorial day-four nests of varying stages of development. In one nest are 4 eggs and a nesting mother. In another were chicks that must have been born within a day. In the third were chicks of about a week old and in the most visible nest were active chicks that were now brown with the gold flecks that we expect from fledgling Herons.

So I did what I always do in these situations. I photograph them for hours. Then I went home and read up as much as I could about them. Then I determined that I need to check them out as often as possible. Today is my second viewing, four days after the first. In those short days the nest with the newborns shows us active chicks that are starting to establish their feathers and are about the size of small Robins. Here they are feeding from the crayfish their mother has just regurgitated into the nest for them.

All mom’s with infants need a break now and then and here is one of them drying out . It is not so good a photo but you can see the feathers arching and neck stretched.

This is all way too much fun for someone like myself so I will have to return every few days to get stage updates. I am sure that the oldest nest is going to be hunting prey on their own very soon. The eggs will be hatching and in several weeks all of them will be on their own.
I’ll keep you up to date.

June 6
I'm trying to see what may be new with these young ones on nearly a daily basis. Today I saw the oldest of them stretching their wings. I could see that while they stretch and exercise, their wings are not fully formed. There is too much space between feathers to allow for flight.

In the nest of the second oldest, I found them very active. They are only about 8 days old and they mature rapidly. They are examining everything around the nest. What I really liked though, was the nearly choreographed nap time. At once, all of them got into the nest and went to sleep.

Across the bridge the eggs have not hatched. Mother was keeping them warm and safe.

You can view the nests readily from the bridge but you can also get underneath them along the Falls. It is canopied by trees and the lighting fairly dim, but photos can be taken. I have to be selective in what I post of my ftp site will fill up.

I may return this evening.

June 7, 2010

I did not go back yesterday but did show up around 4:30pm today. I did it becasue I do not want to miss a day and find that the egges have hatched. While there I met B. who was keeping a written account of the activities beginning on April 1. She told me that the oldest of the visible chiks were born May 8th and the next were about 10 days later (much older than I had imagined). Today two of the eggs that I have posted here hatched and the other two are whole.

They are maturing slower than I had imagined but now I can keep my own chronicle of hatch to fledge with the ones on the north side.

I'll keep you posted.

Here is an FAQ about Yellow Crowned Night Herons.

June 9, 2010
It was a drizzly dark day and I could not get out there until close to 7:00pm. All of the Herons were napping. The older chicks were in their nests and the parents nearby. Since there is little physical difference between adult males and females it is difficult to determine who is who.

The site is really attracting birders and interested hikers so I again found observers there when I arrived and we exchanged our information. From those conversations I understand that at least three of the eggs in the Northern nest have hatched and we all presume that the fourth has as well but the mother was snoozing atop of her chicks during our visit.

I took a couple of photos but did not imagine that they would enhance this blog.

I'll update soon.

June 11

The oldest of the visible chicks are really active this evening. They strutted up and down the limbs near their nest all the while flapping their wings. They are growing fast and I suspect that they will be leaving the nest soon.

I met a friend for tonight's viewing and I always enjoy showing off some nature event that is just not that easy to see...especially if your are not looking. She enjoyed it quite a lot and peered through binoculars for pretty extended periods.

The younger-by-ten days chicks are also growing fast but they did a lot of snoozing and had some restive moments but were less interesting to watch.

The ones that hatched 4-5 days ago are in clear view when the mother exposes them-which is not often. I got a pretty good view of them for moments. When my friend arrived the mother nearly sat on the chicks. I did notice that she did not actually sit on them but squatted withing about an inch of them.

When they were exposed, there was no sign of shells (at least I could not see any). Tomorrow I will find myself there early in the morning and will post some more photos.

June 12

Well not much has changed in the 13 hours since I was last there but here are some photos. The first has some of the highlights blown out by the intense sunlight but you can see the 4 day old chicks. I took another this morning but there is only a hint of chicks.

The oldest ones seemed so ready to fly last night and so immature this morning. I'm told they were born on May 8 so they are over a month old. Here they are this morning.

June 15

There is less to say and more to show now. The birds are not flying yet but the ones born on May 8th are getting pretty big. They are like having too many teenagers at home at the same time. The ones born about the 18th of course are growing as well and here is a close up of one of them.

My favorites (and the easiest to photograph) are the ones hatched on June 7th. That is sort of a baseline for me as I can monitor and log their maturation from egg breaking to flying the coop. Here they are.

June 18th

In the oldest group of chicks (dare I call these very large birds chicks?) I only counted three. I looked very hard for the other two and I suspect they flew the coop as it were. I'll be back in the morning with binoculars and a camera to see what is going on. This evening I stopped by for a check as I came home from work so it was the semi naked eye that I was left with for my investigation.

In the second oldest group all five remained but they too, are getting pretty big.

Lastly of course the ones hatched on June 7th still appear as a blanket of down and without visual enhancement aids do not yet look alive. They have gotten large enough so that the mother does not sit on them for protection or warmth.

Factoids: The Yellow Crowned Night Heron appears taller than its cousin the Black Crowned Night Heron but actually, as a rule is a bit smaller. The Yellow Crowned is apt to have it's long neck extended while seeking prey while the Black Crowned keeps its neck close to the body.

The Yellow Crowned likes crustaceans better than small fish or eels.

June 20, 2010

I could only see three of the oldest yesterday and wonder if thy have flown or whether they may have wandered away from the nest and were obscured by branches and leaves. I'll take another look tonight when it is cooler.

The youngest (June 7th) are still pretty dormant and look to be sleeping in this photo.

June 21, 2010

Yellow Crowned Night Herons generally vocalize in flight and I have noticed that a loud bark, sort of a "Kwwwauk" gets expelled just as they leave their nests. Perhaps it is a cry of joy to get away for a bit.

These nestlings are pretty labor intensive and I seem to remember that the male and female partner jointly tend to the young. I'm going to check that notion and get back with it later.

The ones born a few days before Memorial Day are looking pretty agile but watching the ones that are 10 days older, I know they are not ready to fledge. Here are a couple of four week olds relaxing on the stoop (so to speak).

To my surprise, two days after I checked the blue-grey, downy sleepers who first breathed air on June 7th, the down is fading and the brown speckled bodies starting to show. They are still sleeping of course.

Lights Out Baltimore

2010-05-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that I am a volunteer for Lights Out Baltimore. We are all members of the Baltimore Bird Club and this particular work is to monitor bird strikes into buildings in downtown Baltimore. It is a reasonably scientific tracking method whereby we follow a route at a prescribed time early in the morning. We monitor bird activity primarily for three things:

-dead birds that have flown into buildings
-injured birds who need attention
-disoriented birds that can generally be coaxed out of their “entrapment” and fly to freedom.

We do recording of the dead and injured birds indicating their state, location and species. The dead ones are placed in a sandwich bag with the vitals that we collect. The injured ones are delicately placed in paper bag. We were trained as to the proper method. Their logistics are also recorded.

At some point depending on the quantity of injured birds and the point of the route we are at, one of the team members will take the bird(s) to a rescue clinic out in the country. We have had a decent success with bird revival using this method. We have over worked our veterinary staff (I am told that while highly trained and very skillful she lacks true veterinary qualifications).

The dead birds get frozen and ultimately are turned over to scientists who can use the carcasses for a variety of experimental work. We have plenty of them too. There are a lot of bird strikes but we expect it to be a number that drops.

We have two critical things in our favor. The economy is such that businesses are turning out their lights at night. Not so long ago the city was aglow as all the tall buildings kept many lights on. In made for spectacular urbanscape imagery but the lights became a distraction to the birds in migratory flight. Obviously the distraction is often deadly. I have learned from various readings that part of the migration methodology includes stars and the moon. Lit buildings can be confused for stars and apparently birds do not recognize glass.

Secondly, we form sort of an army of informers and educators. We have made our presence highly visible downtown and have become comfortable with the various security staffs who now encourage us, ask questions about what they can do and occasionally even point out compromised birds or provided us with ones that have died as a result of strikes.

Here is the second part of this story. We birders use a concept of “Life” birds meaning our first sighting of a species. Ironically for me too many of my Life birds occur after they are dead. That was the case of the Kentucky Warbler that graces this web update. It is such a beautiful little bird and it met its end only seconds prior to me finding it.

We are making headway and in my view providing a valuable service. More and more people are interested in our activities and are coming to understand a phenomenon that is new to them. We are providing scientists with fuel for the many research projects that can use our carcasses to further their investigations.

It’s all good.

My Peregrine Adventure

2010-05-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

It began about the first of March, the shrill call from above towards the roof of the Customs House in downtown Baltimore. At the same time I had seen more than one Rock Dove carcass laying in the yard that houses the Holocaust Memorial. The remains were the wings, most of the spine and the ribcage. The bones were clean as a whistle.
I thought that a Peregrine was nesting on the roof of the Community College judging from the proximity of the bird remains but I heard the calls near the Customs House.

All along I could not see any Falcon. We already know that for over 30 years, Peregrines have been nesting on the rooftops of much taller buildings downtown. You can on occasion, spot them soaring high above and if you don’t watch the pattern of flight you may imagine them to be one of the many Ring Billed Gulls that are local habitués.

I have access to the roof of the Appraiser’s building which sits catty corner to the Customs House. Around April 1st one of my cohorts mentioned that she had seen a Peregrine strutting atop of the Custom House and I felt cheated. Why did she see the bird while walking a few times a week in the area and I could not spot it with my daily multiple ventures scanning from many angles, the same building.

Finally, while having reason to be on the roof, as I idled my time I could hear a screeching. I imagined it to be Falcon nestlings mainly because I wanted it to be Falcon nestlings. It sounded like rusty metal scraping rusty metal. I looked for mechanical doings nearby as such is a regularity but none was visible. It came from the vicinity of the Customs House and while I recognized that I might be kidding myself, I determined that I was hearing nestlings and it was on that roof. I saw about 80% of the roof as it was filled with air conditioning units and other sorts of mechanical devices. There is a parapet surrounding the roof as well so plenty was obscured but I heard what I believed were nestlings and suddenly there was the illusive Falcon stalking a ledge just below the roof.

Well as it happens, the earth rotates and spins and as a result we have seasons. During the spring the morning gloaming comes earlier and soon the sun had lit up the dawn enough so that I could get an early glimpse at the building each morning and to be sure I spotted the Falcon daily at about 6:15 and up until 8:00 or so. It typically was near the center of the building as I faced the entrance. Occasionally I spotted it swooping into the Holocaust Memorial yard where the trees were rapidly filling with leaves. The Falcon was always on the ledge just below the roof. If there was a nest there it was obscured from the street and from the roof of the Appraiser Building.

Now Falcon spotting became a daily vigil and I convinced the folks from the General Services Administration to let me up on the roof of the Customs House for my monitoring. It has not come to pass however though I keep it in my bag of resources for future benefit. Here is why. The same birding friend indicated on April 15th that she had seen a Falcon on top of the Appraiser’s building, perched on one of the four eagles that decorate the upper corners of the building at about 80 feet. I was intrigued, grateful for her pointing this out and a little jealous that someone else was doing the first spotting in my home court.

As I approached my building (Appraiser’s Building) for work on the 16th there it was just as Wendy had indicated, the Falcon was perched on the beak of the enormous eagle decoration on the northwest corner of the building. I rushed upstairs to grab my little snapshot camera and out to the parking structure across the street and up to the apex which was about 75 feet and directly across from the relaxed and perched Peregrine. I could not get a salvageable photograph of this backlit bird early that morning and was fit to be tied. I took my disgruntled self back to ground level when I ran into my friend David Jones.

I knew two things about David that would come in handy for this moment. He was up for adventure and had a high end Canon EOS with a zoom lens. It was not tough to talk him into being a comrade and joining me for a photographic expedition and it was back up to the parking structure roof top once again. While David snapped away at the posing Peregrine I happened to lean over and crane north and at the very corner of the Customs House was another Peregrine. David got plenty of photos of that one as well. The eagle beak perching Falcon remained there until about noon and the two of us wasted your tax dollars by going back to the top of the parking structure about every 90 minutes to see it in new lighting.

It was a very exciting day and everything I have written was a crescendo leading to this Friday the 16th of April. I say that because I have neither seen nor heard any Falcons or nestlings (real or imagined) since. I have looked everyday including the weekends when I do not work. They have gone… or at least I think they have gone. What a fun ride. Now I am going to study Peregrine nesting habits because I am a better researcher than I am anything else.

Alas as far as this tale goes I am the Hermes, the mRNA and the facilitator. Wendy told me where they were and David took the photos. I relayed information as David’s guide. He got a kick out of it and became at least a bit interested in bird photography. For my own selfish self it was a fun several weeks and it appears to be over for this season.

Its nearly spring and time to start hearing the birds

2010-03-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong. Donald Kroodsma. New York, Houghton Mifflin 2005 482 pp. ISBN: 978-0-618-84076-2

This actually is more than a book. It is several things and I will start with the most interesting.

Within this package is a CD-ROM that is a series of sounds mostly of birds but mingled with other sounds such as a new born human’s goo-goo practice language. Throughout the text he refers to the disc for those who may stop and use that media. I was not one of them. I listen to the CD occasionally for the pure enjoyment of it and plan to study it using his next feature.

Appendix I takes us through the details of that CD and though I read the Appendix I have yet to sit down with some earphones and the text to review it simultaneously. From the Appendix I feel confident that this will be a pleasant listening and learning experience but alas I have not done it.

Another Appendix reviews what it takes to really record bird sounds. Technology is mostly what it takes but techniques are valuable as well. With much more modest equipment I do an annual early spring series of recordings of my own as sort of a birthday celebration. His Appendix gave me some insight into how to do that more skillfully and thus learn more from my efforts. Until now mine are all random data collection that can be heard and enjoyed but are not particularly educational.

Kroodsma’s documentation and his taxonomic list are great reference tools. I first became aware of him by the reference to his work in other books. This is a book I will not be giving away since it will be used as a reference for many years. I also have copied his CD so that I can use it in several computers scattered about the house as I watch birds from different windows.

Now comes the hard part. The book itself is really a difficult one to read. It is not so much due to an over use of highly specific jargon requiring a PhD to understand. It is due I think, to an inability to understand the audience. It is as if the book was written to three audiences at once and this reviewer could not be all three. There is not the interest nor the background and skill to on my part to grapple with the sonograms and the routine references to singing patterns. Many times he ruined some pretty good prose by rattling off mind numbing symbols to display his recognition of the many different songs a bird could sing in a short spurt of time. While he describes the conditions of the forest he is in and the details of the time of day and the season, he then tells us that a bird has sung song AXAXXAXXXXXXX for example.

For those of us who are not audiologists his countless displays of sonogram results are just in the way; they are clutter. Those same sonograms are vital to researchers who study the exciting parts of nature such as bird song and how the brain works. There are plenty of places for the transmission of this sort of information and most typically it would be in the journals devoted to academic research rather than a popular natural history book to be found at Barnes and Nobles.

The actual prose was pretty worthwhile as Kroodsma reflected on his passion for birds and the many places it has taken him. He describes his excitement about new findings really well and they ring true to the emotions I feel in similar conditions. Sometimes the patience and the endurance while in intemperate climates and conditions pay off with the “Aha” moment when a curiosity is answered. That occurs even when the empirical revelation is not what one imagines.

Kroodsma displays that he is a good scientist relying on the scientific method rather than emotions that well up when we really want to believe something is happening. He would agree that here in the Western Hemisphere when the sound of pounding hoofs comes about, we should imagine horses and not zebras.

He also is very generous throughout the book in naming his compatriots in his field studies as well as in the ivied halls in order to credit those about him. Any mean streak or nagging animus that he may have was not revealed here. He speaks fondly of all of his allies and I suspect there were many thrills at seeing one’s name in his print.

The book was inexpensive and had the luxury of the CD-ROM so the publishers imagined a popular audience. There are quite a number of us amateur ornithologists with our peculiar areas of interests. Kroodsma could only partially accommodate us. That makes this book in my opinion, idiosyncratic and short of meeting its goal.

Song Sparrows

2010-02-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

Song Sparrows lived here before I moved in three years ago. They own the joint and while recognize my predatory potential are not overly concerned with me. They alit on a window sill only a few inches away from me but seem to recognize the protection that the glass window provides them. When it is warm and my window lifted they only sit on the sill long enough to recognize that there is no glass between me and them.
They peck at the ground for their food in most all instances. During tough times they may venture to the thistle seeds left in the tube mainly for Goldfinches.

During our largish snow falls they’ll nibble at birdfeeders but are more intimidated by the Mockingbirds that have owned the backyard feeder this past winter. Basically the Song Sparrow is pretty content to peck on the ground below the feeder for the residue that the likes of the Nuthatch strew to the ground as if in disdain of its existence.

Every spring I drop a recorder out the window for a few hours of recording the morning songs of the many species that populate the trees in the yard. I am not able to cull out the Song Sparrow’s song but overlistening to the link may help.

Some natural history research has taught me that there are 31 subspecies of this bird making it the most variable in North America. They enjoy seeds, insects and snails and all abound here. Like any sentient being they will take the easy route towards the sustenance required to live the hyperactive lives that these little avians do. That would be right beneath the feeder.

They nest in shrubs which exist in abundance in the small copse I refer to as the woods in my backyard. Next fall I may go looking for one and compare it to the field guide’s version of their little incubators. Here is a shot stolen from the Cornell web site. I am only beginning to teach myself about nests. It is pretty intriguing but requires another essay.

The Song Sparrow has a pretty good time here. So do I while I watch them.

I am cheating here...

2009-12-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

and using another blog to tell my story.

This link provides some beautiful images.

Tim's letter to the editor

2009-10-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Last spring I described the project, "Lights Out Baltimore". We are a volunteer group that surveys and monitors migrating birds who have come through downtown Baltimore. We are looking for fatalities (from flying into windows of buildings both tall and one story)as well as injured birds and compromised birds. We collect the dead ones and get them to a local natural history museum for research purposes and we get the injured ones to animal recovery locations. Of course we do what we can to aid birds compromised by situations like being under awnings.

There are not many "facts" about migration habits as the birds fly largely at night and tend to fly quite high. However as the technology improves, more evidence can be collected all the time. Currently academic research has collected strong reasons to believe that in addition to earth's magnetism, migration requires nature's information provided by the night skies. Tall buildings that leave their lights on during the night are under suspicion for confusing birds in flight that may recognize the glow from a window as an astral signal.

Turning Lights Out is by far the fix for this issue. Window and glass manufacturers can provide consumers with a transparent, aesthetically appealing choice that doesn’t require expensive solutions and can be visually neutral. While there are UV films that may completely solve the problem, window film manufacturers to date have not invested in testing products to make sure they deter bird strikes and also have acceptable wear for outdoor applications. Until this happens, glass will continue to be the second biggest human-caused killer of birds. Habitat loss kills between 100 million and 1 billion birds annually in North America.

The volunteer effort of "Lights Out Baltimore" is designed to gather data about where these window hits occur and to inform both downtown businesses as well as the public of essentially two things. One is the larger ecological necessity of saving electricity and the other is the consideration of using "fritted" glass for windows which appears to be effective in preventing bird strikes.

One of our volunteers (and one of my monitoring partners) had his letter to the Baltimore Sun published this morning and here it is.

Birding history

2009-10-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

A Concise History of Ornithology by Michael Walters. New Haven, Yale University Press. 2003 255pp. ISBN-0-300-11113-4

There are several very good things about this book. It is a chronicle of the history that its title suggests; it has 30 appendices that are essentially the taxonomic variations of many of the worlds famous ornithologists; it has an eleven page bibliography. In short it can be removed from the shelf often in order to reinforce a notion held or to remind oneself as to how an avian systematic came to be. It also contained a large number of photographs and avian artwork.

On the other hand the stories of the ornithologists are terse and formulaic. While reading it I sometimes thought I had already read that page. This was because so many of the men he profiles (like it or not, ornithology has historically been a man’s game) seem to have the same qualities. They are petty, arrogant and have considerable enemies. This runs counter to my own experiences with birders (even scholarly ones).

Structurally it is a very heavy book using thick glossy paper and it has a physical density that could make it a weapon if one chose. It also was printed in a small font and made use of nearly every inch of the page so it was somewhat hard on the eyes. At the end of the book Walters veers from his biographical intentions and begins to discuss some of the science of taxonomy. It was an unexpected sharp turn that made me wonder what its connection to the tale was.

I am glad to have a copy on my shelf as it is excellent as a resource but less so as a read.