Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts

For the Birds: Wanted - 99-year Leases for Rest Stops

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Trees provide food and shelter to raise young Western Wood-Peewee
Photo by Elaine Chuang


By Christine Southwick

You are driving from your “snowbird” condo, to your summer abode. Your gas tank is almost empty. The station you always use is out of gas. You have enough to get to the next station, but when you get there, the land has changed, and development fills that space. Now what?

If you were a bird with this scenario, you would probably fall to the ground, too exhausted and too hungry to travel on.

Black-necked Stilts stopping at the Potholes in Eastern WA
Photo by Elaine Chuang


If you were lucky, you might find enough water, food, and shelter to recover and travel to your breeding or wintering grounds. If not, you, and possibly your whole flock, would die, never to fly again.

This is frequently happening throughout the US. Many migrating birds are finding familiar rest stops and watering holes on their bi-yearly flyways being poisoned by pesticides and fertilizers, drained and plowed for crops, or made into half-filled strip malls.

Habitat loss is the number one cause of bird deaths.

There are fewer and fewer places for birds to rest, feed, raise their young, and find good water.

Distances between resting and refueling stops are often becoming so great that many birds traveling thousand-year-old migration routes will die from exhaustion, not being able to reach the next safe stop-over.

Snags, used first by woodpeckers, provide places for nesting, resting, storing food
Photo by Elaine Chuang


How can you help?

Have a sick tree, or one you fear in your yard?

Make a snag out of the bottom fifteen-twenty feet. Snags are safe, and dead trees shelter local birds from winter storms, offer nesting sites, and provide food. Besides, snags make excellent backdrops to watch the birds that use them.

Trees are the lungs of the earth, so plant a tree or fruiting bush to replace any you take away. (Note: 71% of Shoreline’s tree canopy is in private yards)

Weeds, including dandelions are eaten by many birds Am. Goldfinches
Phoro by Terry Dunning


Don’t make your gardens so clean that they become sterile for wildlife.

Gardens that don’t have bugs, can’t feed birds, salamanders, frogs, or any other wildlife. Make a small brush pile for birds to hide, escape, and find shelter from winter cold. Leaves and weeds are loved by many birds.

If you clear a wild area, don’t do it between March and August. Wait until Labor Day, by then the young have left their ground nests.

If you must cover a ditch, offer water and shelter to replace that which you have eliminated.

When you change the landscape to suit your tastes, ask yourself who and what you are depriving of water, food, and the shelter needed to raise their young.



Read more...

For the Birds: Marbled Murrelets - our endangered seabird

Monday, January 9, 2017

Our Marbled Murrelets are endangered seabirds.
Photo by Rich McIntosh
By Christine Southwick

Marbled Murrelets, endangered seabirds, really are one of our local birds we can protect, if we act in a concerted manner.

Marbled Murrelets are only found on the Pacific Coast, breeding only in the old-growth forests growing from northern California through Alaska.

Marbled Murrelets in Washington build their one-egg nest only on a mossy, lichen-lined horizontal branch in 200 year or older trees within a heavily forested area.

Marbled Murrelet on the nest
These suitable nesting sites are rare, and becoming rarer, often causing the parents to fly 45 miles each way to capture the small schooling fishes that they feed to their nestling.

And you thought you had a long commute!

Marbled Murrelets forage close to shores, preferring calm waters and bays, swimming underwater to catch their small schooling fish in waters usually less than 100 feet deep.

Jim Creek, a naval radio station near Arlington, has 5,000 wooded acres, of which 225 acres are ancient growth trees. 

“Many trees in the 225 acres (0.91 km2) are estimated to be up to 1500 – 1700 years old with some over 260 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter.”

This ancient growth forest is the largest remaining old-growth cedar and spruce forest in the Puget Sound trough. Jim Creek has verified Marbled Murrelet nests.

Nestling.
The most enlightening event of my trip to Jim Creek was when the ranger explained that old-growth trees are chemically different and support different organisms than second-growth trees.

He said that if you took a second-growth tree and shook it upside-down, and then you took an old-growth tree and shook it upside-down, and you would get totally different organisms.

Old growth trees have lived so long, and collect dampness from fog, etc., that over the years lichen and mosses have decomposed enough that soils have formed, and salamanders and other creatures climb up and take shelter there too.

Murrelets fly 45 miles each way
to get food for their nestlings
Murrelets have adapted to only flying inland from the sea just before sunrise or after sunset when the light is low, to avoid daylight raptors. 

The chick, or the brooding parent, has to keep hidden for 24 hours before food or the parental exchange can arrive. The chick has a month to grow, go through its first adult molt, and then it has fly to the ocean by itself at night.

Mortality is high, and not all eggs survive nest predation.

There are public meetings / webinar being held this month on rules and ways to save these birds.

Come to a public information meeting on Thursday, January 12 from 6-8 pm at Whitman Middle School in Seattle’s Ballard/Crown Hill neighborhood: 9201 15th Avenue NW, Seattle, 98117.

More information at Seattle Audubon.



Read more...

For the Birds: Thanksgiving Day Bird — the Wild Turkey

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Courting male
Photo by Gene Beall

By Christine Southwick

The turkeys that we traditionally eat on Thanksgiving Day are not the same birds as the wild ones. Domestication of the turkey, a North American native species, has been documented back 2,000 years. Turkeys raised by the Aztecs were taken back to Europe by Spanish explorers. Due to breeding for increased breast meat, domesticated turkeys can no longer fly.

Wild turkey in tree
Photo by Terry Olmsted
Wild Turkeys can and do fly. They fly up into their tree roosts at sundown, starting on the lower limbs and flapping their way upward to higher roosts. When startled, females usually fly away, while males commonly run.

Being over-hunted for their great meat, Wild Turkey numbers plummeted in the US in the early 20th century.

To save many sub-species, the US Fish and Wildlife Service started catching and transplanting Wild Turkeys throughout 49 states.

Washington started getting three sub-species of Wild Turkeys in 1960. These sub-species have adapted to slightly different habitats, but all Wild Turkeys require open forests with nut-bearing trees and open grassy fields with grains and berries, and associated insects.

Wild turkey running
Photo by Lyn Topinka
In the spring, courting males abandon their all-male flocks, strut about, gobble, hum, and make chump sounds to attract several females and warn away competing males.

Males leave nest-making and the raising of the ten to fifteen young to the female. Nests are one inch depressions scratched in the soil, lined with leaves and other local plant materials, and positioned at the base of trees, or under brush piles.

The young leave the nest soon after hatching, but follow their mother for brooding and help with feeding. Young Wild Turkeys, with a few adult females, form large winter flocks of up to 200 turkeys.

Wild turkey in May
Photo by Lyn Topinka
It is a myth that turkeys are so dumb that they will drown in rainstorms.

First, Wild Turkeys are still pretty wily in order to avoid predators like coyotes and bobcats; and two, did you know that Wild Turkeys can swim, if they need to escape?

Another myth is that Benjamin Franklin wanted the Wild Turkey as our National Emblem.

In fact, a seal of office, made in France, was sent to Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately that eagle looked more like a turkey than a Bald Eagle.

Benjamin Franklin came to the turkey’s defense by saying, “For in Truth the Turk’y is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America…”
~~~~~
Update: Turkeys have been domesticated for 2,000 years.

Wild Turkeys have only been domesticated for 2,000 years, with fossils of non-domesticated Wild Turkeys being found that date back more than five million years.

Here are two of my resources:

According to Cornell's All About Birds
"Turkey fossils have been unearthed across the southern United States and Mexico, some of them dating from more than 5 million years ago."
The earliest signs of domestication found to date appear in Maya sites such as Cobá beginning about 100 BC-100 AD. [Reference]

Christine Southwick
11-26-2016


Read more...

For the Birds: Birds and their habitats are threatened

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Migrating Wilson's Warbler
Photo by Christine Southwick
By Christine Southwick

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (which was successfully used to protect and save the endangered Bald Eagle), the Migratory Bird Act, plus the funding for our National Parks and the National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) are all potential casualties of the incoming administration.

Voters of Washington reelected environmental friends — Gov. Inslee, Senator Patty Murray. Partnered with Senator Maria Cantwell, they have been saving wilderness and maintaining wildlife corridors.

This bodes well for Washington state, but funding is already low for Washington State Parks, local NWRs, our three National Parks, and the majority of city parks throughout the state (Shoreline’s Prop 1 will help maintain our parks, but love and care is still needed within our city).

The birds need viable habitat; the world needs climate help; and we are living in this environment.
What can we, as citizens, do?
Support -- Volunteer -- Activate!



Buy Discover Passes —give some to friends at Christmas. At $30 for a year, that pass lets you into our Washington state parks, NWRs, and Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife lands. That money supports these entities. You can buy these online.

When you buy your car tabs, pay the voluntary $5.00 that goes to Washington state parks. I was at the Deception State Park last week, and one popular camping ground and two main restrooms were already closed for the winter due to lack of funding. (Note: you can donate to Washington state parks here or here.)

Support local land conservation groups—Mountains to Sound Greenway is one of several; your local Audubon knows of others…

Federal duck stamp

Buy Federal Duck Stamps (Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps). Ninety-eight cents of every dollar goes to purchase vital birding habitat and/or conservation easements. If you buy them through the American Birding Association (ABA) there are no added fees, and you will be helping increase political influence for birding conservation.
 
Becoming a member of a habitat-preserving organization keeps you connected and informed; Cornell Lab of Ornithology; local Audubons, National Audubon, the ABA.


The Red-breasted Nuthatch is upside-down
Photo by Christine Southwick
Volunteer…

Give your sweat-equity … Each of our fourteen neighborhoods has a neighborhood association. Most associations create work parties in their neighborhood parks. Have a local park you think needs help? Create your own work party. Get rid of ivy and scotch broom, leave controlled areas of Himalayan Blackberry (blackberries provide year-round shelter and foods).

Volunteer at a state park or a National Wildlife Refuge e.g. the visitors’ center at Turnbull National Refuge in Walla Walla is closed due to lack of funding and not enough volunteers.

Activate...

Do you have strong ideas about local and state government? Will you think about running for office? People can help those that run by organizing outreach. Primaries determine who gets onto final ballots — vote in the primaries. By the time major elections are held, the candidates were determined by a very small number of voters. Our democracy depends on active citizens.

The birds, their habitat and ours, need our help
Protect your environmental passions
Don’t Complain—Act!



Read more...

For the Birds: Halloween Bird—The Great Horned Owl

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Great Horned Owl
Photo by Pat Taylor
By Christine Southwick

A witch flying in front of a full moon, with a large owl with ears sitting on a branch is a common Halloween picture.

The Great Horned Owl is that large owl. It does not have horns, nor are their ears located in those distinctive tuffs of feathers. They have large eyes, even for owls, are long-lived and have very powerful talons.

Great Horned Owls are so adaptive that they have the widest prey base and live in the greatest variety of habitat of any North American owl.

Great Horned Owl on post in field
Photo by Marlin Greene
The only habitat that they avoid is arctic-alpine regions.

While they prefer to eat rabbits, skunks, and rodents, their menu may include grouse, coots, smaller owls, even reptiles, amphibians, fish, and during lean times, large insects. If hunting is really poor, they will hunt during the day.

These owls are large and need habitat with open areas. Fragmenting of our local forests has opened up areas that were once too dense for them. They usually hunt by the perch and pounce, “sit-and-wait” method, but will hunt by quartering fields if the prey is scarce.

Great Horned Owl nesting on cliff
Photo by Eric Bjorkman
Great Horned Owls use nests built by other large birds -- hawks, crows, even Great Blue Herons, which means these owls are most often found in deciduous trees that are on the edges of fields. They will use cliff edges and crevices where trees are rare, and can easily survive in the desert.

Owl feathers are remarkably soft and great isolators, which enables these females to keep their eggs warm even when temperatures outside are more than 70 degrees colder.

Long-term monogamous, the pairs can be heard courtship calling in early winter. By late February the female will be sitting on one to four eggs for over a month, during which the male brings her food.

GH owlet in snag with White-breasted Nuthatch
Photo by Nancy J. Wagner Photography
The nestlings stay in the nest for six weeks, and then start climbing out on the nearby branches. The nestlings take short flights at seven weeks, and become fully fledged at nine-ten weeks. The parents feed and teach their young for several months, sometimes into October.

Great Horned Owls may fly long distances during fall and early winter, but don’t migrate.

One of the best ways to find these masters of camouflage is to look for whitewash on the tree/cliff face, and look for pellets (packets of indigestible bones, fur, hair) near the base of their perches or nest.



Read more...

For the Birds: Columbus Day Bird--The Tern that Told Columbus

Monday, October 10, 2016



Text by Christine Southwick
Photos by Elaine Chuang

After 29 days of non-land views, Columbus’ crew feared they would run out of water and food before they ever found land. Then, much to the joy of Columbus and his crews, Sandwich Terns and other short-distance birds were sighted. The ships adjusted their courses toward the route of the flocks, and islands in the Americas were discovered.


On this side of the continent we don’t have Sandwich Terns, but we do have the largest tern in the world—the Caspian Tern. The Caspian Tern is a distinctive looking bird with a bright red-orange bill, white body and during breeding plumage, a black cap. This tern is now found on all continents except Antarctica, Most Caspian Terns are short-distance migrants, only flying as far as California, but some fly as far as Venezuela.


Caspian Terns are aggressive protectors of their colonies, in part because their youngsters stay-in-training with their parents for several months. Apparently learning to catch fish on the fly is a hard skill to learn. Adults don’t begin breeding until their third year, and may live for twelve years.

Caspian Terns prefer sheltered waters close to land, rather than open oceans. They feed mainly on fish usually close to the surface. They fly with their bills focused downward, hovering, then plunging into the water, often going completely under.

They nest on sand and low gravel islands with little vegetation. Until fairly recent history, they used to nest in small groups that mixed with gulls.


Easily disturbed by humans, many Caspian Terns here in Washington have moved to Rice Island in the Columbia estuary, and have created the largest colony on the West Coast. This colony eats a lot of salmon smolts. This caused the Army Corps of Engineers to propose moving the colony to East Sand Island. This move and proposed disruption of the Caspian Terns caused Seattle Audubon with other conservation groups to bring forth a lawsuit.

I have only seen Caspian Terns in a few places in Washington during April through August, but some of the pictures attached were actually taken at Smith Cove Park, a small park between Magnolia and Queen Anne.

For more information about Caspian Terns in the Columbia River estuary, go to Columbia Bird Research and click on Background.



Read more...

For the Birds: Labor Day Bird—Cheerful Chickadee

Monday, September 5, 2016

Photo by Elaine Chuang


By Christine Southwick

Remember the lyrics, “When there’s too much to do, Don’t let it bother you, Forget your trouble, Try to be, Just like the cheerful chickadee…”

Apropos for Labor Day, I thought.

Photo by Elaine Chuang

Black-capped Chickadees bring a smile to most people’s faces. Their upside-down antics while gleaning tiny little bugs from branches; their happy calls; and their easily identified black-and white heads make Black-caps welcome in most everyone’s yard.

These inquisitive little bundles of energy are the neighborhood warning system. Once they find a newly installed feeder, all the neighborhood knows where to find it.  Their “Predator Alarm” of dee dee dees is recognized by other species. The more dee dees at the end of their call, the more danger.

A human only rates an extra dee dee; a Sharp-shinned Hawk rates four or five dee-dees, and every little bird within hearing dives for the bushes, no questions asked.

Did you know that Black-capped Chickadees have the most complex social order of our local birds?

Photo by Elaine Chuang

The dominate bird eats first, picking the biggest and best seed. He then flies off with his prize, replaced by the dominate female, and  the rest of the flock members follow singly, in set order, with each chickadee getting its turn to swoop in, snatch a seed, and take it to the cover of a nearby branch to eat their seeds.

In wintertime, kinglets, Red-breasted Nuthatches, even Downy Woodpeckers rely on these resident shuttlecocks to find all the wintertime hoards and special offerings.

Black-capped Chickadees are cavity nesters, and readily use nest boxes with a 1 1/8 inch openings.

Photo by Christine Southwick

Hang the box in a safe place, where chickadees can fly from nearby branches. Throw in some wood chips, and usually chickadees will start nesting March/April. The male feeds the female while she is on her four to five eggs, and he helps feed the young. The fledgling will fly to new territories about three weeks after leaving their nest, but the core flock will stay in your yard.

Offer good quality seed, water to drink and bath in, nesting sites to raise their young, and trees and shrubs for shelter, and your yard will be graced with these delightful bug-eating birds.

Note: during cold spells, if you leave a bee guard off your hummingbird feeders, you may find that these smart little devils will learn to take a sip for quick energy.



Read more...

For the Birds: National Left-Handers Day Aug 13 - Killdeer left-winged?

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Left-winged Killdeer
Photo by Elaine Chuang

By Christine Southwick

Name a bird that just sticks out one wing at a time to be noticed.

Killdeer are known for their broken-wing diversionary tactics. The parent will protect its eggs or its flightless young by walking / scurrying away from the nest with one of its wings extended, while quivering.

Who’s to say whether or not 10% of the Killdeer favor using their left wing over using their right wing? (I don’t know that is so, just sayin’.)

Killdeer Mom and chick
Photo by John Tubbs

Killdeer are a shorebird that can also be found on lawns, gravelly driveways, parking lots, edges of roads, and even golf courses, searching for grasshoppers, beetles, even small frogs and crawfish, in addition to their preferred snails, and aquatic insect larvae.

They usually run in bursts, then stop to search for its next meal. A Killdeer is most easily identified by its round head, shorebird-length legs, double chest bands, and by their loud distinct call.

Killdeer adult
Photo by Glenn Hansen

Calling early and into the night, sometimes even while flying, Killdeer were named after their unmistakable “Killdeerrrrrr” calls. Their coloring allows them to blend in with sand, rocks, and shore logs, but not green lawns. Killdeer are usually heard before being seen, and may well be overlooked if they stay silent.

Killdeer will nest in almost any open, fairly flat area with vegetation one inch or lower, and that has sufficient water and food nearby. The male make several scrapes on the ground, and the female selects the one she’ll use for her four to six eggs. The other nest scrapes may help confuse predators, and from time to time the parents add twigs and rocks to the scrapes.

Killdeer newborn
Photo by Keith Brady

Killdeer babies are precocial — meaning that they are born with full feathers, and as soon as the feathers dry from hatching, the babies start running around. The babies are tiny, only have one neck ring and hide under their parents for protection. These little fluff-balls-with-legs can’t fly for three to four weeks. The watchful parents protect their young by loudly faking a broken wing and leading any predator astray. No matter which wing they use, this trick usually works.

The best place in Shoreline to find Killdeer is Richmond Beach Saltwater Park, or any low-growing open area, especially if it has gravel and water nearby. So watch your step, and keep listening for Killdeer-rrrrrr



Read more...

For the Birds: National Night Out Bird—Common Nighthawk

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Nighthawks are easy to identify by the bright white broad bar across each pointed wing
Stock photo

By Christine Southwick

August 2nd is National Night Out — a time when many neighborhoods in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park are having street-block get-togethers. This is a perfect time to observe evening birds that you might not take the time to notice otherwise.

American Robins sing the most loudly at dawn and dusk and are easy to spot. They are actually pretty birds.

Barred Owls (found in every local neighborhood) will often start calling in early evening, and continue through until about 5:00am.

But the really fun bird to find would be the Common Nighthawk!

Nighthawk at rest
Stock photo
Never heard of them? Their name is really a misnomer. They don’t hunt at night — they hunt at dusk and dawn (called crepuscular – meaning active during twilight) while flying with their wide mouths open to catch as many flying insects as possible.

They are not a hawk — they belong to the Nighthawk, Nightjar family. And here in Western Washington, they are no longer common.

They used to be found in the general Seattle area on the many flat, graveled rooftops. Now that most flat roofs have been rubberized, there are very few in our urban areas. Some believe that gulls and crows, having learned that nighthawk nests yield delectable morsels, are a contributing factor in their local decline.

During our long summer evenings, nighthawks can be seen flying over treetops, and especially around street lights where the high concentration of bugs makes their open-gape bug-catching the most effective.

They are easy to identify by the bright white broad bar across each pointed wing. Their call, an electric “peent” is also a diagnostic signal to look for these birds.

I have only seen Common Nighthawks east of the mountains, but reports of sightings in this area occur during their long migration every year. These cryptically-colored, black, gray, and white birds often roost on the ground, especially gravel and large horizontal branches.

During the day they choose not to move and are as easy to overlook as owls. Their short necks and large eyes give them a profile not usually associated with birds, adding to their disguise.

So while you are talking and eating outside with your neighbors, look and listen for local birds.  If you see a fast flying bird with a bright flash of white on pointed wings, and hear a “peent”, you may have seen a Common Nighthawk, and I would like to hear from you.



Read more...

For the Birds: Fourth of July -- The Red White and Blue Bird

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Lazuli Bunting singing in Redmond, WA during N. migration
 Photo by Kazuto Shibata

By Christine Southwick

Which bird in Washington wears the colors of our flag? The dazzling Lazuli Bunting (even the name sounds patriotic) holds that honor.

Each second-year male Lazuli Bunting, upon returning from his first migration, independently creates his individual song, made of Lazuli syllables and song fragments. He uses this one song for rest of his life. Because his song is influenced by those he heard growing up, his song has what is called the “neighborhood effect” much like our regional accents.

Male with bug had been eating blackberries
Photo by Winston "Rocky" Rockwell

If this distinctness isn’t enough, all Lazuli Buntings have an unusual molting and migration pattern. They start their yearly feather replacement (called molting) before leaving their usually dry-country, shrubby-hillside breeding grounds. But then they stop their molt, fly down to one of two Lazuli Bunting molting hotspots located in the southwestern US, where they finish renewing their feathers. Covered with a full set of new feathers they continue their migration to their wintering grounds in western Mexico.

Lazuli Buntings are food-adaptable; gleaning insects from trees and shrubs, hopping on the ground to harvest seeds, or even perching on stems to remove seeds and fruits with their thick beaks.

Lazuli Bunting portrait
Photo by William Fletcher

When it comes to sensational colors, the Lazuli female prefers to blend into the vegetation with her grayish-brown head and blue-tinted feathers. Even when fly-catching, she launches from low sheltered perches, preferring to let her loudly long-singing mate fly-catch and claim territory from prominent tree-top and shrub-top perches.

These birds are monogamous. The female selects the site, 2-4 foot from the ground, and builds her cup-shaped nest for 3-4 eggs, wrapping the outside of the nest with tent caterpillar silk. She incubates and broods the young (hence the duller coloring) while the male brings the meals of invertebrates and insects. The nestlings leave the nest 9-11 days after hatching, but stay close by in thick undergrowth. They are fed by both parents for at least two weeks. If the female starts a second brood, the male takes over feeding the fledglings; a common occurrence in our local birds — Spotted Towhee and Oregon Junco fathers are often seen feeding their fledglings while the female is nesting again.

Male eating seeds on ground, note bi-colored bill
Photo by Mike Denny

These dramatic birds will come to bird feeders, but only if you are in the dryer parts of the western United States. Look and listen for them in eastern Washington in riparian canopies to sage-type brush.




Read more...

For the Birds: Memorial Day bird - Purple Martin

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Purple Martin, male
Photo by Keith Williamson

By Christine Southwick

The Purple Martin is the largest North American swallow, and one of the largest swallows in the world. Could it also have the largest Purple Heart?

These long-distance flock migrators arrive here in mid-April to May from as far away as Brazil and Argentina, and leave again in late summer. Rapid flyers, their long pointed wings perform both flaps and glides, as they feed on large flying insects (like dragonflies), which causes them to fly higher than other swallows and makes them difficult for birders to spot.

Purple Martin pair
Photo by Blair Bernson
Purple Martins have long associated with humans — First Nation tribes frequently hung gourds in their villages for these birds. In the eastern U.S., Purple Martin almost exclusively nest in those white man-made apartment-type bird houses, but here in western Washington they use natural cavities when available, or individual gourds (natural or artificial) when not. They do not like apartment living, preferring to be closer to the water.

Seasonally monogamous, both parents feed (and perhaps brood) their 4-5 young, until the young are able to catch their own food on the wing. The fledglings often return to their gourds for a few nights after their first flight.

In the last 60 years, their population here in western Washington has steeply declined since most of their natural cavities in the form of woodpecker holes and rotted piling have been lost due to prime waterfronts being claimed by human habitation.

Add the introduction of earlier-nesting European Starling and House Sparrows, plus pesticides poisoning the bugs they eat, and you have the reasons why Purple Martins are on the Washington At-Risk List.

The Purple Martin recovery story in western Washington is a prime example of how individuals can make an important difference.

Male feeding dragonfly to young while female watches
Photo by Kim Stark

Kevin Li started drilling and hanging gourds along many of this area’s waterways. When starlings and house sparrows started moving in, he plugged the holes until the rightful owners returned from their winter climes. The almost-vanished Seattle Purple Martins started to increase!

Kevin Li has passed away, and now other great local volunteers have taken up this important cause. The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, plus a group down on the Columbia River are additional groups that I know have come to the rescue of the west coast Purple Martin.


Female and males using artificial gourds
Photo by Soo Hong

Purple Martin numbers are still far too low, but with help from bird lovers, this species may continue to survive.


Read more...

For the Birds: International Migratory Bird Day

Friday, May 13, 2016

Wilson's Warbler, male, returning from Central America

Text and photos by Christine Southwick

The second Saturday of May has been declared the International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) in the Americas.

Why is this important? At least fifty of our favorite King County species migrate here each summer and return to Central or South America each fall. Almost all warblers, swallows and swifts, even some of our raptors, like Merlin, have flown long distances to breed here.

MacGillivray's Warbler stop over on migration from S. Amer.- bathing necessary too

Additionally there are another fifty over-wintering birds, like Fox Sparrows, that shelter in our mild winters here and leave about April to fly further north, often to breed in the Boreal Forests.

All shorebirds have long circular migration routes, some exceeding 15,000 miles annually, most flying from Central or South America up to their breeding grounds in the Arctic, and then back southward in the fall.

The majority of the 20 million shorebirds that migrate through the United States to their Arctic breeding sites each year depend on five key staging sites: Washington’s Gray’s Harbor, Alaska’s Copper River Delta, eastern Canada’s Bay of Fundy, Kansas’ Cheyenne Bottoms, and the beaches of Delaware Bay.

Some shorebirds, like Godwits and Snowy Plovers, do breed here and arrive at night after a prolonged flight,  arriving in mid-March and leaving by sometime in October.

White-crowned Sparrow, breeds locally, migrates south in winter

The majority of songbirds fly during the night, mainly, it is believed, to avoid predators, and their mass migrations are such that the beginnings of their southward movements show up on evening radar.

Strictly bug eaters, like the swallows and Vaux’s Swift, are forced to fly during the day to find the insects which fuel their long arduous flights.

For all birds on migration, resting and refueling sites make the difference between surviving or perishing.

Without stops along their routes that have water, and food, many die. Some of you may have heard the term, “Fall-out” when referring to spring migration, especially along coastlines or after a storm.

Varied Thrush, male  winters-over here  goes higher to breed

Exhausted birds, after an especially hard leg of their journey, upon reaching their much needed refueling stop, are so tired and famished, that they don’t have the strength to grasp a perch, and literally bounce off branches and sometimes fall to the ground. I had that happen one time in my yard, after a storm that caught a flock of returning robins. It was amazing.

Conservation efforts to save destinations and route stops were the impetuous for creating the IMBD, to raise awareness of the need to preserve unique feeding, resting and nesting stops and habitat.



Read more...

For the Birds: May Day Bird - American Robin

Sunday, May 1, 2016

American Robin
Photo by Christine Southwick

By Christine Southwick

Perhaps no other bird is as associated with the oncoming of the Spring/ Summer season.

A harbinger of warm weather, walks in the park, picnics on the ground, this stop-and-go seeker-of-worms-in-lawns, brings a welcoming smile to adults and young children alike.

Community bath
Photo by Christine Southwick

Americans have a long positive relationship with robins. These predominately open-area birds are relatively unafraid of most human activity, thus being easy to see. Homesick early English settlers named the American Robin after the Robin of their homeland. Though both robins have red breasts, eat worms, and are often found around soil-turning humans, these two species are not related at all.

Our robins are the largest of the thrush family. Being familiar to most everyone, their profile is used by birders to help identify other birds..”larger/ smaller than a robin”.

Juvenile robin exploring its world - leaves aren't food
Photo by Christine Southwick

American Robins are willing to nest near humans, so familiar that the color of their eggs have become a paint color “Robin Blue”, or “Robin's Egg Blue”.  Robins can have up to three broods a year, usually four eggs each time, but since their nests are built on a horizontal branch, and often not hidden well, only about 40% of their nestlings survive, and only 25% of their spotted fledglings make it to November. Both parents aggressively defend their nests.

About half of the robins survive each year, so these extra broods are what keep this species viable. Thankfully, as more people stop using poisons on their lawns, more robins are surviving, and a lucky, smart robin could live up to fourteen years.

American Robins breed in the widest range of habitats of all Washington songbirds. They mostly eat worms and ground insects, but in the wintertime eat mainly fruits, sometimes with drunken results if the fruits have fermented.

Robin snagging a worm out of grass
Photo by Christine Southwick

Robins can form large flocks in the winter, and even though their Latin name is Turdus Migratorious, they are considered short distance migrants. Indeed, the robins you see in the winter may not be the same ones you see in the summer — our winter birds most likely come from further north. Another reason you don’t see as many robins in the winter is that as their diets shift more to fruits, they are not as often on the ground and are more likely to shelter in trees.

Reduce your use of herbicides/ pesticides/ harsh fertilizers, and birds, especially American Robins, will thank you, and grace your area with happy bubbly songs.



Read more...
ShorelineAreaNews.com
Facebook: Shoreline Area News
Twitter: @ShorelineArea
Daily Email edition (don't forget to respond to the Follow.it email)

  © Blogger template The Professional Template II by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP