Baby Wood Ducks
Spring is an amazing time of year filled with all the hope and promise of life in the natural world. As a wildlife photographer I am privilege to witness
Cowbirds
Nature is a strange and wonderful thing. It is so incredibly complex that science has yet to wrap its understanding mind completely around it. Yet nature is simple enough to be well balanced and takes care of itself without help from people. To see an example of this duality just take a look around your own yard. Have you ever seen a tiny adult bird feeding what appears to be a very large baby bird? That is what I’m seeing in my yard this week. So what’s going on with these smaller birds feeding larger baby birds? These Baby Huey’s couldn’t possibly be the offspring of these small adult birds? Could they? Well the answer is yes and no. The incredible story goes like this. There is a bird called the Brown-headed Cowbird. They’re called this because the male has a brown head and they are commonly seen around cows. It is a common native bird that is a member of the blackbird family. The cowbird has the most unusual nesting habits. Or should I say non-nesting habits. You see, the female cowbird doesn’t build her own nest. Nor does she incubate her own eggs—EVER. Rather she is an expert at finding the nests of other birds such as sparrows and warblers where she will lay her eggs in a “host” nest. While the resident mother is away from the nest the female cowbird slips in and lays one of her own eggs. The egg laying process only takes a minute or two so the cowbird is in and out quickly and often unnoticed by the nest owner. Now comes the interesting part. Cowbirds lay their eggs in up to 200 species of “host” bird’s nests. Some of these birds will reject the cowbird egg by removing it. Some will simply build a new nest right over the top of the old nest with the cowbird egg in it. However many will accept the cowbird egg as their own and raise the cowbird young as if it were their own. Are you starting to see the picture? The cowbirds non-nest building behavior is called parasitic nesting. It relies on host birds to build the nest and raise their young often to the detriment to their own natural babies. There are about 750 species of parasitic birds worldwide. The Brown-headed Cowbird is the only one found in our region. I think most people would automatically jump to the conclusion that the cowbird is a bad bird. After all how could it be anything else? Well, the few studies that have been done might indicate the opposite. For example, in one study, a hundred host nests that had cowbird eggs where monitored. In half of the nests the cowbird’s egg was removed and in the other half the eggs were left. Of the nest where the cowbird egg was removed move than half of the nests were destroyed. Of the nests with the cowbird eggs less than 20 percent were destroyed. The thinking is, the cowbird adults are affording some level of protection for the nest and eggs as a reward for allowing the cowbird egg to remain. After all the cowbirds have a vested interest in keeping the host nest and eggs safe so their own babies will survive. Brown-headed Cowbirds have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps millions of years and as far as we know their parasitic behavior hasn’t harmed other species in a balanced undisturbed habitat. So in fact the reason we think they are a bad birds has more to do with our own sense of fair play and nothing at all to do with actually being a bad bird. I find myself fascinated at the fact that cowbird babies grow up with host parents who don’t look or sound like cowbirds at all. This gets me thinking, how does a baby cowbird grow up to know that it is a cowbird and not a sparrow or warbler? How does the cowbird learn to sing the right song and find the right mate? The answer is, no one knows. These are just a few of the mysteries of the cowbird world and I think the most interesting aspect of this much maligned bird. Until next time…
Summer
We are moving into the doldrums of summer. Gone are the fast pace days of spring when the pre-dawns are filled with hundreds of singing birds and the cool nights are filled with a million calling frogs. At this time of year most of the birds are wrapping up nesting. The fevered pitch of spring-time nesting is over for another year. It’s time for the adult birds and their young to have a few weeks of relative calm and prosperity before moving into the next phase of avian life. That is not to say that all nesting is over. Oh no, there are still some hyper-reproductive birds out there. House Wrens and Cardinals are good examples of birds that are working on a second batch of babies. I am listening to a batch of young House Wrens begging for food as I write this. Eastern Bluebirds also mustard up the reproductive power to produce another clutch of nestlings for the year. Not to mention the American Goldfinch, one of the latest nesting birds, who are just getting started on their nesting efforts. Most of the larger birds only nest once a season. As I write this from the deck of my cabin I am watching a nesting pair of Osprey feed their two chicks. It will take many meals of fish to grow these chicks to flight size. Once they are large enough the process of learning to fly will take several more weeks and learning to catch their own fish is another solid month or more. While contemplating the life of the Osprey, several Common Loons are flying overhead. Their stuttering tremolo call echo’s off the forest walls that surround the lake. They too will need the rest of the summer for their young to grow and develop enough hunting skills to survive. Hunting for fish is not an easy skill to master and the loon babies will need to be extremely proficient before they migrate at the end of summer. Speaking of fishing, the Belted Kingfisher, a large robin sized bird blue and white bird who hunts fish for a living will now spend the rest of the summer teaching their offspring to catch fish. This species is truly amazing when it comes to the art of instruction. Once the young kingfishers can fly well enough to follow their parents the real work begins. The adults will fly to one of their favorite hunting spots. The young will follow and perch along side of their parents to get a front row seat on the action. The adults wait for a small minnow to swim near the waters surface. Suddenly they dive off the perch, head first, plummeting towards the water. They enter the water beak first, often completely submerging their entire body to grab the fish. They bob to the surface then fly back to the perch with the minnow in their beak. Now the hunting lesson begins. The adult Kingfisher takes the still wriggling minnow and bangs it several times against the branch stunning the fish. When sufficiently subdued the adult drops the minnow back into the water underneath the perch for the young Kingfisher to practice their diving and catching. Apparently there are no free lunches in the Kingfisher world. Their young must work for their meal. Over and over again the adult Kingfishers dives in for another minnow, returns to the perch, bangs the minnow against the branch and tosses the fish back into the water. The youngsters will need many attempts to get it right and are able to hunt for themselves. So as we move into the doldrums of summer there are still some amazing things to see in nature. You just may need to use a little more mosquito spray and sun block. Until next time…
Nesting Habitat
Feeding wild birds is a very rewarding and gratifying backyard activity. I mean, it’s hard to beat seeing all of those colorful birds flitting in and out of your yard. Not to mention the songs they sing that filter in through our open windows on a warm summer morning. Over all it’s a wonderful experience. To take backyard bird feeding one step further you might want to consider providing some housing for your avian visitors. Ya, that’s right food and shelter. What a great combination. If you thought feeding the birds was fun, wait till you put up a couple nesting boxes and get a glimpse into the family life a your favorite birds. Providing backyard nesting habitat is fairly easy. All you need to do is observe what bird species are already visiting your yard then provide them with the correct housing. And I can’t over emphases the need for “correct” housing. Believe it or not, the type of nest box and the size of the entrance hole are extremely important in attracting a specific species of bird. For example if you want a Black-capped Chickadee to nest in a house you provided for them, you will need a nest box with a entrance hole that is no bigger than 1 1/8 inch. So do a little reading and educate yourself before just putting up some nest boxes. If you want to attract a specific species to your yard, you will need to ask yourself what kind of habitat surrounds my home? For example, many homeowners want to attract bluebirds to their yards. I don’t blame them, who wouldn’t. I would love to have bluebirds in my yard, however if you don’t have the correct habitat your chances are very slim of ever getting bluebirds to use your nest boxes. Bluebirds prefer wide open habitat away from any woodlands. If your yard is heavily wooded like mine, your chances of getting a bluebird are greatly diminished and you will only attract woodland species to your bluebird boxes. However your wooded yard would be a great place to attract a very special cavity nesting bird. It’s a common bird but is not often seen due to its secretive behavior and tree top preferences. It is the Great Crested Flycatcher. It is one of the larger members of the flycatcher family with a warm olive colored head and back and a bright yellow belly and a long rusty red tail. It is slightly smaller than a robin and best of all, it nests in cavities so you have a chance at attracting this bird to nest in your yard. Recently I had an opportunity to photograph a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers, thanks to a wonderful reader who contacted and invited me to see and photograph her birds. I must commend her for putting up all sorts of nesting boxes in her well maintained yard. When I first arrived there were birds flitting to and from the feeders. There were more birds splashing in the many bird baths that were scattered around the yard. The homeowner explained to me her husband built the nesting boxes that dotted her yard. The nest box that the flycatchers were using had the entrance hole widened by a squirrel and later by a woodpecker. All of this unwanted activity made the nest box a perfect fit for the Great Crested Flycatchers. Apparently the flycatchers tried unsuccessfully to nest in a different nest box last year. This year they moved over and found the perfect home. The day I was there the babies had just hatched that morning. There were four little ones and the parents were busy collecting tiny insects to feed their family. By the time I returned to photograph the young birds a couple days later the young were much larger and the parents were bringing in huge bug meals. I returned twice more and was thrilled at the opportunity to document this wonderful backyard bird. If you have an interesting visitor to your yard, I would love to hear about it. Until next time…
Bracken Cave Bats
It’s funny, I believe the average person knows more about the Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis), a critter of Africa and Southwest Asia
Whooping Cranes
I have just retuned minutes ago from my yearly trip/visit to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin and the home of the Whooping
Hummingbird Migration
Well, it’s that time of year again. The count down is on and it’s just a matter of a few precious days to a week or so before we we’ll say
Sonoran Desert
I have just returned from eight days in one of my favorite places in the whole wide world—the Sonoran Desert in southeastern Arizona. Ya, I know what you are thinking. What they heck was I thinking going to the desert in the US in the middle of summer? Well, it’s actually not as bad as you might think. I do this every year. In fact it is by far the most wildlife rich areas I have ever seen even in all the sun baked heat. First of all it’s the monsoon season in the desert which means each afternoon in the peak of the oppressive heat, clouds build up and thunderstorms break out all over the place which helps to cool things down. Although rain has been nearly non-existent this year, the clouds did help to cool things down even without the associated rain. I spent my early mornings before the day got too hot photographing hummingbirds. There were up to 8 species of hummers congregating at nectar feeders. I stopped into a friend’s house that keeps track of how many hummingbirds she is feeding each and every day during the migration. By measuring exactly how much nectar (sugar water) the hummers are consuming each day she is able to calculate how many hummingbirds she had visiting her feeders. On the day that I visited she had 1416 hummers that drank 8.18 quarts of nectar in one day. That was the highest count of hummers during the fall migration she has ever seen in the ten years of monitoring. Her feeders were swarming with hummingbirds and I got several nice images showing the buzz of activity. The middle of the day, which is the hottest, was spent moving from one location to another to get ready for the evening photo session. The evenings were spent setting up for night-time photography of bats and other small mammals. This year I tried to concentrate on photographing bats getting a drink of water from a small pond in the middle of the parched desert. This involves setting up many flash units (some installed just inches over the waters surface) all connected to some amazingly complicated electronics. The image I was after was bats taking a drink of water. After a feeding on a huge variety of insects the bats need to wash it all down with a drink of water. The bats would fly down and skim the surface of a small pond and grab a quick drink. Using an inferred beam of light the bats themselves would trigger the flash and camera capturing the drinking action. I got several nice images of this behavior. However, none of this compared to something that happened on evening. I was working on photograph a southern Grasshopper Mouse (Onychomys torridus). These are small compact mice with short tails that make a living by eating, as you guessed, grasshoppers and other insects. They are the most carnivorous (insectivorous) of all the mice. But this was not the cool part. The grasshopper mouse is well known to stand on their hind legs, throw their heads back and howl like a wolf. Well, not exactly like a wolf. They sound more like a mouse but I think you get the idea. Both the male and female do this behavior. About two years ago I was in the desert working on photographing grasshopper mice again when I thought I saw one stand up, throw it’s head back and howl. What I heard was an extremely high pitched, thin whistle but I wasn’t positive. Last week while trying to photograph one I had my back turned to the mouse. I suddenly heard a very high pitched, thin whistle that almost hurts your years. Immediately I remember the sound from two years ago. I spun around and there was this grasshopper mouse. As I watched he would scamper over to a small rock, climb on top, throw his head back and give his mouse-like wolf howl. I spent the next several hours photographing him/her howling. Head back and mouth open. You can’t image how thrilled I was to finally see and photograph something that I had read about but had never actually seen or even known anyone who had seen it. What role this howling accomplished I don’t know. But as a naturalist and wildlife photographer every encounter that is documented in pictures and experiences adds to the over all body of scientific knowledge. I wrapped up my adventure in the desert with many hours of hummingbird photography and headed for home completely exhausted from lack of sleep and way too much fun. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com
Moose
The clouds were so low and full of snow that they completely shrouded the 12,000 foot mountain peaks that lay in front of me. It is only 12 degrees F. and nearly 10 inches of snow has fallen since the storm started last night. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for me but this is the first week of October. A little early to start the winter season I thought to myself. As I stand there I can see through the falling snow flakes a very large bull moose who is fixated upon his hearts desire–a cow moose. The snow is coming down so hard that it’s piling up on this antlers and long dark back. I am thinking, this is a fantastic day to be in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. I have come here to photograph moose and so far I am not disappointed. Sure, I am a little taken back by the cold and snowy weather but not disappointed in the moose at all. Suddenly the cow moose along with her small calf start to trot off over the ridge and out of sight. Of course the bull moose is right on their tail. Figuring they are heading for the protection of the river I jump in my truck and head out on the snow covered roads. Just a mile or so down the road I take a side road and follow it to a dead end. Parking, I survey the landscape for any sign of the moose passing this way. Nothing. Grabbing my camera and zipping up my jacket to my chin I head out across the snow blanketed sage brush landscape. The snow is now really coming down hard. Heading south, stumbling through the snow covered sage brush I trudge on in search of the moose. Coming to a small stand of trees I find the cow moose and her calf. They are standing there staring at me. Clearly they saw me well before I saw them. The bull moose can’t be far away so I slowly make my way around to the left side of the stand of trees. It’s not long before I spot the bull moose laying down. His large antlers are standing above the vegetation making him easy to spot. Standing there trying to figure out what to do, the bull moose stands up and shakes off the coating of snow. At first I thought I might have spooked him but no. I can see just beyond the bug bull is a small bull moose walking through the woods. Clearly the big bull is not happy with this smaller interloper. The big boy approaches the smaller moose and begins to scrape out shallow depression in the snow covered ground. Snow and dirt are flying as this 1,000 lb, plus bull moose paws the ground. This looks like an aggressive behavior. The big bull takes a few steps forward and starts to paw the ground again. More snow and dirt are flying as he digs a second shallow depression. The smaller bull doesn’t seem to get the message so the big guy moves even closer. This time he paws the ground with great vigor and produces a large hole in the ground. Then the big bull squats over the newly dug hole and urinates in it. It occurs to me that he has produced a wallow designed to coat himself in a urine scent that is enticing to the female moose. After urinating the male lowers his head and shoulders down to the urine soaked scrape in the ground. He is trying to splash the pheromone laced urine onto his front legs and also on to his dewlap which is the large flap of skin and fur resembling a bell that hangs from his throat. Then the big male lays down in the wallow and starts to rock back and forth not quite rolling over. At this point his has done a good job at coating his hind quarters with the magic mating scent. Then he gets up and stands there proud of his accomplishments. Apparently this was completely lost on the female because at that moment she starts to walk off with her calf in tow. Seeing the exodus, the large male heads out in hot pursuit leaving the small male standing there all by himself. Once the large male was out of sight the small male boldly walks over to the wallow and proceeds get down in the big guys wallow. Apparently the little guy figures if he can’t look big he can smell big. The little male does the same thing as the big guy then stands up. With the light fading fast and nearly 2 miles to walk back to my truck I turn and start walking back. Along the way I am reflecting on the amazing breeding behavior of the moose I was privileged to witness. Wow, that was cool or should I say cold. Until next time…
Blue Jays 10-23-09
I’ve been spending a lot of time photographing one of my favorite backyard birds–the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). You could say it’s one of the iconic birds of backyards all across the eastern half of the country. Not only is this blue beauty a familiar eastern bird, but for over the past 10 years, it has been expanding its range westward pushing into previously uncharted Blue Jay territory such as western Montana, Idaho and Colorado. I find so many things about the Blue Jay fascinating. Let me tell you about a few. First of all, the Blue Jay is a member of the Crow family called the Corvidae. Jays are closely related to crows and ravens which are considered some of the smartest birds in North America. I don’t think that will come as a big surprise to anyone who has spent any time watching these backyard bandits. I think Blue Jays are incredibly smart, bold, and immensely interesting to watch. Another interesting and not well known fact about the backyard blue is they have a hidden pouch in their mouth under their tongues. This is called the sub-lingual pouch where the jays collect up a large amount of food such as peanuts to carry back to a nest or to a safe place in which to consume. You can see this for yourself by watching the jays at your own feeder. They will pull a peanut from the feeder and toss it up so that it lands in the back of the mouth where it is stored under the tongue. I have seen a Blue Jay stuff up to 10 shelled peanuts into its pouch at one time. The bulge created by all the peanuts makes them look disfigured and I swear it’s hard for them to fly with all that extra weight. The Blue Jay could also be the poster-child for all the examples on how birds are colored. Birds are colored in one of three ways. The first way is pigments. There are three main kinds of pigments, melanins, carotenoids and porphyrins. Melanins come from amino acids that the bird obtains from the proteins in its diet. Most birds that are black or brown have a large amount of melanin in their feathers. The second pigment is carotenoids. They produce red, orange and yellow. Birds such as cardinals and goldfinch are brightly colored because of carotenoids. The third pigment is porphyrins which produce some reds and browns and greens. Pigeons and owls obtain their unique colors from porphyrins. The second way birds are colored is mechanical. Within a jay’s feathers are millions of tiny air filled cells called vacuoles. As sunlight enters the cells the wavelengths of sunlight are separated. Some of the spectrum of sunlight is absorbed by a thin layer within the cell while other wavelength of light are scattered and reflected back to our eyes. In particular the blue, indigo and violet part of the light spectrum is combined and reflected and we see the color blue. So the Blue Jay is blue only by trickery and no actual color or pigment. To prove this all you need to do is pick up a Blue Jay feather and hold it up to the light and look through the feather from the back or inside to the front or outside. You will see the feather is actually gray not blue. If it was blue due to pigments (which there are no blue pigments in birds) it would be blue no matter which direction you looked at the feather. Without the millions of vacuoles to scatter the blue spectrum of light we would have to rename this bird Gray Jay. Hey come to think of it. There is a species of jay that is all gray and is called the Gray Jay. Sounds like the topic for the next column. The third way birds are colored is nothing at all. Feathers lacking pigments or vacuoles are white. Now you know why the Blue Jay is the poster child for how birds are colored. They are black, blue and white. Until next time Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be contacted at his web page at www.naturesmart.com