Perched nearly 20 feet in the air looking down at the forest floor below, I was waiting for a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers to return to their nest cavity to feed their babies. I love these moments. Sitting in my modified tree stand high up in a tree, I’ve been here long enough to completely blend into the forest. A hummingbird flies up to my face to check me out. Shortly after that I watch a female Wood Duck flying through the dense forest canopy at high speed. How she doesn’t run into a branch is beyond me.
Hour after hour I watch and photograph a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers coming and going from their nest as they feed their newly hatched babies. Watching the birds coming and going with their beaks stuffed full of everything from caterpillars to beetles, it got me thinking about just how many insects these birds consume.
So I started a little informal study, that would track the number of visits to the nest per hour and approximately how many insects they were carrying. Since the number of insects packed into their beak was too hard to judge while taking the pictures, I figured I would use the images I took to “freeze frame” the action and be able to count back in my office on the computer.
So I started to keep track of how many times both the male and female visited the nest per hour. Early in the morning when insects were not as plentiful they would visit the nest cavity about 7 to 8 times per hour. Later in the morning when the temperatures rose the amount of visits increased to 13 to 15 times per hour.
At some times of the day the parents would take a break and feed themselves and stay away from the nest, visiting only once or twice. But at other times the parents would visit about 20 to 21 times per hour.
Now, the amount of daylight in the month of June is high, on average just over 15 hours between sunrise and sunset. This is not counting the twilight before and after the sunrise and sunset, which could easily add another hour of light. But let’s just count the time of actual daylight, 15 hours.
I calculated the average number of trips per hour which came out to around 14 trips to the nest per hour. So with 14 trips per hour and 15 hours of daylight per day each parent visited the nest 210 times. That means with two parents that is 420 visits to the next per day.
Now back in my office I started to look closely at all the images and counting how many insects are being carried in each visit. While I couldn’t always determine exactly how many insects, I did my best. Some visits had only 3 insects that I could see. Others were as high as 7 insects, such as small green caterpillars. So on average they were carrying about 5 insects per visit.
So this means that one parent visiting 210 times per day, each time carrying 5 insects (on average) means that one parent gathered 1,050 insects per day. Combined with the second parent, over 2,000 insects per day are brought to their babies. That is over 14,000 insects per week, and 420,000 insects per month just by one pair of woodpeckers.
This is not counting how many insects the parents are eating while they are working to gather the food to feed their chicks. Now consider how many birds are out there right now feeding their babies. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates a minimum of 10 billion birds breed in the United States each year. That is just the adult birds. Not the juveniles. Not all eat insects but you get the point there are a lot of birds. These birds are eating an astronomical amount of insects. Now, I want you to do one thing, try to imagine a world without birds. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com
All of nature seems to be in reproductive over-drive or perhaps more accurately hyper-drive. Just look around, baby birds seems to be everywhere. Big birds, little birds and everything in-between. Adult birds are busy all day trying to fill the mouths of their begging fledglings.
The rush for reproduction is bases on a limited amount of time to get the job done. I don’t think it is well understood that most birds only reproduce once per year in the spring. Yes, some of our smaller species of birds will reproduce twice each season, but the point is they only reproduce in spring. They don’t migrate down south at the end of summer and start reproducing all over again.
For many of our larger species such as Osprey, Bald Eagle and Common Loon they only get one shot at reproduction each season. If something happens to their eggs or babies it’s all over until next year. Many of our smaller birds such as sparrows, wrens and finches often nest twice per season but at the end of summer they are done and don’t reproduce until next spring.
So these baby birds that we see all around us are very precious to the adult birds. The adults put a lot of time and energy into each one of their babies survival. It all starts with the time and energy it takes to build the nest. Then the amount of energy in terms of nutrients that the female sacrifices to produce each egg. The crazy amount of time involved in incubating the eggs, and the immense time and effort gathering food and feeding the young.
These are the thoughts that are passing across my mind lately while leading my Common Loon photography tours. About a dozen or more photographers from all over the world come to my head quarters in Minnesota for an opportunity to photograph loons with their babies. In addition I also explain the finer points of loon biology and behavior while we capture amazing images of loons.
Every year while photographing the loons, I’m completely and totally impressed with the dedication and skill the adult loons display while raising their babies. For example, just the other day we watched and photographed the adult pair of loons capturing tiny minnows, no longer than an inch, to feed their baby. The adult birds are over 3 feet long from tip of bill to end of tail, yet they manage to catch the tiniest of fish to feed their babies. Some of the fish they catch are so small you can barely see them in the adults huge bill.
When the babies are small they are not very coordinated and when the adults pass the fish to the baby, more times than not, the baby will drop the fish. The parents are right there to grab the minnow again and return it to the baby again. This can happen upwards of 5 times just to get the baby to swallow the fish.
One evening we watched and photographed two adult loons bring over 40 tiny fish to their single baby. It took nearly 30 minutes to catch each of these fish and swim back to the waiting chick and pass off the fish meal. I kept thinking to myself, how many fish can this tiny baby loon hold in its stomach? At the end of the feeding session the baby stopped eating, but this didn’t stop the parents from still offering more fish to the baby.
Eventually the parents got the message that junior wasn’t hungry anymore. The baby then crawled up on the females back and quickly feel asleep. The male slipped off to some deeper water to do some fishing for larger fish for himself while the female did babysitting duties.
If you are interested in joining me on a loon adventure see my web page for more details. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the world to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed at facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted at his web page www.naturesmart.com
There are a few birds that are very common but not commonly seen. In other words, these birds are found in good numbers all across our region but you just don’t see them. One good example of this is the Great Crested Flycatcher ((Myiarchus crinitus). It is not a secretive bird, in fact it’s bold enough to sound off with a very loud and distinctive call that echoes throughout the forest announcing their presence.
Starting in late spring and throughout the summer months, you can easily hear the distinctive “weeping” whistles high up in the tree tops. Most birds will stop calling while nesting so they don’t attract attention to their nest, eggs or young. Not the Great Crested Flycatcher, no they keep on calling all summer long. Perhaps this is one of the many reasons why I really like this forest sentinel.
Most flycatchers are smallish, drab in color, and live in open habitats. This is just the opposite of the Great Crested Flycatcher which is large, about the size of an American Robin, and is festooned with a lemon yellow belly and bright rusty red tail. The name “Great Crested” suggests it has a large crest on its head but in really compared to more familiar crests on birds such as the Northern Cardinal or the Blue Jay, the flycatcher really doesn’t have much of a crest.
The flycatcher family is the largest family of birds in the world consisting of more than 400 species. Interestingly, the flycatchers are only found in North, Central and South America. They are New World Birds and not found in Europe, Africa or Asia.
Most flycatchers nest in simple, open cup nests, constructed by the mated pair. The nests are often located fairly low to the ground in shrubs or small trees. Again, not the Great Crested Flycatcher. These birds nest in natural tree cavities or old woodpecker holes usually very high up in the trees. And the nests are located deep within thick forests. In fact over the past 30 years as a professional Wildlife Photographer I’ve only located one natural cavity nest. That was until last week when I was fortunate enough to find a second nest.
This natural cavity (former woodpecker cavity) nest is located in the trunk of an dead tree about 30 feet high. When I first spotted it, I was a long way off and I wasn’t sure what was using the cavity because the bird I saw leaving the nest had a very short tail. Great Crested Flycatchers have long tails. I made my way over to the cavity and sat down to wait and see who or what was coming and going from the nest.
About an half hour later a bird landed at the entrance to the cavity. Looking through my camera I could see it was indeed a Great Crested Flycatcher but the tail feathers were worn down to short stubs. After many hours of observations I could deduce that the cavity these birds were nesting in was too small for the female to incubate comfortably with her long tail. No doubt that after the many weeks of incubating the eggs and now feeding the young, her tail feathers were worn down to stubs. The male still had his long and beautiful tail feathers.
Over the next week I spent many hours watching and photographing the adults as they brought many insects meals to the young birds within the cavity and removed fecal sacs produced by the babies. I hope it’s not so long before I find another nest of the flycatcher of the forest. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on facebook.com and twitter.com. You can contact him via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
Indigo Bunting Nest
Every now and then, I am fortunate that someone will give me a call to say they found something cool in their yard and ask me if I want to photograph it. Recently that very thing happened. It stated with a text message from a homeowner who was clearing the edge of their wooded yard and came across a nest. It was a small nest, low to the ground and they felt bad that they inadvertently exposed the nest by clearing the brush. They took a picture and texted it to me saying they think they found a hummingbird nest.
When I received the text titled hummingbird nest I got excited but the moment I looked at the pic I knew immediately it wasn’t a hummer. Four beautiful white eggs were in the nest. Hummingbirds only have two eggs at the max so it can’t be a hummingbird.
The next day I stopped by and walked across the yard with the homeowner towards the nest. We weren’t 40 feet away when I saw the small nest and a tiny bird that jumped from the nest and dropped right to the ground and disappeared. “Now that is interesting” I thought to myself. I didn’t get a good enough look to see what it was.
About 10 minutes later I had my blind set up at a very respectful distance and I sat and waited for the mystery bird to return. It took only a few minutes and the mother returned and I could clearly see it was an Indigo Bunting. This would be only the second nest I have ever seen of this species in the 30 years I have been a professional wildlife photographer.
This was the begging of an amazing adventure for this Indigo Bunting mother. Over the next two weeks this mother would face many obstacles while trying to raise a family. I came back many times to capture the amazing saga of this bunting.
The first of many obstacles this mother faced was living with predators. The first morning I was there a pair of Cooper’s Hawks were visiting the feeding station just 50 feet behind me. These woodland hawks make a living by eating other small birds. I would watch as the mother Indigo would slip out of the nest to take a break and stealthfully move about the forest floor gathering something to eat for herself before slipping into the nest to incubate. The ever present danger just yards away.
A couple days later the homeowner contacted me again to say something has happened and wanted me to stop by and take a look. Two of the Indigo Bunting eggs were missing and a new, larger spotted egg was in their place. Yes a Brown-headed Cowbird found the newly exposed nest and took out 2 eggs and replaced it with one of their own eggs. Cowbirds are nest parasitic birds and lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Knowing that the Indigo Bunting had already been incubating for nearly 10 days I felt this shouldn’t be too much of a threat.
The very next day the two Indigo Bunting babies hatched which spelled the doom for the cowbird egg since the mother won’t be incubating while she is busy feeding her newly hatched babies. She had dodged another bullet since the cowbird baby most likely would have pushed out the Indigo Bunting babies.
The next time I was there photographing an entire family of Broad-winged Hawks were flying around the yard. Freshly out of the nest the young hawks were all over the yard begging for food from their parents. Another predator challenge for the indigo mother.
The babies grew quickly with mom feeding the babies juicy caterpillars and a wide variety of other insects. I could hear the male Indigo Bunting singing from the tree tops nearby but he never came in to help the mother feed the young. She was doing this all on her own.
On my last visit I set up my blind and settled in to wait. The mother indigo came in to feed the babies a couple large caterpillars. The babies were so big they nearly jumped right out of the nest to grab their meal. Then just like magic one of the babies got on the rim of the nest and fluttered its wings. While the second baby watched the first one climbed up the short sticks holding the nest and flapped it wings and off it flew into the forest. Inspired by its sibling the second baby did the same thing and off they both went into the world, healthy and with an amazing mother to look over them.
It is such a privilege to be witness to the dramas and especially the successes of the natural world. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photographer wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com
There is a large and very common bird that perhaps you see on a regular basis but rarely does anyone see it nesting. The bird is the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and is the largest / tallest of the North American herons. The name is often shorted to just “GBH” because it’s a whole lot easier than saying Great Blue Heron. It is found in every state in the nation in good numbers. Some regions see this long legged bird all year long while others see them in warmer weather only.
This bird is a great example of how common names often don’t make any sense. Let’s break down the name, Great refers to being the largest of its kind. I can agree with that part of the name. What I have problems with is the “blue” part of the name. I have photographed this bird in all stages of its life and in more parts of the country than I can count and it never looks blue to me at all. It should be called the Great Gray Heron because most of bird is gray not blue. But enough of my rant about bad common names.
Standing 4 feet tall, most of this height comes from the spindly long legs and snake like neck. It holds its long neck in a tight S shape while flying so you often don’t notice the neck length. However its long stick like legs stretch out behind making them fairly easy to identify this bird in flight.
Like many but not all herons, the Great Blue Heron stalks shallow fresh and also salt water habitats looking for small fish. They are comfortable hunting in rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds and even the ocean shore. They use their eyesight to spot their prey. They may move incredibly slowly but when they strike the head and beak move like lightning.
They are well known as a top predator for fish but not many know these birds also hunt away water and will stalk gophers, mice, shrews and other small rodents in fields and prairies. Last winter I watched and photographed several Great Blue Herons hunting gophers in agricultural fields in Northern California. These birds are also well known for taking small birds right out of the nests. They stalk around cattail marshes looking for nesting birds and will snatch up any baby bird they find. Great Blue’s also hunt for chipmunks, snakes and just about anything else they can stab with their long pointed stiletto bill.
Great Blues hunt both day and night thanks to an abundance of rods in their eyes that allows them to have excellent vision in very low lighting.
As common as these birds can be, not many people have seen them nesting. That is because they nest in colonies called a heronries. They build large nests made of sticks in dead or living trees. Nests are usually 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Often times there will be upwards of 5 nests in one tree depending upon how many branches are available to hold the nests.
The heronries are spread wide and far and often on islands in large lakes or rivers. This is why many people don’t see these birds nesting. A good sized heronry will have over 100 nests. Often times other birds such a Great Egrets and Double-crested Cormorants also nest in these colonies which then changes the name to a rookery instead of just a heronry due to the mixed residents.
Great Blue Herons will return to the same rookery for many decades often sprucing up the nest at the beginning of the season. This means the nests get larger and larger with each season. If you get a chance to see a rookery yourself it will be worth the time. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed at www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
I recently had a lively conversation about skunks with some friends. While explaining a few things about skunks to them, it occurred to me that skunks are one of those critters that are commonly seen yet we don’t give them a second thought. So here are some of my thoughts about this most remarkable critter.
Most people don’t know that there are 12 different kinds of skunk in the world. Ten of the twelve species occur right here in North, Central and South America. Two of these are found in Indonesia and Philippines. This just exemplifies the fact that we have so many unique critters right here in America. Our skunks include the Striped Skunk, Eastern Spotted Skunk, Western Spotted Skunk, Hog-nosed Skunk, Hooded Skunk.
All skunks are crepuscular and nocturnal critters which means they are most active during the very early morning and late evening during the twilight hours but also spend a good part of the night out hunting for food and water. In warmer parts of the country they are active year around but in the colder areas where winter is harsh, they will hold-up in a den for upwards of a couple months to wait for warmer weather.
Most skunks are a combination of black and white color. Depending upon the species, skunks are black with either white stripes or spots. However individuals vary greatly. Some skunks are nearly all black or nearly all white. Stripes can be narrow or very wide. A lot or just a few spots.
Skunks are true omnivores, using their nose to lead them to insects, bird eggs, carrion, worms, crayfish, small reptiles and amphibians and even small mammals such as mice and voles. In late summer and fall they consume a lot of fruits, berries and nuts. They use their long front claws to dig up insects in dirt or inside rotten logs. Once they find something they use their sharp strong teeth to deliver a killing bite.
Skunks spend most of their time on the ground but they are also able to climb trees. They are not particularly fast at escaping large predators. They use their bold black and white markings to first warn predators that they shouldn’t mess with them. If that doesn’t work, they will hiss and stomp their feet. They spin in circles also and if all else fails they turn and lift their tail. They sometimes do a front handstand. Usually at this point it’s too late to evade the inevitable odiferous spray.
While skunks are reluctant to use their weapon they can spray up to 5 or 6 times in a row before exhausting their stinky supply. They store about .5 ounce (15 cc) about one tablespoon of smelly liquid. It can take many days to produce another supply of the stinky juice. Skunks can spray upwards of 10 feet with amazing accuracy. They will use this defense against anything they feel is threatening their safety.
Skunk spray is composed mainly of three compounds. Each skunk species has a slightly different arrangement of these chemicals but to our human noses they all smell the same. It is such a strong odor that our noses can detect as little as 10 parts per billion. And it lingers in the air for many hours after being discharged.
Most animals steer clear of skunks. They seem to know that they don’t want to be sprayed. The exception to this is your family dog. For some reason dogs just run right up to skunks to check them out and receive a blast from the skunk. Dog owners can attest to this stinky fact.
If your dog was unfortunate enough to have an encounter with a skunk forget about using tomato juice to take away the smell. The best solution is a combination of 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 teaspoon liquid dishwashing soap. Wear rubber gloves and wash your dog with the solution making sure the solution stays on the dog for upwards of 10 minutes. Do not store the mixture, it could explode later. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
There are so many amazing and marvelous aspects in nature. Take the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) for example, this may be the most familiar and recognized butterfly in North America yet I am not sure it’s understood just how special or amazing this winged creature really is. It’s a good example of a species that is right under our noses but we don’t seem to appreciate it.
Unfortunately, due to unprecedented drop in population over the past 10 years, it is now being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a candidate for the endangered species list.
Recently I have been photographing all of the life stages of the Monarch Butterfly in my studio, and I must tell you that I am so impressed with this tiny creature. Even after 30 years of studying wildlife and traveling to the far corners of the world to study and photograph amazing creatures, I am totally amazed by the tiny Monarch Butterfly right in front of me.
Let’s start with the egg. After mating a female can lay anywhere from 300 to 1,300 eggs. Each egg is about 1/1000 the mass of the female, which means she will lay equal to her own body mass in eggs in just a couple days time. Each egg is laid on the underside of a milkweed plant, which is the preferred food plant for the developing caterpillar. It takes only 3-8 days to hatch and a tiny caterpillar crawls out.
The caterpillar, also called a larvae, goes through five growth stages, each time molting to become larger. Each stage is called an instar. At each of the five stages there are slight visible changes. I had a chance to collect all five stages together at one time and take a picture showing each unique caterpillar life stage and the egg.
What comes next is hard to believe. I have seen it many times and I am still owe-struck each time I witness it. When full size, the caterpillar finds a suitable place to change from a caterpillar into a pupa. The caterpillar will spin a silken pad on a horizontal substrate. It then hangs from the pad by a pair of strong hind legs. The body of the caterpillar hangs down in a J shape. This is where the magic happens. Inside the caterpillars body, all of the cells transform. The back of the hanging caterpillar splits open and it sheds its caterpillar skin leaving behind a green exoskeleton called a chrysalis, containing all of the transforming cells that soon will make a completely new animal inside. The adult butterfly.
While photographing this stage, one of the caterpillars did exactly this and I was able to capture the entire process with my camera. Taking just a couple minutes my mouth hung open as the wriggling caterpillar slipped out of its skin and left behind the green chrysalis. This is the very moment that is so amazing. It transforms from one kind of creature into a completely different kind. Real science fiction stuff.
After about 10-12 days in the hanging green chrysalis the skin becomes translucent and you can see the adult butterfly inside. Once again the casing splits open and a fully formed adult butterfly crawls out and hangs upside down while fluids are pumped into the wings, until they expand and harden. Soon after the butterfly will take flight and beginning feeding on the nectar of flowers. At this time of year these adult Monarchs will migrate south to Mexico to spend and winter. Once again performing another amazing feat of nature.
Last winter I was thrilled to visit one of the wintering sites in southern California to see thousands of adult monarchs spending the winter clinging to the leaves and branches of trees waiting for their time to migrate northward. You can go to www.naturesmart.com and search for this story and learn more about the most amazing Monarch Butterfly. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
Sounding determined and confident, a large bull elk, most likely weighing 1,200 pounds or more, bellowed and bugled right in front of me. His back arched and head held upward, mouth pursed in a funnel shape with his antlers flanking his strong shoulders. The sound of his bugling echoes off the mountain valley walls and comes around for a second time amplifying his clear message of strength and dominance. He is keeping a watchful eye over 20 or more cow elk in his harem.
From over my shoulder I suddenly hear another bull elk respond with his own impressive bugle call followed by some deep belly grunts. By the sounds of it, he must be very close. Neither I, nor the bull elk I am photographing, can see this other bull so it came as a bit of a surprise for both of us.
I just returned from a week of photographing the elk rut in Colorado. The aspen trees were blazing bright yellow and stood out against the Lodge Pole Pine forests signaling the end of summer and the start of the elk rut.
With testosterone running high, my bull elk moves into a clearing. Immediately the second bull appears out of nowhere. I can see that he is just as massive and means business. I’ve seen these kinds of challenges many times. Normally what happens is the two opponents approach each other and turn sideways to show off their size. They walk/run while paralleling each other much like a dance. They do this for 50 or 75 yards and they turn and trot back. Then one of them puts its head down and turns toward the other ready to fight. Just the suggestion of fighting usually is enough to send one of them running off and it’s all done. But not this time.
Within seconds of approaching each other, these two bulls ran straight for one another, heads down, antlers pointed forward and intent on fighting. I barely had enough time to swing my camera around on the tripod and frame up a shot when the two bulls locked antlers and started pushing. Dust and dirt was flying and I could barely see what was going on. I could hear the antlers banging against each other in a very distinctive cracking sound. Then it was all over.
My camera shoots 14 pictures per second. All together I took about 56 images which means the entire encounter lasted about 4 to 5 seconds. And in that amount of time it was determined who was stronger and more dominant. That is how it goes in nature. The strong survive and win the rights to reproduce and pass on their genes. This ensures that the population of elk in the future is the strongest and healthiest.
In this case the reining bull elk retained his harem of cows. But the challenger didn’t go far and continued to bugle in response to the kings bugles. All day and for much of the night this kind of challenges goes on. During the rut the males spend much of his time corralling females and fending off challenging males. This leaves little time to rest and eat. So each bull looses weight and therefore strength as the rut drags on.
By the end of the rut, which can last upwards of 2 months, the male will have bred with all of the cows in his harem. Winter usually has settled in by the end of the rut leaving the bull tired and weak. Food supplies are low and if the winter is particularly harsh some of the bulls won’t make it through winter. A heavy price to pay for being king.
By the end of the week I had taken many thousands of images and witnessed some amazing animal behavior. An unforgettable adventure. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
Yes, I admit it, I am a nut about nature. Not just the big amazing birds and animals such as eagles and bears, but the small critters too. I realized this (again) on my recent trip to Colorado. I had stopped along a steep mountain road and just below me was several Yellow-bellied Marmots (Marmota flaviventris). You might be more familiar with their eastern cousin the Woodchuck. Both are a type of ground squirrel that eat plants for a living and hibernate all winter.
Well anyway, here I was filming these chubby rock scampering squirrels and I was thrilled to spend many hours just watching and capturing their behaviors despite the cold biting wind roaring up from the valley below. The marmots didn’t seem to mind the wind at all. I was feeling lucky to find these guys because it’s estimated that they spend 80 percent of their life underground.
Yellow-bellied Marmots are a thick bodied, shorted legged animal with a grizzled appearance. Tiny ears, a blunt muzzle with a distinctive white mark around their nose and mouth. Males are usually larger than the females.
They live in incredibly harsh environments often high up in the mountains in rock outcroppings. As a type of ground squirrel, they live in burrows underground. They dig burrows upwards of 15 to 30 feet long with chambers at the ends. The entrance is usually located under a very large rock for added protection. The burrow is usually less than 10 inches wide and with a fan of dirt extending out from the entrance.
While watching and capturing images of these Yellow-bellies, I noticed that two were comfortable with each other and hanging out together. Not fifty feet away a darker and larger marmot was scrambling around the rocks. Each marmot would scramble onto a prominent rock and look out across the mountain valley. They are watchful for predators such as Mountain lions, bears and Golden Eagles.
From where I was sitting I could see an Golden Eagle hunting on a nearby mountain. The winds were so strong the eagle was just hanging in the air and not moving. It didn’t flap its wings at all. Using its powerful eyes to scan the ground in search of a unsuspecting marmot.
Meanwhile back on the mountain where I was filming the marmots, the large darker marmot was slowly moving across the rock field occasionally stopping at a prominent rock to look around. The pair of marmots that were nearby gave a few alarm whistle calls as the intruder (most likely male) moved closer. Marmots are sometimes called whistle-pigs, due to this loud whistle call.
At some point the larger marmot approached the pair. I made sure I was in a good position to capture any action that might happen. It looked like something might transpire between the marmots. Soon the larger neighbor was face to face with one of the pair.
Then it happened. The two marmots started fighting or sparring. They stood up on their hind legs and grabbed each other and using their large upper and lower incisor teetj they started biting. Since the teeth are long, sharp and could deliver a nasty bite, much of what they were doing was trying to avoid being chomped on by the other.
The fighting went on for about a minute allowing me plenty of time to capture some great images and also video of this encounter. Just as quick as the squabble started it was over and the aggressor was chased off. The pair ran towards each other and greeted each other with loving nuzzles and all seemed right in the Yellow-bellied Marmot world again. Now they just need to keep an eye out for that hungry Golden Eagle. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
Autumn is a wonderful time of year. It keeps a wildlife photographer and nature nut like myself very busy. Our extra mild fall weather has extended my wildlife photography season in addition it has made it so much more comfortable to be outside. With the election behind us, I am really looking forward to spending some time with my family this coming Thanksgiving. So it makes perfect sense that at this time of year I can’t help but to think about Wild Turkeys.
The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is our larges native game bird in North America. This is the species that our domestic white turkey was bred. It was not known to Europeans before coming to the Americas. This is uniquely an American bird and it’s fitting that it is at the center of our yearly tradition of giving thanks for this great nation of ours.
Because it was such a plentiful and easy source for food, it was nearly eliminated by over hunting from many parts of the country early on in our history. In the 1930’s this bird was close to extinction. But thankfully major efforts were made to reintroduced the turkey across the US, starting in the early 1960’s with limited success. It wasn’t until the 1980’s did populations take hold and populations start to grow. There was an estimated 30,000 turkeys in the early 1900’s scattered throughout the US. Now there is an estimated 7 million birds and growing. In fact turkeys are now inhabiting areas though not possible for these large birds in the past. It just goes to show you that given a chance, Mother Nature can do some amazing things.
There are five subspecies of turkey: Eastern (eastern half of country), Osceola (Florida), Rio Grande (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado), Merriam’s (western), and Gould’s (Mexico, and New Mexico and Arizona). They all have slightly different coloration especially in the tail.
Turkeys have excellent vision as most birds do. Color vision is important for all birds. This is why many birds are brightly colored. In the case of the turkey, not only are the feathers colored, so is the exposed skin on the head, especially the males. Individual adult birds have between 5,000 and 6,000 feathers covering their body. While they appear over-all brown, individual feathers have a metallic iridescence showing varying amounts of green, copper, bronze and gold depending upon the intensity of the sunlight.
Sometimes it may be difficult to distinguish males from females. The males are noticeably larger and have a sharp spur on the back of their legs. Although the spurs may be hard to see from a distance, they are sharp and up to two inches long and curve downward. They use the spurs while fighting with other males during breeding season. The males also have a beard, which is a collection of long thin feathers (filaments) resembling hair, clustered in the center of the breast and hang down like a beard. An adult male can have a beard up to a foot long, but most are only nine or ten inches. Interestingly about 10-20 percent of hens also have a beard.
At this time of year you see turkeys in self segregated groups. Young males in one group, adult males in another. Females, young and old, stick together along with the young from this past spring. The groups hang together until the breeding season in spring when they will break up for nesting. I think we have a lot to be thankful in this country and our wild birds. Until next time…
Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Twitter or Facebook.com. or he can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.