Belize
There were thousands of them marching in a well organized line. Nearly all were moving in the same direction with the exception of a few here
Colorado
It’s mid-day in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the sun light has become too strong to take any good quality wildlife pictures, so I am resting in the shade of a large Quaking Aspen tree. Known around here as just Aspens, these trees are just about the only deciduous tree that can grow at such high elevations. Ponderosa Pine is the only other tree that grows on these mountain slopes. The Ponderosa’s have a trunk in excess of 4 feet in diameter. The rusty red bark riddled with black fissures make this pine tree a very nice addition to the landscape. My career as a wildlife photographer and nature book author brings me to so many beautiful places and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is no exception. Currently I am working on a field guide for the mammals of Colorado and also field guide for the Rocky Mountain state. So here I sit with the snow capped mountains surrounding me and not another person for miles. Each morning I get up at 4 AM and drive about an hour to reach my mountain valley. I park in a dusty dirt parking lot and gather up all my camera equipment, food, water, and in today’s case, my laptop. I tighten up my hiking books and start the slow hike up to a wonderful stand of Aspen trees. Situated around 8,500 feet in elevation I spend my days in this small valley searching out wildlife to photograph. Not a bad day at the office, I would say. From where I sit there are two very small streams. Each small enough to step across but full with enough with clear cold water to make a wonderful trickling sound. Sometimes during the middle of the day I stop to remove my shoes and socks and soak my feet. I can’t tolerate more than a couple minutes in the icy water but it feels good anyway. The warm rays of the sun help to off-set the cold mountain water. Yesterday while in this exact spot a coyote walked right by me. The resident Yellow-bellied Marmot gave a loud warning whistle but the coyote didn’t pay him or me any mind. He seemed intent upon getting down the valley to the open meadows below which is where thousands of small tan colored Wyoming Ground Squirrels live. I am sure he had squirrel on his mind as he trotted silently by. For those of you who live in the eastern half of the country, the Yellow-bellied Marmot is very similar to the Woodchuck also known as the Groundhog. Marmots are high elevation animals that live in rock piles and eat grass and apparently petroleum products. I stopped my truck on the road the other day to photograph something when a marmot ran up and instantly started chewing on my brand new tires. Needless to say I had some choice words for my furry little friend. I had to shag him away from my tires several times before I gave up and drove off. Chock one up for the marmots. Elk and Mule Deer are found all over these mountains. In the higher elevations Big Horn Sheep scratch out a living. About 50 miles south of here, up near the 14,000 foot mark, the Mountain Goats, which are all white and very shaggy, graze on the alpine plants. A couple days ago, I spent the better part of the morning following a heard of 17 goats around in order to capture some images for the field guide. The air was so thin I was constantly fighting to catch my breath. Even thought the temps were in the high 40’s the goat’s seem to be a little hot. Within 100 feet of where I am sitting I have located the nests of the following birds–Northern Flicker (red-shafted), Pygmy Nuthatch, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Western Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker, Clarks Nutcracker, Raven, White-breasted Nuthatch, Violet-green Swallow, House Wren, Steller’s Jay and my favorite the Western Tanager. I am stunned by the volume of nesting birds in this small grove of Aspens. Within a few hours the sun will be lower in the sky and the light much more pleasing and I will get back to photographing again. Until then I sit in the shade of an Aspen tree in a narrow valley in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and write. Until next time…
Color
Please be advised that my new books, Birds of Arkansas and Birds of Louisiana and Mississippi are now available.
Belize part 2
A very loud and terrifying cry shattered the stillness of the jungle evening. The sound was half howl and half growl and very loud and extra scary.
Yellow Rail
It is 11:30 PM and the moon hasn’t come up yet. Above me are millions of stars shinning brightly in the black night sky. Below me is ankle deep water and a continuous waist deep mat of reeds, sedges and grass for hundreds of acres in all directions. At times it seems there are as many lightning bugs as there are stars in the sky. Each step I take is fraught with peril. The spongy mat feels stable under foot until my entire weight is applied then its back into ankle deep water. Every now and then the bottom drops out and my foot plunges in deep bring the water up to mid thigh. The thick mat of vegetation grabs at my feet and ankle and tries to trip me with each step I take in the darkness. It has taken the three of us nearly 30 minutes to “walk” only 300 yard and we are still not to our destination. A friend has let me use a pair of chest waders that were too large and missing the suspenders. I have fashioned a bungee cord to hold up the rubberized boots and it is now cutting deeply into my shoulders. And as usual, I am carrying several thousands of dollars of camera equipment that won’t fair too well if dropped into the water. What I have come to see and photograph in this northern Minnesota location is one of the most secretive and elusive birds in North America—the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis). In the darkness I can hear the rhythmic tapping call of the rail just ahead of us. A few more steps and we should be there. Slowly and quietly, or as quite as one can be while walking in such conditions, we approach the sound. Deep within the thick vegetation the male Yellow Rail is giving its mating call. The sound is very similar to the sound made by two small stones being tapped together in a very rapid and irregular pattern. After what seemed like a very long time of trying to locate the bird in the dark we decide that the bird must be directly in front of us, so we switch on the flash light. Nothing! The sound is loud and strong but we are unable to see the bird. We switch off the light and stand in the dark listening again to the rhythmic tapping. This goes on for the next hour. Switching on the light, scanning the area, and then switching it off again. Our hopes of seeing and photographing this bird were fading when about 1 AM we switch on the light and there in the beam of our flash light is a small brown bird about the size of a sparrow with a short stout yellow bill. Its body is plump and round with a short pointed tail. It has long legs and large feet but the thick grass has hidden this feature. Rails are a type of marsh bird with short round wings and stubby tails. They have long legs and large feet to help them navigate the thick watery habitat. They are usually secretive and hard to see but the Yellow Rail is especially secretive and to make things even more difficult they are also nocturnal. Yellow Rails are one of North Americas most elusive and mysterious birds. There is no data on their population but estimates are between 10 and 20 thousand. Very little is known of the Yellow Rails biology, wintering grounds or other simple facts about this bird. What is known is they nest across northern Minnesota and North Dakota northward into southern Canada and they winter along the gulf coast and throughout Florida. They migrate by themselves at night. After mating the female builds a nest in the reeds and grasses and has 8-10 eggs. After hatching the young leave the nest within 24 to 48 hours to forage and they care for themselves by 3 weeks of age. Standing the beam of light our bird has stopped calling and remains still. The flash from my camera lights up the immediate area like a lightning bolt. Again and again the flash goes off and the bird doesn’t even notice it. Slowly it starts to preen its feathers and going about its nocturnal activities as if nothing has happened. In hushed whispers we congratulate each other on this outstanding find and photographic opportunity. Just at that moment we realize we have a long and treacherous walk back to our cars. We turn in the darkness and start the long slow march back with a very large grin on our faces.
Unusual Bird
This week while the rest of the country is locked in the grip of a arctic deep freeze, I had a chance to wonder the desert and mountain
Porcupine
The winding mountain road was covered with a thick compact layer of snow forming a solid ice sheet–and it was slick.
Maryland
Once again I find myself writing this column from some far flung place. Today I am overlooking the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The water is surrounded by a thick growth of sweetgum, sugar maple and several species of oak trees. As I look around I see birds everywhere and life abounds. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. An estuary is a coastal body of water which opens directly into the open sea, in this case the Atlantic Ocean. It is a place were fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with sea or salt water. A tide forces a mixing of the two waters and creates this very dynamic relationship between the two waters. Officially the condition of the water is called brackish. The bay is surrounded by the states of Virginia and Maryland. The watershed is huge with over 150 rivers and streams draining into the bay. It covers over 64 thousand square miles including parts of six states–New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Even though the Chesapeake is a bay itself, there are many smaller bays within the larger bay. The Chesapeake is 189 miles long from the Susquehanna River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south. The narrowest point is near Annapolis Maryland and is four miles wide. The widest point is near the mouth of the Potomac River and stretches 30 miles across. There is over 11,000 miles of water surface making it a huge bay for wildlife and recreation. The bay itself is visible from outer space. Parts of the bay near the coast are lined by cliffs. These cliffs, known as Calvert Cliffs named after Calvert County, are famous for their fossilized shark teeth which washed up on the beaches next to the cliffs. The bay is shallow and some areas need to be dredged to allow for ship traffic. At the point where the Susquehanna River flows into the bay the average depth is only 30 feet deep but it’s only 10 feet deep just north of Annapolis. Maryland and Virginia are famous for their hot and very humid summers. Winters are very mild with only an occasional snowfall and a fair amount of rain. The name Chesapeake comes from the Algonquian word Chesepiooc which means “great shellfish bay”. Obviously the Algonquian Indians were well aware of the great abundance of seafood in the bay, especially blue crabs, clams and oysters. For nearly a hundred years the bay provided seafood by the tons. Due to urban runoff, farming, and especially over harvesting the amount sea food harvested from the bay has decreased in the past 30 years. Currently about 45,000 tons are harvested yearly. This has resulted in two outcomes. The first is a limited amount of seafood on the market and also incredibly high prices for seafood. My past visits to the bay would not be complete without eating a bushel of Maryland crabs steamed with old bay seasoning. Now you will have to re-mortgage your home in order to afford a bushel. Some places were charging $250 per bushel. The bay is also well known for its rockfish and striped bass. The rockfish was once nearly extinct but through careful management and strict laws this fish is making a comeback in the region. Osprey was also nearly whipped out in the bay. This fish eating eagle has now re-established itself and nests can be found in all the usual places around the bay. Many nests are on power poles while others are on bridges and floating buoys. Shorebirds are also doing better in the bay. All of this is a result of the communities that surround the bay coming to a realization that the bay needs protection. Laws have been passed and limits have been enforced. More importantly attitudes have changed and so has the bay. Until next time…
Goldfinch Niche
Given a niche, Mother Nature will fill it. I see it time and time again during my travels to photograph nature. By the dog days of summer, most birds are finished nesting and raising their young for the year, however one species of bird is just getting underway—the American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis). A good rule of thumb is, song birds who feed their babies insects will nest early in the season while song birds that feed their babies seeds need to wait until later in the season when the seeds are ripe. That is why the majority of seed eating song birds raise their young with insects—except for the goldfinch. The reason why song birds feed their young insects is because the baby’s digestive systems are not yet developed. Insects are easy to digest when compared to seeds. A good example of t his are Northern Cardinals. As adults they feed upon seeds but their babies are feed an insect diet. Slowly over time the parents will start to introduce seeds and other plant material to their baby’s diet as their digestive system develops. By the time they are on their own the babies are eating seeds exclusively. Not with the American Goldfinch. An insect diet is high in protein and allows the young birds to grow quickly. Some species such as House Wrens grow so quickly that the babies are able to leave the nest and fly in just 12 days. The only problem is, they need a lot of insects to keep the babies fed so the parents act like conveyor belts with wings—constantly bringing more bugs. On average, adult birds that feed their young insects will bring a new mouthful of insects to the nestlings every 10- to 15 minutes. This means a lot of trips to the nest from sunrise to sunset. Now these are dedicated parents. American Goldfinch don’t do this. American Goldfinch are a small yellow and black finch. Like most finch species they feed nearly exclusively on seeds and other plant materials and so do their chicks. Seeds are so important to the American Goldfinch that they will actually hold off on breeding until mid to late summer in order to time the hatching of their chicks with the ripening of the seed crop. In particular, the goldfinch is waiting for the thistle seeds to ripen. There are many varieties of thistle. Most are two to three feet tall and tend to grown in open fields, along road sides, in ditches and in farmers fields. They usually have prickles or thorns and they often grow in large groups. In general they are not well liked by many people but the American Goldfinch loves them. As we learned earlier, the American Goldfinch feed their young a seed diet exclusively. Both male and female goldfinch will feed their babies. Now here is the interesting part. After feeding upon the ripened seeds the adults will return to the nest and regurgitate a mass of partially digested seeds along with a milky liquid. Stick with me for a moment while I explain why this is interesting. A bird’s digestive system has two stomachs. The first is called the gizzard and is used to grind up the food in a dry environment. Since birds don’t have teeth they need this front-line stomach for grinding their food. The problem is, no real digesting occurs in the gizzard, just breaking up of the food. Digestion usually takes part in the second stomach where the stomach acids are located. So when a goldfinch regurgitates up the seeds it is assumed it comes from the first and not the second stomach. So where does this liquid mass come from? It is not known What is known is that American Goldfinch chicks grow extremely fast on the seed and liquid diet. What is more interesting is that the parents only feed their babies about once every 1 to 2 hours. Compare that to the insect feeding parents which are constantly stuffing their babies mouths with insects. Apparently the seeds and liquid diet is so nutritious the babies only need to be fed once an hour. I would call the American Goldfinch a champion at filling a seed eating niche. How about you? Until next time…
Yellowstone
The winding mountain road was covered with a thick compact layer of snow forming a solid ice sheet–and it was slick.