Yearly Archives: 2010

Watch Out, Guys!

Insects


Marcy Cunkelman found this alien in her yard and she’s happy to see her.

Some praying mantises are native to North America but many of the mantises we see are aliens.  They are so good at eating garden pests that they’re imported for biological pest control.

Mantises are big predators, two inches long. Like raptors the females are larger than the males, but unlike birds mantises make no distinction about the type of bugs they’ll eat.  Cannibalism is part of their repertoire so the males are in real danger when they want to mate.

Their courtship dance is an elaborate evasive maneuver in which the male attempts to distract the female away from eating to mating.  If he’s nimble and alert he can approach the female, mate with her and escape unscathed.  If he isn’t, she eats him.

“Oh well,” she thinks, after swallowing him, “he probably wasn’t worth getting to know better.”

Survival of the fittest indeed!

 

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

p.s. Click here to see their size difference.  And for more on praying mantises see this blog from October 2008.

Towers Change to Save Birds

Musings & News

By now we take communication towers for granted but 15 years ago they were far less common. 

It didn’t take long after towers dotted the landscape to find out they were deadly for birds, especially along migration corridors like the Gulf Coast, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) refused to consult US Fish & Wildlife about potential wildlife impacts and would not notify the public before they permitted new towers. 

After many petitions the American Bird Conservancy and Earthjustice sued the FCC for violating federal law by approving dozens of new towers every year with little or no environmental review.

In February 2008 a federal appeals court ruled on the lawsuit and ordered the FCC to change course.  They’re now required to conduct careful environmental impact studies and hold public comment periods before approving potentially deadly towers.

Fast forward to 2010.  The FCC wants to increase wireless broadband services.  (Their plan includes killing off 40% of over-the-air television spectrum — very upsetting to us broadcasters!)   More wireless service means new towers and changes to existing towers.  Though the wireless industry does not formally agree that towers kill birds, the upcoming flurry of tower activity brought both sides to the table. 

The wireless infrastructure coalition and three bird conservation groups (American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society) negotiated interim standards for the FCC to use when permitting communication towers.  They sent their Memorandum of Understanding to the FCC in May.

The proposed rules will expedite the approval of bird friendly towers while requiring lengthy evaluations and reviews of new or changed equipment that’s likely to kill birds. 

So, what is a “bird friendly” tower?   It’s a tower that’s not tall (it’s under 350 feet), has no guy wires and is lit with a white strobe instead of non-blinking red lights. 

Steady red lights confuse birds because they use the sunset’s red wavelengths to navigate during nighttime migration.  Birds keep the red glow of sunset on one side of their faces to make sure they’re heading the right direction.  When they encounter a tall tower in nighttime fog, the steady red lights look like their navigational cue so they fly around and around the tower, hitting the guy wires or falling exhausted to the ground.  This is especially deadly at the Gulf Coast in spring when northbound migrants expect to make landfall but instead exhaust themselves circling the towers.  Five to 50 million birds die this way every year depending on the weather.

The proposed interim standards, when adopted by the FCC, will go a long way toward reducing bird deaths. New towers over 450 feet tall will always require an environmental assement and prior public notice.  Even changes to lighting systems from a more-preferred (bird-friendly) option to a less preferred option will require a public comment period and our comments (yes, we’re the public) may cause the FCC to determine that an environmental assessment is needed. 

I’m looking forward to the interim standards.  We — and the birds — won’t see so much red anymore.

(photo from Zhejiang Shengda Group, a communications tower manufacturer in China)

Anatomy: Mandible

Bird Anatomy


Last week I used a term I hadn’t defined yet.

Mandible means jaw and comes from the Latin mandere which means to chew.  In mammals the mandible refers only to the lower jaw but in birds it’s the name for the two parts of the beak, upper and lower. 

The best bird to illustrate this is the black skimmer who has very large mandibles for his size.  Related to terns, this bird lives at the coast and feeds on small fish near the surface of the water. 

His beak is his fishing tool.  Not only is it huge and colorful but if you look closely at this picture you’ll see that his lower mandible is much longer than the upper. 

To catch fish the black skimmer flies just above the water dragging his lower mandible in the sea.  When a minnow is caught in his beak, he snaps his bill shut and swallows. 

The technique looks like skimming, hence his name.  Click here to see what he looks like when he’s fishing.

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Dorothy at Dusk

Peregrines


Back in June when the peregrine fledglings had just flown at the University of Pittsburgh, Steve Valasek saw Dorothy perched on one of the 32nd floor spouts at the Cathedral of Learning.

He went inside and took this picture from the 36th floor window.  It gives you an idea of the peregrines’ perspective.  So high up. 

Night was falling and the lights were coming on.

Dorothy at dusk.

(photo by Steve Valasek)

Many Cicadas

Insects
Annual Cicada (Neotibicen linnei) — photo by Bruce Marlin from Wikimedia Commons

I’m sure you’ve heard them.  This summer the cicadas in Pittsburgh are especially loud and are singing all day.  They’re so loud that it sounds like we have an extra brood this year.

The ones we normally hear at dusk are Scissor-grinder Cicadas, so-called because of their sound.  This year we also have Linne’s cicadas, pictured above, who sing during the day.  Both of these bugs fall into the general group called “annual cicadas” even though most species live more than one year — typically two to ten.

Cicadas spend the majority of their lives underground in the larval stage.  Then in the summer of their adulthood they emerge from the ground, mate and die.  Some years the differently aged groups happen to reach maturity at the same time.  For instance the 10-year bugs and the 2-year bugs could emerge during the same summer of the tenth year.

Perhaps 2010 is one of those years when Linne’s and the Scissor-grinders happen to coincide.  At any rate, I know we aren’t hearing from the 17-year cicadas.  The Magicicadas last appeared in 1999 and won’t emerge in Pittsburgh again until 2016.

Magicicadas spend 16 years underground and emerge as an overwhelming population in their 17th year.  They are large, loud bugs with bright orange eyes whose chorus is so loud it’s almost deafening.  They look scary but are basically harmless.  All they want to do is mate so they don’t pay attention to anything except each other.

There are many more species of cicadas and they all make different sounds.  I learned a lot about them on Chuck Tague’s swamp cicada blog and at the Songs of Insects website.

So, no, these aren’t Magicicadas.  We’ll have to wait six more years for the Magic to begin.

 

(photo by Bruce Marlin from Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license.  Click on the photo to see the original.)

p.s. Here are two more recordings of cicadas occurring in western PA:  Lyric cicadas and and Dog-day cicadas

Among the Tombs

Birds of Prey

Last week I got an excited voicemail from a friend.

Jay Volk and his wife were in Homewood Cemetery looking at the biggest bird they’d seen in a long time – and it was screaming.  They drove past it in their car while Jay’s wife recorded this video with his cell phone.

Right there on the Roberts’ tombstone is a juvenile red-tailed hawk.  How can I tell?  Because the bird is too young to realize it should be upset by the people filming it and because its voice is a whining, begging call.

If you look closely at the tombstone at the far left you’ll see the back of a second juvenile red-tail facing away.  This is probably a sibling and you can hear it begging too at the end of the video.

I’ll bet these two fledged from a nest in the cemetery.  They’re certainly doing what juvenile birds do best:  Waiting and calling for their dinner.

(video from Jay Volk)

Another Quiz

Quiz


Marcy sent me several mystery birds.  Here’s one that’s been a regular visitor to her feeders during the month of July. 

Do you know what bird this is?  Here are some hints:

  • Stripe-y.  Note whether the stripes are narrow or wide.
  • Bill shape
  • At the feeder
  • Just a little splash of color. Note what color it is and where.
  • Big hint: This bird shouldn’t be here now.

What do you think?

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

Mystery No More

Plants & Fungi


A week ago this flower had me stumped when I found it at State Gamelands 95 in Butler County. 

The plant is six feet tall and has big, lobed, alternate leaves, but how to describe the flower?  It looks like it never opens.  Nonetheless I posted my vague description of it on PABIRDS and hoped someone would enlighten me.

My description must have been adequate because at least five people responded and all of them said, “It’s Pale Indian Plantain, Arnoglossum atriplicifolium (L.) H. Rob.”

In case you come across it and are stumped too, this is what it looks like. 

But one photo isn’t enough.  The picture above is a closeup of the flower umbel by Marcy Cunkelman.  Click here for a view of the entire plant by Dianne Machesney.

Now you know.

(photos by Marcy Cunkelman and Dianne Machesney)

It’s Goldfinch Time

Songbirds


Everyone’s remarking on how beautiful the goldfinches are this year with their bright yellow bodies, black wings and black caps.

American goldfinches are very active right now because they’re nesting.  They live on seeds and don’t have hands so they use their crops to carry food to their babies in the nest.  Both parents feed their young through regurgitation. 

Keep your thistle feeder full and the goldfinches will wait in line.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)