Category Archives: Books & Events

Resident or Migratory?

Books & Events, Water and Shore

Flock of Canada geese on pond in Ottawa, Canada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Normally we don’t pay much attention to the immigration status of Canada geese but it’s going to be an important distinction in Pennsylvania when early Canada goose hunting season opens today.

It seems hard to believe but the subspecies Branta canadensis maxima (Giant Canada Goose) was nearly extinct in 1900 due to overhunting and habitat change.  Many states conducted reintroduction programs to help the geese along.  Here in Pennsylvania the birds so did well that there are nearly 280,000 resident maxima Canada geese, almost double the management goal of 150,000.

How do you determine the citizenship status of a Canada goose?   By time of year and location.  Only Pennsylvania residents are here in September.  Migratory geese won’t be leaving Canada until the lakes begin to freeze in October and even then the South James Bay population visits the northwest corner of the state (Lake Erie to Pymatuning) and the Atlantic population stays well east of the Appalachians and south of I-80.  In most of Pennsylvania, Canada geese are residents.

Why don’t our resident geese migrate?

Geese travel in family groups which collect at staging areas to join larger flocks.  The young geese learn the migratory paths from their parents.  If their parents don’t migrate the whole family stays put.  The reintroduced geese had no one to teach them to migrate so they and their descendants live here year round.

The resident geese know our habits and will gather in the no-hunt zones this month.  You may see more of them on our city rivers and in county parks in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, remember that fall is here and with it comes hunting season.  Wear blaze orange, especially if you visit State Gamelands where it’s required even if you’re not hunting.

 

(photo of Canada geese in Ottawa, Ontario from Wikimedia Commons.  These geese are migratory.  Click on the image to see the original)

Earthflight Begins Sept. 4

Books & Events

Snow geese migrate through Monument Valley, Utah (photo courtesy of John Downer Productions, PBS Nature, WNET)

Next month the six-part BBC series Earthflight will come to PBS Nature starting September 4.

The series by John Downer Productions follows birds in flight on six continents using camera techniques and close ups reminiscent of the 2001 film Winged Migration.

I previewed the “North America” segment and like Earthflight better, not only because the camera technology has improved and miniaturized, but because Downer’s producers let the birds lead us to natural phenomena from the birds’ perspective.  Brown pelicans over Baja California show us the amazing water dance of “devil” stingrays.  Great egrets in South Carolina reveal where dolphins purposely beach themselves to herd fish.

The series took four years to produce, in part because key birds in the film were imprinted from birth on humans and raised to be comfortable with cameras, ultralights and microlights.  John Downer himself became an accidental “mother” to a duck whose egg he was delivering to a cameraman. The egg hatched in transit and the duckling immediately assumed Downer was its mother. She followed him everywhere for almost a year.  “It was a total commitment,” Downer said, “but one that rewarded me with one of the best moments of my life as it flew alongside me in a parascender.”

The episodes are packed with birds and wonders:

  • North America, Sept 4, stars snow geese, bald eagles, brown pelicans, whales and the “devil” rays.
  • Africa, Sept 11, follows vultures, cape gannets, flamingos and the great migrations of wildebeest and sardines (chaos in the ocean; a sky full of diving gannets).
  • Europe, Sept 18, features white storks, cranes, sand martins (watch them drink and bathe while flying), and — bonus for Peregrine Fans — 20 million starlings trying to out-fly the peregrines in Rome.
  • South America, Sept 25, follows condors, swifts, hummingbirds and scarlet macaws.  See the Nazca lines with the birds.
  • Asia and Australia, Oct 2, stars demoiselle cranes, bar-headed geese (at 27,000 feet over the Himalayas), pigeons, rainbow lorikeets and Japanese cranes dancing in the snow.
  • Flying High, Oct 9, shows how the series was made, the birds who starred in the show, and unexpected mishaps including the time when the camera crew lost snow geese (temporarily) in Brooklyn, NY.

Watch Earthflight on PBS Nature beginning September 4 at 8:00pm EDT.  In Pittsburgh it’s on WQED.

 

(photo courtesy of John Downer Productions, PBS Nature, WNET)

The Warbler Guide

Books & Events
The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle (cover image from Princeton University Press)

13 August 2013

If you keep up with birding news you know that The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle came out this spring.  My review is a few months late but it’s just in time for the season when we’re really going to need this book — Confusing Fall Warblers!

My interior debate upon opening any new field guide is:  Should I jump right in or read it first?    The first quarter of the book is not to be missed.  It provides excellent tips on how to use the book, What to Notice On A Warbler, How to Listen to Warbler Songs and how to read sonograms.

But during Confusing Fall Warbler season you might have to jump right in.  Use the Quick Finders.

Try the East Fall Quickfinder on pages 110-111.  Use a Post-It note to bookmark the page edge so you can jump here quickly.  Pick the closest bird you see but don’t worry about making a wrong guess. When you get to the species account you’ll find similar Comparison Species and ample descriptions to point you to the right bird.

If you already have a guess, flip to the species accounts and — Hooray! — they’re in alphabetical order by common name, not in the confusing ever-changing taxonomic order.

The accounts are rich with easy to find tips.  I’ve already learned from the Diagnostic Field Mark page that is “always sufficient for a confident ID.”   For instance, did you know you can always ID a drab confusing Blackburnian by the pale braces on its back and dark olive cheek patch that’s pointed at back and bottom?  Now I know.

The end of the book is full of treasures too with a Quiz and Review, right-sized photos of Warblers in Flight and a table of Habitats and Behaviors.

Added bonus:  Download the audio guide of warbler sounds including chip calls.  You’ll need them during fall migration.

Confusing fall warblers are arriving soon so be prepared with The Warbler Guide.  Click here or the image above to learn more and buy it from Princeton University Press.

Click here and scroll down to the Supplementary Materials tab for free Warbler Guide tools. A free downloadable QuickFinder PDF and free downloadable QuickFinder JPGs.

(cover image of The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle, published by Princeton University Press)

Bird Story Wins Top Prize

Books & Events

Willie meeting Hannah, from Willie and Hannah by Haruka Doi

These bird illustrations by a seven year old are so beautiful that I had to share them with you. No wonder this book won first prize.

WQED’s Education Department holds a Writers Contest every year for children in grades kindergarten through three.  After the judges pick local winners, our first place winners in each grade advance to the national PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest.  This year two WQED kids won at the national level.  First place honors went to a gorgeous story about birds.

Second grader Haruka Doi, age 7 of Pittsburgh, submitted her story Willie and Hannah about an abandoned baby woodpecker who’s helped by a red-tailed hawk.  Her story is unusual.  Her pictures took my breath away.

Haruka painstakingly constructed each illustration as a mosaic of colored paper scraps that create realistic portrayals of the birds. Above, Willie the woodpecker meets Hannah the red-tail for the first time.  Below, Willie is in his nest hole.  These photos can’t do the pictures justice. They are so intricate you want to touch them.

Willie by Haruka Doi

To see what I mean, click here to see the book and hear Haruka read her story.

At such a young age Haruka is already familiar with the birds, their postures and attitudes. Besides being an author and artist, she may be a birder, too. 

Here she accepts her award in Pittsburgh.

Haruka D accepts her award at the 2013 Writers' Contest (photo courtesy of WQED)

Congratulations, Haruka!

Her birds are winners.

 

(photos courtesy of WQED)

p.s. Russell native, Cricket Branstrom, won national third place among first-graders for her story, Little Possom’s Adventure.  Click here to see and hear her story.

Birds Here And Gone, July 21

Books & Events

The Lost Bird Project, Greak Auk at Fogo Island (photo courtesy of The Lost Bird Project)

This Sunday, July 21, WQED will feature three programs with the theme of Birds Here and Gone.

  • 4:00pm, Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air is an old favorite with stunning close-up footage of these tiny flying jewels.  See my review here.
  • 5:00pm, Bird Tales will air for the first time on WQED.  I reviewed it for the original air date in January but we were unable to broadcast it then.  See my review here.
  • 6:00pm, The Lost Bird Project.  Don’t miss this show!

The Lost Bird Project begins slowly, introducing us to sculptor Todd McGrain and his passion for memorializing five extinct birds.

Inspired by the book Hope Is The Thing With Feathers by Christopher Cokinos, McGrain realizes that the birds were driven to extinction by human actions and now other animals are on that same trajectory. Meanwhile we’ve forgotten how this happened.  How can we understand what we’ve lost and mitigate the future?  He decides to memorialize the birds.

McGrain approaches his mission with humor and poignancy.  With his brother-in-law Andy Stern he visits each site where the last bird died, negotiates to place the sculpture, gets to know the local people.

Like the locals we don’t understand it at first.  How will this work?  Why is it important?

As the show continues all of us “get it.”

The heath hen, similar to the prairie chicken, was hunted until all had died on mainland North America.  The last population remained at Martha’s Vineyard where hunting was prohibited, a heath was preserved, and habitat was improved but the heath hen continued to decline.  In 1929 the last heath hen called for a mate.  His species normally called near the ground but his calls went unanswered.  He flew to the top of a tree.  He called and called but no one came.  He was alone.  He died in 1932.

McGain’s sculpture of the great auk, last alive in 1844, gazes out at the North Atlantic from Fogo Island, Newfoundland.   This is what we lost.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  We can do better.

Click here to see the trailer and learn more about The Lost Bird Project.

Don’t miss three bird shows this Sunday, July 21 on WQED.  Birds, here and gone.

 

(photo courtesy of The Lost Bird Project)

The United States of Birds

Books & Events

US State Birds on a map (design by Anand Gorantala)

 

On our National Holiday here’s a map with each state illustrated by its State Bird.

Web designer Anand Gorantala created this Visualization of US State birds on a map by placing photos of birds into a Wikipedia map file.

Click on the image to see the original with a link to the interactive version.

Test your knowledge:  Identify the states and birds.  Which bird is most popular?  Which birds are non-native?  (Tricky!)

Happy Fourth of July.

(map design by Anand Gorantala. Click on the image to see the original)

What Do Birds Think Of Fireworks?

Bird Behavior, Books & Events
Fourth of July fireworks (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Fireworks display in San Jose, CA (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

3 July 2013 (written in 2013 when we lived in across the street from Magee Field, Pittsburgh)

Every year around the Fourth of July people use our neighborhood park to try out illegal fireworks. 

Last Sunday we jumped out of our skins when someone exploded a minute’s worth of “M-80” salutes across the street.  After our hearts stopped racing and our cat emerged from under the bed I wondered…

What do birds think of fireworks?

I can guess based on our pets’ reactions, but here are some scientific studies.

In the Netherlands where fireworks are popular on New Years’ Eve, the University of Amsterdam used weather radar to track birds’ reactions when civilians celebrated at midnight.  In the radar video below you can see thousands of birds fleeing en masse for 45 minutes.   The birds in most affected were ducks and geese overwintering at quiet wetlands.

Click on the map below to start the video.

embedded video from University of Amsterdam: Millions of birds lose precious energy due to fireworks on New Year’s Eve

On the U.S. Pacific Coast a few towns have changed their fireworks venues to protect nesting seabird colonies.  When fireworks are too close, the adults flee the cliffs exposing their young to cold or predation, or the young jump off the cliffs before they can fly.

At Depoe Bay, Oregon the fireworks display used to be held a mile north of town in a state park on a high cliff overlooking the ocean.  The site is part of Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and has a large nesting colony of Brandt’s cormorants.  After July 4, 2011 and years of fireworks-induced nest failure the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began talking with municipal leaders about moving the venue.  USFW did a study showing significant nest failure and provided an alternate seaside location only a seven minute drive from town.  Most towns understand and accommodate.  Depoe Bay became famous for canceling and complaining.

So what do birds do about fireworks?   It depends.  Some flee.  Some hunker down.  Some are tolerant if the noise isn’t too close.  Fortunately the disturbance is temporary.

It’s a lot like our cat’s reaction.

UPDATE 2020: A 2017 Pennsylvania law permits all Class-C “consumer grade” aerial fireworks. M-80 salutes and similar explosives are still illegal under federal law.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the caption to see the original)

The Value of Species

Books & Events, Insects, Musings & News
turtle_woodturtle_rsz2_wikiWood Turtle (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Wood turtle (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Last weekend two pieces of a puzzle came together for me.  I saw an endangered turtle and I read a thoughtful book, The Value of Species, that describes how our values shape his plight.

The wood turtle is approaching extinction because of bulldozers and collectors — habitat loss and the pet trade.  He’s one of many species in this human-induced predicament.  In fact so many species are declining now that scientists say we’re heading into a great extinction, perhaps on the scale of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event that killed the dinosaurs.

Our actions cause decline and extinction yet we continue to do them.  We’ve saved some species like the peregrine falcon with spectacular results but our overall track record is poor.  New problems arise faster than we can stop them.  Why?

In The Value of Species, Edward L. McCord explains that our values get in the way.

  • Human population growth is crowding out other species but we avoid thinking about our role in this problem.
  • We gladly protect an individual animal from harm but find it hard to protect an entire species.
  • We understand the monetary value of species but not their intrinsic value.
  • It’s hard for us to connect the need to save habitat (land) in order to save species.
  • Protections on land owned by the state for the common good can be trumped at the state level.  (The book discusses mineral leases on national land in Mongolia.  Marcellus leases in Pennsylvania’s State Forests is an example close to home.)
  • The common good erodes easily when people don’t trust that others will obey the rules.  When a society lacks trust species are vulnerable.

Chapter Three, The Fate of Life on Earth Hinges on Property Values, is especially apt this week.  On June 25 the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Koontz v. St. John’s River Water Management District made it harder for the common good of living things to compete with property values.

The short time span of property ownership is microscopic when weighed against species who’ve been on earth for two million years and could disappear in a matter of decades.  “Still, many people are inclined to give individuals the right to reduce the living heritage of the earth for all future generations no matter how briefly they own a piece of property — even if only for a week.”(1)

McCord describes a new and deeper way to see the intrinsic value of all species. When we do, we can change the trajectory of extinction by “drawing a line in the sand, something we do all the time to protect important values.”(2)

What will be the fate of the wood turtle?  The Florida grasshopper sparrow?  The red-breasted goose?

Ed McCord’s The Value of Species shows us the way to a brighter mutual future.

(photo of a wood turtle from Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the image to see the original.
Quotes from The Value of Species (1)page 51, (2)page xvii
Edward McCord is the Director of Programming and Special Projects at the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College)

p.s. Ed McCord gave a talk about the book at the University of Wyoming in April 2014.  Click here for the video.