On Throw Back Thursday:
I heard the sound of a human voice calling “Ho!” It was actually …
It sounded like this: Xeno-canto.379127
(photo from Shutterstock)
The Sound of a Human Voice
Hey, People! Work With Me
Domestic birds work for us but here’s a wild bird who chooses to work with us.
Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) are wild birds in Africa known for leading humans to honey. They eat bee eggs, larvae and beeswax but often can’t get at them because the bees fight them off. So the birds enlist our help, “Hey, humans! Work with me.”
Chattering and fluttering in front of us, honeyguides lead us to the hives where we use smoke to subdue the bees and axes to open the tree trunks where the hives are hidden. We get the honey. The honeyguides get the insects and wax.
This active solicitation has gone on for thousands of years. In July we learned a new twist in the story.
Claire Spottiswoode studied greater honeyguides in Mozambique and found that the solicitation works both ways. People have a special call that means, “Come, honeyguide! Let’s go look for honey together.” The birds arrive and lead the way.
The calls vary by region. For instance, there’s one sound in Mozambique, another in Tanzania. Listen to the story on NPR to hear them.
“Hey honeyguide! Come work with me.”
How the birds learned our calls is still unknown.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
Clean Air Is For The Birds, Sept 30
You might be surprised to know that when I’m not birding I’m an active member of the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), a 47-year old non-profit that fights for clean air in western Pennsylvania.
My history with GASP goes back to the late 1990’s when Pittsburgh’s mayor proposed a new coke plant at Hazelwood just after LTV’s heavily polluting plant closed in 1998. I live one mile as the crow flies from that site and had to breathe LTV’s proof that their coke plant polluted too much to stay open. When the plant closed, we suddenly had clean air so the prospect of new pollution was frightening. LTV changed my life. They made me fight for good air quality.
My concern extends to birds, too. We don’t often think about it but what’s bad for our health is also bad for wildlife. Clean air is for the birds? You bet!
On September 30 I’ll speak on this topic at GASP’s annual fundraiser. Held at the National Aviary, the event includes private admission, three live bird encounters, craft making for kids, auctions, and great food. It’s a family friendly event with lots of birds.
GASP will also present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Board member Walter Goldburg, PhD who helped found GASP in 1969. Walter has inspired us all.
For more information, click here or on the event logo below:
It’s a fundraiser so tickets are…
Members: $50
Non-Members: $65 (includes membership)
Child: $20
Register online here.
Clean air is for the birds … and people too!
(GASP Night at the Aviary logo)
Last Day of Summer
On this last day of summer, may you find a marbled godwit at the beach.
Happy Labor Day!
(photo by Brocken Inaglory via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
The Skunk Whisperer
Skunk Videos, Day 3:
Skunks in the window well?
Yesterday’s long video showed Ray Kremer’s success in getting the skunks out of his window well but the comment on his video says they went right back in there the next day.
Here’s a guy who can “whisper” them out.
And he probably recommends a window well cover.
By the way, skunks can carry rabies without showing any symptoms. Do not handle skunks! This guy is a professional from SkedaddleWildlife in Ontario, Canada.
p.s. Don’t even dream of keeping a wild baby skunk as a pet. In most states it’s illegal. Where they are legal you must get a permit and must get the skunk from a breeder, not from the wild, to insure that the pet is not carrying rabies.
(video from SkedaddleWildlife on YouTube)
Skunks in the Window Well
Skunk Videos, Day 2:
What happens when a skunk family gets into a place where you don’t want them?
Ray Kremer figured out an elaborate bucket scheme to get this family of five out of his window well. He had to be careful!
The video lasts more than 11 minutes, the rescue took longer. Ray explains in the video comment that the skunks jumped back into the well the next day.
What is it about window wells?
Tomorrow: The Skunk Whisperer!
(video by Ray Kremer on YouTube)
A Run on Skunks
2 September 2016. Skunk Videos, Day 1:
Today I’m starting a three-day extravaganza of skunk videos, inspired by this one that swept the Internet a few weeks ago.
Here a cyclist freezes in place when a very cute family comes down the path to visit him. Yikes! Don’t move.
Tomorrow: What happens when a skunk family gets into a crawl space where you don’t want them?
(video posted by Recommended For You on YouTube)
A Tip on Confusing Fall Warblers
On Throw Back Thursday:
It’s warbler time again as these tiny birds migrate south through western Pennsylvania. They’re not as much fun as they were in the spring.
In May they were dressed in their colorful best. This month a lot of them are wearing camouflage. Who are these confusing fall warblers?
Back in 2009 it dawned on me that I could identify immature fall warblers because I had looked hard at their parents in the spring. Read how it works here:
(photo by Chuck Tague)
It’s Time To Watch Chimneys
Across North America chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) and their look-alike western cousins, Vaux’s swifts (Chaetura vauxi), are migrating south for the winter.
Swifts eat flying insects so they migrate during the day when the insects are out. On hot days they circle high, coursing back and forth in the clouds of bugs. It doesn’t look like organized migration but they’re tending ever southward while they eat.
At dusk the swifts gather at big chimneys, circle in a vortex, then pop into the chimneys to roost, as shown in the video. On cold rainy days they roost during the day to conserve energy when the bugs don’t fly.
Vaux’s swifts are on their way to Central America but the chimney swifts will go much further, crossing the Gulf of Mexico to spend the winter in Columbia, Peru, Ecuador and western Brazil. I wonder if their over-water migration gave them the species name “pelagica.”
For the next several weeks, watch chimneys at dusk to see the swifts. Click here for suggested sites in Pittsburgh.
(video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology on YouTube, swifts photo by Jeff Davis)
Tiny Emperors
Ten days ago Marcy Cunkelman flipped over a leaf and showed us two hundred tiny emperors.
The squiggly green lines are caterpillars of the Tawny Emperor butterfly (Asterocampa clyton) eating the mature leaves on a hackberry tree. They also feed on other trees in the elm family (Celtis).
At this stage the caterpillars huddle and move together for protection but after the third instar they travel alone.
Eventually each caterpillar spins a cocoon and pupates into a butterfly that looks like this:
The butterflies don’t visit flowers. Instead they feed on rotting fruit, dung, carrion and tree sap … an odd feast for an emperor.
(photo of caterpillars by Kate St. John, photo of butterfly from Wikimedia Commons)