Check THIS out!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Plastic?! Yuck.
This is distressing. Plastic always eventually ends up somewhere--and too often works its way into the ocean. See more distressing photos of deal albatross chicks filled with crap (for some reason their parents sometimes screw up and feed them really bad things!) here.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Who the heck is in charge??
It's October 16. Not November 16 or December 16. Why is there snow on the ground in Ithaca???!!!!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Since we can't buy antibacterial soap...
A lot of birds add bits of green vegetation to our nests. I love how scientists work so hard to tease out why we do the things we do. All they'd have to do is ask--oh, but they can't speak our language! It's like the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only where they thought those extraterrestrials must be smart because they could make musical tones, they don't seem to realize the same thing is true about us other species right here on earth.
But check out the news story:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/091013-birds-antibacterial.html
But check out the news story:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/091013-birds-antibacterial.html
Say WHAT???!!!
Okay, so I'm reading my morning email and news feeds (no, I don't plug my laptop into a current bush--but how I get my computer fired up is for me to know and you to find out) when I come across this little tidbit in today's Slate, about the "science" of physiognomy and how humans look at facial features of others to tell how aggressive they are likely to be:
I have no clue whether he was right about humans, but he sure had us Great Gray Owls pegged wrong. Snowshoe hares are HUGE suckers! I and all of my friends are drawn to meadow voles--nice bite-sized, tasty morsels way way WAY tastier than Dove bars or any kind of rabbits or hares. Our large facial disks allow us to hear voles buried in their grassy tunnels, even when those tunnels are themselves buried under a meadow of tall grasses or 18 inches of snow. We're specialists, and we're focused, and no way do those silly physiognomy studies apply to us.
The idea is not far from what William Sheldon proposed in the 1940s. Certain excitable meat-headed mesomorphs, he wrote, were prone to "muscular unreasonableness" and could be "as destructively dangerous in a human setting as a great gray owl in a colony of Snowshoe rabbits." (These, of course, were the Great Gray Owls.) Sheldon suggested not only that mesomorphic men were prone to aggression but that they were more likely to be criminals. So, was he right?
I have no clue whether he was right about humans, but he sure had us Great Gray Owls pegged wrong. Snowshoe hares are HUGE suckers! I and all of my friends are drawn to meadow voles--nice bite-sized, tasty morsels way way WAY tastier than Dove bars or any kind of rabbits or hares. Our large facial disks allow us to hear voles buried in their grassy tunnels, even when those tunnels are themselves buried under a meadow of tall grasses or 18 inches of snow. We're specialists, and we're focused, and no way do those silly physiognomy studies apply to us.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Sad news
Ithaca the Golden Eagle has died. He was 37 years old. West Nile is an evil disease--it kills us without mercy, and people seem to think it's us birds that transmit it when it's those horrid mosquitoes.
Of course, when they do think through that element, they try to poison the mosquitoes without realizing that every single pesticide designed to kill adult mosquitoes is harmful. The only thing that somewhat reduces them without hurting much else is the Bt designed to kill mosquitoe larvae. Of course, the disease probably made it to America via either a horse or human who had been infected elsewhere before arriving in the U.S., or carelessness in allowing standing water and mosquito larvae to make it here from the Middle East via shipping.
The worst mosquitoes for transmitting the virus are the ones the breed in gutters and other backyard standing water. Diligent people really do make a difference.
Of course, when they do think through that element, they try to poison the mosquitoes without realizing that every single pesticide designed to kill adult mosquitoes is harmful. The only thing that somewhat reduces them without hurting much else is the Bt designed to kill mosquitoe larvae. Of course, the disease probably made it to America via either a horse or human who had been infected elsewhere before arriving in the U.S., or carelessness in allowing standing water and mosquito larvae to make it here from the Middle East via shipping.
The worst mosquitoes for transmitting the virus are the ones the breed in gutters and other backyard standing water. Diligent people really do make a difference.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
2009--Not a good year for Whooping Cranes
Operation Migration is getting ready for a new migration of a pretty large flock of young cranes. They've had more setbacks than usual the past two years, and the wild Whooping Crane flock that migrates from Texas to northern Canada every year is having real problems Please support them in any way you can. Check out Operation Migration's Field Journal today, with lots of important information from Tom Stehn about the wild Whoopers. http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
We love autumn!
Does it get any better than this? Together with the whole family, meeting old friends and relatives at beautiful wetlands? Please buy a Duck Stamp to ensure that places like the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge are still here for our children's children's children.
"Confusing?" Ha!
In my spring plumage, I'm not just gorgeous, I'm easy for people with their pitiful vision and undiscerning ears to identify. In fall, I get to travel incognito except among reasonably good birders. Well, I did. But now Bill Hilton Jr. has posted a bunch of photos and information to make it easy to recognize us "confusing fall warblers" (as people call us). I think it's interesting the way people have to look at every little feature to tell us apart. We just know who we and everyone else are--individually as well as collectively--with barely a glance, no matter what stage our plumage is in.
Even though we warblers hardly need a refresher course, check out his Fall Warbler I.D. post. He's got some excellent photos of some of my friends.
Even though we warblers hardly need a refresher course, check out his Fall Warbler I.D. post. He's got some excellent photos of some of my friends.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Close encounters of the third, and the bird, kinds
HAHAHAHAHA! I just saw the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Those silly humans! They devote so much technology and time and effort searching for intelligent life on other planets, hoping to communicate with extraterrestrials, when they haven't made the tiniest inroads into finding and communicating with other forms of intelligent life right here on earth! They've barely scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the most elemental contexts in which we birds communicate, much less having a clue about what we're actually saying.
And really, they aren't even that good at communicating with one another. And I'm not even talking about their problems communicating with humans of other cultures--even when they're talking the same language, they don't necessarily communicate anything. To be perfectly honest, guys, I think they're hopeless.
And really, they aren't even that good at communicating with one another. And I'm not even talking about their problems communicating with humans of other cultures--even when they're talking the same language, they don't necessarily communicate anything. To be perfectly honest, guys, I think they're hopeless.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Hooray for Birds & Beans!
Being a warbler, I spend a lot of time in the tropics. It's depressing flying down every fall and discovering yet more lovely little places that have been "developed"--that is, destroyed by humans. One of the worst problems for us is coffee plantations--especially because when coffee is grown in the traditional way, farmers can provide lots of habitat for us birds so everybody wins.
Some people understand the problem, but they don't always know what to do to make sure the coffee they buy is really grown in the best ways for us birds. But finally there's a place that sells ONLY the real thing--Certified Bird Friendly coffee!! Check out Birds & Beans.
There are only two officially certified coffees--the Smithsonian's Bird Friendly certification, and the Rainforest Alliance certification. Unfortunately, coffee sold with the Rainforest Alliance certification doesn't need to be 100 percent certified, so a significant part of their blends isn't necessarily grown to the high standards that the Smithsonian Institution requires for every drop of a package of coffee to bear their certification. And other coffees, even if they have one of my buddies on the package, aren't necessarily grown using the best practices for us birds. It's shocking how many people use images of birds to sell things, without ever getting permission. Laura Erickson never even asked me to sign a release when she shot this photo!
"Shade-grown" can refer to a monoculture of canopy trees with no bromeliads and virtually no diversity--that totally sucks when you're looking for juicy bugs and good hiding and sleeping places!
So if you're a human, PLEASE buy genuine, certified Bird Friendly coffee. If you can't find it in your neck of the woods, you can order it directly from Birds & Beans. It's the right thing to do.
Some people understand the problem, but they don't always know what to do to make sure the coffee they buy is really grown in the best ways for us birds. But finally there's a place that sells ONLY the real thing--Certified Bird Friendly coffee!! Check out Birds & Beans.
There are only two officially certified coffees--the Smithsonian's Bird Friendly certification, and the Rainforest Alliance certification. Unfortunately, coffee sold with the Rainforest Alliance certification doesn't need to be 100 percent certified, so a significant part of their blends isn't necessarily grown to the high standards that the Smithsonian Institution requires for every drop of a package of coffee to bear their certification. And other coffees, even if they have one of my buddies on the package, aren't necessarily grown using the best practices for us birds. It's shocking how many people use images of birds to sell things, without ever getting permission. Laura Erickson never even asked me to sign a release when she shot this photo!
"Shade-grown" can refer to a monoculture of canopy trees with no bromeliads and virtually no diversity--that totally sucks when you're looking for juicy bugs and good hiding and sleeping places!
So if you're a human, PLEASE buy genuine, certified Bird Friendly coffee. If you can't find it in your neck of the woods, you can order it directly from Birds & Beans. It's the right thing to do.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Holy crap! THIS is sobering!
You know how Google puts those context ads on the side of some pages, hoping you'll click? Well, I was helping my Whooping Crane buddy post the previous blog post, and lo and behold there was a link to "Crane Hunting." Oh, man--I thought it was going to be filled with leads on where Whoopers could find blue crabs and where I could hunt for the most succulent tubers. My heart leapt--and I clicked.
Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOO! I felt just like poor Mr. Bill, knocked flat, when I saw what it was linking to. A page with "human" beings (ahem--where DID the word "humane" originate?) each holding not just one, but two or more dead Sandhill Cranes in their grubby paws, killed in what is called a "canned hunt." Every one of those dead birds with some poor widow or widower flying about, utterly bereft, all so people can have what? A photo op showing a bunch of them with way more than they can eat. They looked like the worst sort of rapacious killers--I mean, not even weasels and raccoons kill so many at one time! The advertiser was exulting not in providing a quality experience out of doors with nature and beauty, but a shooting fest where they practically guarantee that hunters will not just get one crane, but get the legal limit, "beverages included."
Human hunters are each allowed by U.S. and Texas law to kill up to three cranes every day, and up to six total. Remind me to stop migrating through Texas!
And you know how they get those cranes? They trick them by using taxidermist "prepared" dead birds to make the living cranes think, "Oh, look--there's George and Martha! Let's go down and say hi!" and BAM! If that isn't desecration of bodies, and for the worst possible reason, I don't know what is.
And don't tell me these people are hunting because they're hungry. They charge $250 per day per person (with a three-person minimum) to do these canned hunts. You could buy an awful lot of free-range, organic chicken for $250! And don't tell me they do it for some splendid outdoor experience. The website says, "While crane hunting our hunters enjoy roomy comfortable A-frame and hay bale blinds."
It's enough to make a grown bird cry. And it's an excellent reminder that when you see those google ads, DON'T click!!!!
Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOO! I felt just like poor Mr. Bill, knocked flat, when I saw what it was linking to. A page with "human" beings (ahem--where DID the word "humane" originate?) each holding not just one, but two or more dead Sandhill Cranes in their grubby paws, killed in what is called a "canned hunt." Every one of those dead birds with some poor widow or widower flying about, utterly bereft, all so people can have what? A photo op showing a bunch of them with way more than they can eat. They looked like the worst sort of rapacious killers--I mean, not even weasels and raccoons kill so many at one time! The advertiser was exulting not in providing a quality experience out of doors with nature and beauty, but a shooting fest where they practically guarantee that hunters will not just get one crane, but get the legal limit, "beverages included."
Human hunters are each allowed by U.S. and Texas law to kill up to three cranes every day, and up to six total. Remind me to stop migrating through Texas!
And you know how they get those cranes? They trick them by using taxidermist "prepared" dead birds to make the living cranes think, "Oh, look--there's George and Martha! Let's go down and say hi!" and BAM! If that isn't desecration of bodies, and for the worst possible reason, I don't know what is.
And don't tell me these people are hunting because they're hungry. They charge $250 per day per person (with a three-person minimum) to do these canned hunts. You could buy an awful lot of free-range, organic chicken for $250! And don't tell me they do it for some splendid outdoor experience. The website says, "While crane hunting our hunters enjoy roomy comfortable A-frame and hay bale blinds."
It's enough to make a grown bird cry. And it's an excellent reminder that when you see those google ads, DON'T click!!!!
Here's an interesting tidbit
Did you know that the 22 Whooping Crane chicks now training in Wisconsin for their first migration outnumber the entire living population of whoopers just 67 years ago? Cool, huh?
I picked up this little tidbit on Journey North's Whooping Crane pages. I love getting my news there. Also, I love checking out the Crane Cam every morning. The birds take off (weather permitting) around 7 a.m. CDT--that's 6 a.m. bird time, of course. (Yes, bird time. We don't have clocks to spring ahead or fall back with.) If I forget, it's still fun to check any time it's light outside--you never know what those adorable young things will be up to. Check it out!
I picked up this little tidbit on Journey North's Whooping Crane pages. I love getting my news there. Also, I love checking out the Crane Cam every morning. The birds take off (weather permitting) around 7 a.m. CDT--that's 6 a.m. bird time, of course. (Yes, bird time. We don't have clocks to spring ahead or fall back with.) If I forget, it's still fun to check any time it's light outside--you never know what those adorable young things will be up to. Check it out!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Burn out that burdock!
The wonderful wildlife photographer and writer Marie Read took this sad photo of a goldfinch who met with a tragic death at the sharp thorns of a burdock. Joel Baines is the one who alerted Marie to this horrible situation. His book, Native Plants for Native Birds: A Guide to Planting for Birds in and around Ithaca, New York, is really worth reading if you're a human gardener. Tragically, most of us birds are functionally illiterate and often "plant" the seeds of invasive exotics in our droppings, so this is a situation in which we are dependent upon the kindness of strangers. But really, it was humans who brought these weeds here in the first place, so it really IS their responsibility to get rid of them.
If you're a human who happens to have burdock on your property, please, please, PLEASE burn it out. It is an exotic weed that we goldfinches have not had time to evolve defenses against. None of us deserve such a fate.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
More about evolution
Yesterday I heard that Laura Erickson's dog Photon had to have some teeth pulled because they were badly decayed. Dental infections can lead to a lot of heart problems in mammals. Now I don't want to be snarky, but this is yet another way that we birds are light-years more evolved than humans and other mammals. We got rid of teeth ages ago--what's the point of having something that causes so many problems at so many points in life, and isn't aerodynamic to boot? Teeth are just SO reptilian!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Ahem...
I say we hawks are far more impressive and beautiful than you little green jobs. And you'd better watch it, because SOME hawks eat you guys for lunch.
Duluth's where the action's at right now!
Lots of us Red-eyed Vireos, catbirds, redstarts, and more! Of course, if you're into the rarer species, a dark-morph Swainson's Hawk passed over Hawk Ridge yesterday. But frankly, we vireos are much lovelier.
Great article on feral cat colonies, or the greatest article?
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Why does Bloomberg want to gas us, Mommy?
Oh, dear. Please don't let your children read this story:
NEW YORK (WPIX) - Mayor Bloomberg had quite the scare when a bird struck into a jet carrying him and a few other big wigs who were traveling from the Hamptons to Sen. Ted Kennedy's funeral in Boston Saturday, according to a published report.Hello? They were on Long Island--a major migration route--during the height of fall migration, he doesn't even know what kind of bird his airplane killed, and he's already itching to kill more? And he's in the so-called family values party?
Unlike the geese that forced US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in January, the bird that collided into Bloomberg's jet did not clog up the engine.
Shortly after an investigation determined that it was in fact a bird strike that caused the airliner to go down, Bloomberg said that the creatures in the sky are a nuisance to airplanes and threw his support behind a plan that would have the birds gassed in an attempt to control the population.
"There is not a lot of cost involved in rounding up a couple thousand geese, and letting them go to sleep with nice dreams," he said.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hooray for bird feeders!
What do you mean, I'm not welcome?? They got birds, and I'm a bird. Yum yum.
Monday, August 31, 2009
First in farting!
Back in 1965, a human named Alan Richard Weisbrod wrote his master's thesis at Cornell University titled "The Maintenance Activities of the Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata." The guy had absolutely no respect for Blue Jay privacy, but overall it's a pretty good thesis. Except WHOA! On page 47-48, he writes what may be the first description of a bird farting ever written!! Check it out:
An interesting phenomena [shhhh! He means "phenomenon." We jays would make excellent editors!] was observed on two cold days during December of 1963. These observations were made shortly after noon while I was looking through the window of the office into the flight in which captive jays are kept. Several birds were perched directly overhead and in front of me, at distances varying from one to one and a quarter meters. One of the birds in front of me defecated. A small puff of whitish gas was expelled along with the feces. The feces dropped from the bird while the gas wafted below and parallel to the slightly raised tail, until it dissipated rapidly into the cold air. The gas could be clearly seen against the dark-colored eave that hangs over the sheltered perches, upon which the birds were fluffed and resting. Several days later a bird perched in the same position was observed to defecate with the accompanying wisp of whitish gas.Mark Twain once wrote, "It ain't no use to tell me that a bluejay hasn't got a sense of humor because I know better." And it's lucky we do, or how could we ever live that down!
It is common knowledge that mammals flatulate and that some food items seem to increase the frequency and volume of gas-expulsion from the lower intestines. Since birds feed on many of the same types of foods as mammals and their digestive metabolism is basically similar, there seems to be no theoretical reason why birds cannot also flatulate, but flatulence has never been reported in birds to my knowledge. In all probability, the observed whitish gas was mostly warm water vapor which was released as the bird defecated in the cold still air. Whether this gas was the product of the digestive processes or was simply condensation of moisture from the feces could not be determined.
On the positive side
There at least is the fantastic Operation Migration program trying to get other Whooping Crane flocks established in the wild. I love watching the crane cam to see how training of those young chicks is going!
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