Jenn Talks Nature

Jenn Talks Nature is a page where Jennifer Campbell-Smith does exactly that, talks nature! I will address all sorts of natural history topics.

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Time for another baby bird. Here is a pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea) fledgling.  If this little guy isn't cute enough on it's own, you should also know that these birds huddle in cavities together when it gets cold.  These piles (roosts technically) of fluff-balls can reach over 150 individual nuthatches all stacked together.  (Just thinking about it gives me adorable-goose-bumps.)  They not only help keep each other warm, but they are also cooperative breeders, meaning they live in family groups while breeding, with grown offspring helping to feed the new offspring.

These birds are truly "pygmy" weighing only 9-11 grams (not even half an ounce!).

Enjoy!

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Photo from my walk earlier today.  A two-tailed swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata).

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"You'll get the hang of it son, just watch me." Two male American kestrels (Falco sparverius), father (left) and juvenile son (right). The father was focused, watching the field for prey as the son intermittently begged and watched. Even though the juvenile is most likely there so he can take immediate advantage of his father's catches, he's learning a thing or two whether he knows it or not.

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Yesterday, myself and another ornithologist recovered the dead body of an adult black-crowned night-heron from City Park in Denver, CO.  The bird's foot was tangled in discarded fishing line that was then wound around a tree branch in a rookery.  Based on the bird being unable to leave the tree branch, it died slowly, unable to get free.

This morning I went to Belmar Park in Lakewood, CO to photograph birds.  I found fishing line in the mouth of an adult great blue heron that had just brought a meal of fish to its nestlings.  Worse yet, I found a double-crested cormorant, tangled in fishing line, hanging dead from a tree in the rookery.

Improperly discarded fishing line kills birds in terrible ways.  It's not just an issue in an ocean far away, or in fishing towns, it's an issue right in your local parks. Please properly account for and dispose of fishing line and encourage others to be responsible as well.  Life is hard enough for wild animals, don't make it that much harder.

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Happy International Vulture Awareness Day!  Bald is beautiful!.  Why are they bald?  These birds help clean up our environment and keep diseases at bay by eating carcasses.  The bald head helps reduce the places bacteria can hide (such as in feathers) while they are digging in for dinner.  Their adaptations to deal with carrion don’t stop there though.  These birds can literally eat diseases in flesh, and destory them in their guts, that would otherwise contaminate the environment. That’s right, vultures keep humans and other animals healthy!!  

However, most of them are suffering and dying out at human hands, and the world will be much worse off without these incredible birds.   Vultures all over the world are shot and exposed to intentional, and unintentional, lead and chemical contamination of carcasses.  Right now many old world vultures are having their populations devastated by the use of Diclofenac in livestock, which kills vultures soon after they eat from the carcass.  Even if you don’t like vultures, this is a problem directly applicable to humans, with the backlash already wreaking havoc in India.

This post contains photos of vultures I’ve been fortunate to meet over the years. My favorite vulture is, of course, the bearded vulture (aka lammergeier), but I don’t have a photo of a live one, only dead ones (study skins at museums).  I can’t wait until the day I can meet and interact with a live bearded vulture, but that may only happen in captivity if we don’t tackle the dangers of diclofenac, lead, and persecution, and do so quickly.  We are talking vulture species extinctions within the next few years.  

If you are interested in learning more about what services vultures provide for humans (and other animals), and how you can contribute to their conservation and restoration, please visit these websites: http://www.todayifoundout.com/…/dont-vultures-get-sick-eat…/ http://www.peregrinefund.org/projects/asian-vulture-crisis https://www.justgiving.com/africanvultures/ http://projectvulture.org.za/

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This is Basket Owl (a baby great horned owl). Its mother, who is perhaps a first time mother, selected an old, very small (for an owl) crow nest at the top of a tree. Not surprising to the people watching her constantly pulling her baby back under herself as it bulged over the edges of the nest, the baby fell out when very young. Thankfully, some kind humans noticed and instead of absconding with the baby, they grabbed a new nest (a deep basket) and secured it part way up the nest tree, then placed the baby in the basket. Thankfully, mom realized this was a much better nest and resumed sitting on her baby in their new home. This is Basket Owl yesterday, several weeks after its rescue, doing well and in the "brancher" phase (i.e. not quite fledging, but moving around in the tree a bit). It's such a cute puff and a testament to people trying to keep the baby with its parents instead of just kidnapping it with good intentions.

Please, if you encounter baby birds this season, do your best to place them back in the nest or up in a bush or tree, off the ground.  Don't immediately take the baby and accidentally kidnap it.  If the nest seems to have broken, find a cardboard box or a small basket, place the baby inside, and secure it up in the nest tree, off the ground (the parents are very likely going to find it).  If you feel the bird may be legitimately injured, call a bird expert or rehabber BEFORE taking the baby away from its parents.

Enjoy  watching all the cute baby birds this season!

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A group of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) encountered on a beautiful October day. This is only part of the large group we encountered. In the fall and winter hens and their poults/chicks from that year form large aggregations, sometimes up to 100 birds. Filmed are 19 birds crossing the road, but a big portion had already crossed. I’d say this group had about 40-50 from what I could observe.

I find it hard to observer turkeys and not think of their dinosaur heritage.

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Come join me at the Cornell Lab Migration Celebration!! I will be there with my colleagues representing the Crow Research Group. Come learn cool facts about crows, play games involving crow biology, and even get “tagged” and take data on other “tagged” people during the day. There are a ton of other non-crow activities as well, including live raptors, guided bird walks, bird banding, and other interactive research exhibits.

Come celebrate birds!

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This is a friend's desert (aka Savigny's or pharaoh, Bubo ascalaphus) eagle owl who decided the bath pan was for losers and instead bathed in the grass next to the bath pan.

This is the same owl as the one in this post and she (probably a "he", because it's so small, but we will just continue saying "she" since the owl doesn't care one bit) is quite the sweetheart.

As the name suggests, she is a desert species.  She gets SUPER excited about water, something Harris' hawks tend to do as well.  We were positing that since they are both desert/arid species, that they would respond quite vigorously to any water they happened to come upon, even in new places where it is a common thing.  Harris' hawks will sometimes stop in the middle of a hunt and bathe in a creek or pond when used in falconry, much to the dismay of their human hunting partner.

Enjoy the derpy owl!

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Found this freshly dead swamp/morning cicada (Tibicen tibicen) on the ground.  When the thorax (specifically, the mesonatum) is pushed down, the forewings rise.  Really interesting!

Did you know that the microstructure of a cicada's wings is antimicrobial?  Read more here and here.

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I spent a couple hours this evening watching some baby merlins (Falco columbarius).  They are a small falcon, just a little larger than the American kestrel.  They mostly prey on small birds (and the occasional dragonfly).  I love the first sentence of All About Birds' brief description of the merlin, "Merlins are small, fierce falcons that use surprise attacks to bring down small songbirds and shorebirds."

The reason I point this sentence out, is that fledgling/juvenile merlins are anything but surprising, agile, fierce predators.  Okay, they may be fierce, but it's hilarious.  Like any other bird they have to learn to get food, and in the case of a predator, to catch prey.  This means a lot of learning and a LOT of failure in the process.  This evening, the merlins seemed to be missing the "surprise" portion of catching prey, and instead, opted to scream the entire time they flew around or at other birds (listen to the "alarm calls in captivity" on this page to hear roughly the same sound they were making...it's rather not subtle).  As far as I can tell, when they scream at mom and dad, the food their parent is holding is then placed in the baby falcon's mouth.  Now perhaps, the tiny falcon logic at this stage is that maybe begging at the prey will also make it magically placed in it's open mouth.  This is simply a hypothesis.

As for the fierce part...I did get to witness one of the juveniles mercilessly attack, maim, and tear apart bits of the tree it was standing on (second and third photo sets).  It was gruesome, but I managed to continue taking photos.  You will notice in the last three photos of the second photo set, that the juvenile merlin has it's foot proudly wrapped around it's prey as to not let it escape.

Lucky for these little terrors of the sky, mom and dad are still around right now to share kills and supplement the remainder of any failed hunting efforts of their children.  In all seriousness, this is all important in their development as predators.  It's very difficult to be an animal who has to pursue, capture, and kill each meal.  The first winter for a raptor is harsh, and mortality rates for a raptor in their first year of life are well over 60% (for some species up to 80% isn't uncommon).  This means the birds who make it through their first winter/year and those who eventually breed are truly the cream of the crop!  Here's to hoping these little guys hone their skills during this summer well enough to make it through their first winter.  I'm rooting for you adorable tiny falcons! 

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The extremes of red-tailed hawk color morphs. White to very, very dark. Both are the same species, Buteo jamaicensis.

The bird on the left has an extreme lack of melanin production and the bird on the right over-produces melanin. Melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes, which also produce pheomelanin, which results in a reddish-brown color. Note that the bird on the left has a red tint to her tail even though her melanocytes aren’t functioning normally, this could be due to porphyrins and/or carotenoids contributing to the red color in red-tailed hawk tails as well.

Both birds still exhibit the common trait of being total derps (as demonstrated in the third set of photos).

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That last pic had me doing Disney flashbacks but they’re both SO CUTE

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:)

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The extremes of red-tailed hawk color morphs. White to very, very dark. Both are the same species, Buteo jamaicensis.

The bird on the left has an extreme lack of melanin production and the bird on the right over-produces melanin. Melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes, which also produce pheomelanin, which results in a reddish-brown color. Note that the bird on the left has a red tint to her tail even though her melanocytes aren't functioning normally, this could be due to porphyrins and/or carotenoids contributing to the red color in red-tailed hawk tails as well.

Both birds still exhibit the common trait of being total derps (as demonstrated in the third set of photos).

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(via Grandmother Fish: a child’s first book of Evolution by Grandmother Fish LLC — Kickstarter)

An AWESOME kickstarter campaign! What a great way to teach children about our ancestors!!!

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My NY Faerie Fest costume this year.  I took festival attendees on a nature walk today :)

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(via Frequently Asked Questions, Ask an Expert: Q. I found a baby bird. What do I do?)

Reminder that it’s usually best to leave baby birds alone! Get a picture or two, enjoy watching them, but don’t unknowingly kidnap them from their parents!

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Itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) are emerging from various ponds this time of year.  Too cute!