Category Archives: Birds

Astonishing Species Decline

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Anthropocene, Birds, Extinction

 

Chris and I went to hear a Professor from Arizona State University talk about the amazing decline of birds and what we can do about it. Before I bog on what he said, I wanted to give some information, about the general problem of species decline. It is not a pretty story but the Professor did not concentrate on doom and gloom. He actually had some suggestions.

We all know birds (and other animals) have been seriously impacted by human activities inside and outside cities. The Living Planet Report of the World Wildlife Fund of 2018 delivered shocking news. It reported “On average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years.” You have to be careful in interpreting such figures. They are more complicated than at first they appear. But it is not difficult to understand we are losing a lot of wildlife. In addition the report said, “The top threats to species identified in the report link directly to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and the excessive human use of wildlife such as overfishing and overhunting.”

As Damian Carrington reported in the Guardian, “Between 1970 and 2014, the latest data available, populations fell by an average of 60%. Four years ago, the decline was 52%. The “shocking truth”, …, is that the wildlife crash is continuing unabated.”

This is an incredible report and not many people are talking about it. They are talking about Trump and the Mueller report, but that is not nearly as important as this. As Carrington said,

 

Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by the WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.

“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”

“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”

According to Prof Johan Rockström, a global sustainability expert at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, “We are rapidly running out of time.…The Living Planet Index has been criticised as being too broad a measure of wildlife losses and smoothing over crucial details. But all indicators, from extinction rates to intactness of ecosystems, show colossal losses. “They all tell you the same story,” said Barrett….”

Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF, said: “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.'”

However, as Professor Pearson repeated over and over, he did not want to concentrate on the gloom. He wanted to concentrate on how we should adapt to these horrid facts. If we can’t adapt we will suffer the same consequences as other species that fail to adapt when challenged. We will disappear–forever.

Next I will blog about how we should react to this decline. Besides crying that is.

Hummingbirds: How Smart are they?

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Birds, Hummingbirds, Natural History

 

 

After our adventures on the highways we did make it safely to our rented home in San Tan Valley Arizona. Our first Arizona friends to visit us were the hummingbirds. They arrived the first day we were here and went directly to the same spot we had our feeder last year before we had time to set it up.  How smart is that? I don’t think anyone has fed them here for 9 months!

As we were reading in the backyard, we saw an intense aerial display that could match any of the dogfights in either of our World Wars. Two Anna’s Hummingbirds conducted this military exercise. They flew after each other for so long that mostly they had no time to dine on the nectar we provided. That is not very smart! I did get a couple of photos of one of them in one of the few moments when he stopped to drink, including the image above.

Humans have a strong tendency to think they are better and smarter than everything else. Many of us believe that God made this world for humans to rule. The world is subordinate to us. Sometimes however, humans should learn a little humility.

I have watched a few astonishing nature shows on television about hummingbirds. One of them was about  Andy Hurley and his research partner Sue Healy who study hummingbirds. In particular, they study rufous humming birds, astonishing little birds with brains the size of a grain of rice. Yet even these birds are smart–very smart. Their hearts can beat at more than a 1,000 beats per minute! Their wings beat at more than 70 times per second! All of that requires the expenditure of an enormous amount of energy. How do they get that energy? Well they need to be smart to find it.

         Hurley and Healy found that in the lab birds like this do surprising things, but not nearly as surprising as the things that the birds do in their environment. That is where their intelligence really shines. They set up a number of fake flowers for the real birds. Each a different colour. They created a pattern of cardboard disks on top of sticks or poles stuck into the ground to resemble flowers. These were artificial flowers filled with a sucrose solution that resembles nectar.  The birds were actually offered slightly better food than they would get in the wild, in order to keep them interested. “Being smart birds they recognized a good thing when they saw it.” They kept coming back for the nectar of the gods. “Not only do they see it; they remember it,” Hurley said.

Because male rufous hummingbirds are so territorial, the same bird comes back to the cafeteria over and over again. As Hurley said, “A Male rufous hummingbirds has hundreds if not thousands of flowers in its territory. As a result, he has to remember where good food is, and where he has just visited.” That takes serious smarts! As Healy said, “they seem to know where a flower is after one visit. One visit! And we are still asking ourselves how do they do it?” Remember that is one visit among hundreds or even thousands of flowers! That also takes serious smarts. No doubt this is far beyond my capacity. But that is not all. They are even smarter than that!

As David Suzuki, who presented the show, said, “Its not just bird brain power, its biology. Hummingbirds have such a high metabolism they cannot afford to waste precious energy looking for food.”

People need a meal every 3 or 4 or 5 hours. “Hummingbirds are thinking I need a meal every 10 minutes! They have to make decisions that are really important, and if they don’t do it well they die. ” If we miss MacDonald’s we can always go to Wendy’s down the street. It doesn’t much matter to us. We have the time to make mistakes and correct them. Hummingbirds don’t have the luxury of much time. They cannot make a lot of mistakes.

Hummingbirds have another big problem–that is biodiversity. Normally that is a good thing for all of us, but for hummingbirds in the wild that can be a serious obstacle. In the wild, unlike the nectar Café the scientists could create, flowers replenish their nectar at different rates. In the experiment the scientists mimicked this diversity. The question then became can the hummingbird figure out which fake flowers are empty and which are filled with sucrose solution? The scientists were shocked at how well these tiny birds with their tiny brains did in the wild.

For half the flowers, after a bird visited, the scientists waited 10 minutes before replenishing. The other half of the flowers were refilled after 20 minutes. So a bird came in, visited 3 or 4 flowers, then went away and came back 10 or 15 minutes later, and then the bird must decide which flowers have not yet given up nectar and which ones will have it already. That is no an easy test. I would not want to take this examination, particularly if my life depended on it. Hummingbirds have no choice. They take such tests every day, over and over again. As a result the scientists  saw a hummingbird that had already sipped from 2 flowers. Then when it returned it headed straight for a new one. After a day of doing this, the hummingbird had a remarkable ability to separate out the 10 minute and 20 minute flowers. The bird must treat them differently.

Scientists call this episodic memory. I am glad I heard this expression. That is because I know I will forget it. That’s because I have so little of it. “They have to remember not just the what, and the where, but the when.” As Suzuki said, “this is a cognitive skill once thought to belong only to humans.” How wrong can we get?  How stupid are we? At least in comparison to these little birds with their minute brains.

Hurley described this well, when he said, “I would need a clipboard and pencil and 8 different stop watches for hours and hours and hours. Yet the birds are able to do this, seemingly without effort. They are smarter than me.” They are astonishing creatures and we have underestimated them–forever. As Healy said, “These birds have extraordinarily small brains and yet they do things that we find phenomenal.”

Naturally, that brings up an important question, ‘when it comes to brains does size matter?’  Humans are a good example of species where the size of brains does matter. Humans have very large brains for the size of their bodies and humans have an astounding capacity thanks to their brains. Well some of us at least.

The question was, ‘can a hummingbird outsmart a human?’  It seems unlikely. Andy Hurley is still amazed by hummingbirds after studying them for more than 25 years. Hurley said, “I’ve been humbled by these birds.” That was a lesson he wanted to pass on to his students. Humility is good.

Hurley did an experiment that required his students–smart University students–to forage like a hummingbird at the University of Lethbridge. He set up a memory test with candy instead of nectar. This one was to test the students. He had 8 paper cups.  4 of the paper cups were visited by students earlier. He asked the students to go to the cups that they had not yet visited to determine if they had candy hidden underneath them or not. One would think humans could do this easily. After all, humans have huge brains, and university students are thought to be the best of the best. The Students did pretty good. They got it right 75% of the time. This was the same as hummingbirds!

This made Professor Hurley say to his students, “You have brains that are 7,000 times larger than hummingbirds. My question is what are you doing with all those neurons? Why are you not scoring better than an animal that has a tiny, tiny brain?” The students chuckled. They chuckled at themselves that is.

Why are hummingbirds so smart? According to Professor Hurley, “the answer is that there is intense natural selection of hummingbirds to get this right because if they don’t they die.” Now humans have figured this out. They are pretty smart too.

The Birds of Ottawa

2018 Trip to Ottawa, Birds, photography

 

 

It seems weird but I met my sister Barb and brother-in-law Harv in Ottawa. They live in Steinbach but were also in Ottawa when we were. They invited us to join them on a birding outing not far from where they were staying.  This is a picture of Barb’s hand with a chickadee that arrived to eat seeds from her hand. That is my kind of birding.

 

This is a close-up of a chickadee.

 

This is a white-breasted nuthatch.

 

This is an impressionistic photograph of the maple leaves along the Mud Lake Trail where we walked.

 

The male Wood Duck is one of the most beautiful birds in North America.

 

Squirrels were also plentiful and fought over seeds left for them.

Arctic Terns

2018 Trip to Iceland, Birds, Natural History

 

We saw a colony of Arctic terns in southern Iceland. One of these birds attacked me. I guess I got too close to its nest. They are very protective.

One of the most fascinating aspects of birds is their ability, often truly amazing, to migrate, often over amazing distances, and in amazing circumstances.    Why do birds, unlike most animals migrate in the first place?  How do they navigate?  How do they know where to go?   How can they migrate so far, often under very adverse conditions?  In fact, to me the very notion of migration is a vast mystery that I will never understand, no matter how much I learn about it.   Just as one example, among many, some species of shorebirds, a relatively short time after giving birth to their young abandon them to their own devices while they fatten up for the long migration.  Then the adults head south many thousands of miles away, often to South America.  Amazingly, the young, who have never been anywhere in their short lives other than northern Canada, fly south on their own without any guidance from the adults, and turn up at the same place as the adults some weeks behind the adults.  How do they do it?  It is very difficult for us mere humans to fathom such incredible abilities.  It is a profound mystery.

Why does the Arctic Tern migrate literally from one end of the earth to the other, and then later back again?  What drives the bird to do that?  Why do they travel so far to go from one seemingly inhospitable place to another?  I will never understand these things, but will never tire to trying.

Some recent information about Arctic Terns is just downright amazing. The Arctic tern is justifiably famous for its astonishing migration. It is one of the most astonishing stories in a natural world filled with astounding stories. It flies each year from its breeding grounds in the Arctic in the spring and then back again after the summer. The shortest distance between these two points is 19,000 km (12,000 mi). This is the longest migration of any animal in the world! It flies about 2 times farther than scientists earlier believed because its route is not straight. It meanders.

Recently scientists have been able to install very small transmitters onto them so that their track could be monitored. One Arctic tern followed a zig-zag pattern from Greenland to Antarctica and back again each year and in the process racking up 44,000 frequent flyer miles (or 71,000 kilometers), as National Geographicdescribed them.  This is 4,000 miles or 6,440 km more than its nearest competitor the sooty shearwater. The researchers who found out this new information estimated that because the birds often live to be 30 years old over their lifetime they travelled about 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) which is equal to 3 trips to the moon and back![1]

Until recently scientists could not find a tracker light enough to be carried by a tern. Now they use one that is 1/20thof an ounce or 1.4 grams. The researchers also learned that terns often stop for month in the open Atlantic Ocean possibly to “fuel up” on small fish and crustaceans before continuing their awesome (for once that word really does apply). Even more surprisingly, they don’t take the shortest route. Instead they zig and zag literally across the ocean and back again! Some wondered why they would zigzag so much. For example, the terns from Greenland don’t fly straight up or down the Atlantic. Instead they “hopscotch from Antarctica to Africa to South America to the Arctic.”[2]Even though this is a detour of several thousand kilometers because they zigzag across the Atlantic Ocean, The birds appear to be following huge spiraling wind patterns in the atmosphere, avoiding flying into the wind,” according to Carsten Egevang one of the researchers.[3]

Though scientists are not sure why these amazing birds take such a long journey nearly from pole to pole, they believe it must be that the terns find rich feeding grounds in the waters of the poles. Why else would they do it?

 

 

[1]“World’s Longest Migration Found–2X Longer Than Thought,”National Geographic(Jan 2010)”

 

[2]“World’s Longest Migration Found–2X Longer Than Thought,”National Geographic(Jan 2010)

[3]Carsten Egevang, “World’s Longest Migration Found–2X Longer Than Thought,”National Geographic(Jan 2010)

Birds of Arizona

Arizona, Birds, Nature

This has not been a great year for wild flowers. In fact it has been a rotten year for wild flowers.  However, the birds have come and presented themselves. I captured a few images. If anyone notices that I have misidentified any birds please tell. I know I am an incompetent birder.

Pyrrhuloxia

Black-crowned Night Heron

 

 

Western Tanager

 

American Avocet

 

Black-Necked Stilt

 

Great Egret

 

Northern Cardinal

 

The cardinal broke a cardinal rule. That rule is that birds will only come close to me when I am a long way from my camera.  This time, we were sitting down for lunch and this guy showed up very close by.  Very obliging.  The stilt and the avocet were photographed last year.

Miracle Spring Water

Birds, Nature

Ring-necked Duck in “Reclaimed water”

Watching television I was stunned by a TV ad. The ad was from  television evangelist Peter Popoff  who did not ask for money. In fact he offered to give something away for free. There was a miracle right there. The product was “Miracle Spring Water.” “God’s plan for us has always been to be in health and prosper. He’s using the Miracle Spring Water to do just that.” A woman on the ad claimed, 2 days after she tried it she received $2,500 and then 2 days later $30,000! One young man said it changed his whole life. Another person said right after drinking it he got a new car! Another said that her relationship with her mother remarkably changed after imbibing the elixir. He asked people to call for a free bottle with absolutely no obligation. “You are next in line for a miracle.”

I didn’t call. Of course, I suspect that callers will be contacted eventually to buy something. After all people who believe in miracle spring water will believe anything. It is like wearing a sign “Gullible” on your forehead.

Canadian Singer/Songwriter Roy Forbes (formerly Bim) said if you don’t believe in miracles you may be taking bad advice.” Do you believe in miracles? Then I remembered I had seen miracle spring water that day–at Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler Arizona where spoiled wastewater has been recharged into creeks and a lake that lures birds from all across the state while providing a recreational for many people . Birders (Chris says we are bird brains)  like me. Fathers fishing with their children. Families enjoying a picnic beside the pond. That is miraculous spring water.

Lovebirds

Birds, Nature

 

Chris and I went to Usery Park to look at birds. The highlight was the Rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis) [formerly the rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis), also known as the rosy-collared or peach-faced lovebird. This is a species of lovebird native to arid regions in southwestern Africa such as the Namib Desert.

They had beautiful green, rose, and orange plumage. They are common in the pet industry. These birds are descendants of escapees from someone who owned them. They are not native to Arizona but this group has been here for years and seem to be enjoying life in the Sonoran desert. Most exotic birds are not able to survive in the US, but these found congenial conditions in the Phoenix area. Many people welcome them, as does Usery Park where we photographed these.

I love these birds

Burrowing Owls

Birds,

 

 

I went on an Owl Walk with Desert Rivers Audubon Society at Zanjero Park in Gilbert. This was a lot of fun and we saw 4 Burrowing Owls.

Burrowing owls are small owls that usually inhabit dry, open areas where grasslands, rangelands, agricultural lands, and  deserts and scrublands are found. They are very small owls–not more than 12 inches tall. They also have relatively long legs and short tails. They are mainly brown with many white or tan spots. They also have white “eyebrows” above their yellow eyes.

 

These owls like to build or occupy homes underground. The ones in Florida usually build their own burrows. However most other burrowing owls occupy abandoned homes of others such as ground squirrels prairie dogs, badgers, foxes, or coyotes.

Many of them have found a home in Gilbert, especially in Zanjero Park where volunteers have erected tunnels for them with large plastic pipes. There are about 15 of them in the park, though we only saw 4. I was quite happy to see that number in the wild, but I was disappointed that none of them perched on a branch. Photographs on boards or plastic tunnels are not very pleasing. But you gotta dance with the girl you brung.

The park is rather dull looking right beside a major highway. Someone said the government was thinking of building a major access to the highway right there. This would completely disrupt the owls. On one side is a farm that no doubt provides tasty rodents to the owls. The way things go around here that farm may not last long either. These owls need protection.

The owls are federally protected by treaty and legislation in both Canada and the United States. They are endangered in Canada and listed as threatened in Mexico.

According to our guide from the Audubon Society burrowing owls from Canada leap frog over these owls to Mexico. These owls they believe have migrated from the northern plains in the United States, not Canada.

Even though the setting was poor for photographs I did get some shots. The birds were very cooperative. Although they did not perch on a branch, they did stand in front of or near their burrows and were not very disturbed at people near by. I had a lot of fun. I want to go back and try again for better environmental shots.

Birds of the Sonoran Desert

Birds, ,

 

Black-throated Sparrow

I am a wild flower guy.  But this is the worst wild flower year in Arizona in at least 15 years and perhaps ever. So I have been forced to adapt.  Instead of wild flowers I have pursued birds. I love birds too, but unlike flowers, they don’t often stay in one place. That makes photographing them tricky.

“In many experts’ view, dinosaurs never really went extinct. Small ones, whose scales were modified into feathers, can be seen almost anywhere you look.”[1]

Any creature that lives in the desert has a big challenge–how to survive. Surprisingly many creatures do survive here. Some even thrive.

At first that sounds hard to believe. After all water, which is absolutely essentail for any animal to survvie is hard to find. Added to that, it is often hot here and as it heats up so does evaporations, tending to elminate what little war was here in the first place. As if that is not enough an animal’s need for water increases as the temperature increases. I can testify to that. Sometimes, on a hike, I have thought water was not required. That is always a mistake. I try to make sure I always have water along, and usually I need it.

Finally, when it is hot it is difficult for organisms to maintain their correct body temeprature. So how do they do?

The answer is that every creature that tries ot live here must have a survival strategy. And it must be a good one. That applies to mammals, insects, and birds.

The most common strategy is avoidance. Like lazy boys who hate work do their best to avoid it, so animals of the desert try to avoid the heat. Many do that by sleeping during they day. Usually there are more animals active at night than during the day.

The birds that are nocturnal like owls or crepuscular (dusk-to-dawn) have an advantage. For example. Owls use this strategy. Despite the challenges I was surprised to learn from a veteran birder, that out of the 50 states in the United States Arizona had the third highest numbers of distinct species. Only California and Texas beat it! And both Texas and California have long coasts with wonderful sea birds and shorebirds. Even Florida and Alaska which are both famous for their birds, have less varieties that can be found there.

Why is that? The answer is diversity. Arizona has diversity of terrain. It has mountains, it has plains, it has grasslands, and of course, it has deserts. Add those up and that makes birds. Surprisingly many bird species.Despite the challenges I was surprised to learn from a veteran birder, that out of the 50 states in the United States Arizona had the third highest numbers of distinct species. Only California and Texas beat it! And both Texas and California have long coasts with wonderful sea birds and shorebirds. Even Florida and Alaska which are both famous for their birds, have less varieties that can be found there.

According to Wildbirds.com, California has 664 species of birds, Texas 644, and Arizona 555. Manitoba by comparison has a paltry 390.

Why is that? The answer is diversity. Arizona has diversity of terrain. It has mountains, it has plains, it has grasslands, and of course, it has deserts. Add those up and that makes birds. Surprisingly many bird species.

 

The House Finch was introduced in the eastern USA and over time has expanded its range from their to most of North America, including both Manitoba and Arizona.

Contrary to what I just said, the Cactus Wren is not shy and will stand still for a photograph, unlike my even more lovely grand daughters.

[1] Douglas H. Chadwick, Enduring America, (1995) National Geographic Society, p. 96