The Tide of Tweeters is Coming In

April 27, 2012 By Communications Team

Brown Thrasher Spring 2012. Photo by Justin Thompson — Brown Thrasher, April 2012. Photo by Justin Thompson

The vernal clock is ticking, the fervent winds from the South are rising, and I can almost hear the steady beating of the wings as the migrant wave swells steadily northward. The birds that have already arrived or passed through seem to be twittering, “The tide is coming, the tide is coming!”, as they hurriedly move on or get right down to reserving the best territories before the crowd comes.

The crowd is indeed coming! Birders have been reporting that migration is “raging” in the south, and birds in the east that have been bottled up by the recent storms just moved north in massive numbers in the last couple of nights. Although it is still a bit early for neo-tropical migrants here, we can expect to see increasing numbers of warblers, vireos, tanagers, orioles and grosbeaks.

Adult White-eyed Vireo. Spring 2012. Photo by Blake Goll — Adult White-eyed Vireo. April 2012. Photo by Blake Goll

Check out this radar image of migration movement south of us last night. The circles of blue indicate migrating birds, while the irregular patterns are storms. Pretty cool, huh? Radar images are being used more regularly in ornithology and birding to help predict bird migration and link bird movements to weather patterns.

Radar image of migrating birds. — Radar image of night migrating birds.

We are expecting the banding station to start getting very busy! We have been open for “birdness” (as Lisa Kiziuk, Director of the WCT Bird Conservation Program, puts it) for the past three weeks, and things have been pretty quiet with only half a dozen birds on some days. However, we have had good quality to make up for the lack of quantity: a migrant flock of American Robins, several Brown Thrashers, nice little flocks of White-throated Sparrows, a couple Winter Wrens, Hermit Thrush, a White-eyed Vireo, and a red phase Eastern Screech Owl! A pair of Brown Thrashers are nesting at Rushton Woods Preserve, so we get to listen to the male’s lovely song every morning.

Second Year American Robin with obvious retained juvenile (brownish) feathers. Notice the molt limit in the secondary flight feathers. — Second Year American Robin with obvious retained juvenile (brownish) feathers. Notice what we call a molt limit in the secondary flight feathers (the brownish ragged feathers contrasting with the pearly gray adult feathers).

Last week, we captured a recap Common Yellowthroat ; we had banded him in a previous year, so he has returned safely to his summer home! This week, Gray Catbirds arrived, including one of ours that we banded at Rushton last year. Welcome home! I’m never more excited to see a catbird than I am for the first catbird of the year. They become so common so fast, our “bread and butter bird”, but for now the Catbird elicits smiles from ear to ear as if he were a good friend of ours that had been out of touch for years. His beautiful song now fills the woods and our yards with tropical euphony.

Our first Gray Catbird of the year! Picture by Blake Goll.

Those tiny denizens of the leaves, the wood warblers, should be arriving now that their tree havens have sprung to life. I can’t wait!

Black-throated Green Warblers by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Don’t forget about our Warbler Walk at Kirkwood Preserve next Sunday May 6 from 7:30am -10am, led by our federally licensed bird bander and master birder, Doris McGovern! We will meet in the Kirkwood parking lot on Grubbs Mill Road. Please RSVP to me, Blake Goll (bhg@wctrust.org), by May 3.

Also be sure to visit the banding station at Rushton Woods Preserve and Farm as migration picks up. We are open to the public Tuesday and Thursday mornings from sunrise (5:30am) until about 11am (unless it rains). No need to RSVP unless you plan to bring a large group. We band to contribute to global bird conservation efforts, to document the bird populations and species diversity using the preserve, and to connect people to nature through intimate experiences with birds.

Wyoming visitor with White-throated sparrow.

PA Young Birders Update

The PA Young Birders had a blast birding and “migrating” this past Saturday at Rushton. The children had a chance to hold the newly hatched and very naked Carolina Wren nestlings, which we borrowed from the funky weed wacker nest. What was Mama Wren thinking? Needless to say, our farm staff will be short one weed wacker this season! What a perfect picture of farm and nature existing in harmony.

Carolina Wren in weed wacker nest. — Carolina Wren in weed wacker nest at Rushton Farm. Photo by Blake Goll

Carolina Wren eggs in weed wacker nest. Photo by Blake Goll

Carolina Wren babies (weed wacker-2012). Photo by Blake Goll

Carolina Wren nestling in Young Birder's hands. Photo by Blake Goll — Carolina Wren nestling in PA Young Birder's hands. Photo by Blake Goll

The Young Birders also got their exercise racing against each other in an obstacle course that simulated bird migration and the many (often human imposed) hazards birds must face. These hazards included having to find food and water while avoiding being eaten by cats and other predators, weaving in and out of buildings in a city, avoiding glass windows, flying over habitat destruction and around windmills, and dodging cars! (No children were injured in this simulation).

The next PAYB meeting, “Spring Migration Morning at the Rushton Woods Preserve Banding Station” will be held Saturday May 19, 9am-11am. The children will experience songbirds in the hand and science in the field during the peak of spring migration at Rushton. We offer this unforgettable memory to children for free, but a donation of $5 per child is suggested to help us maintain our special outdoor classroom and quality educational programs. Please RSVP to me, Blake Goll (bhg@wctrust.org).

Westtown 1st grader holding Canada Warbler. Photo by Blake Goll — Westtown 1st grader holding Canada Warbler, May 2011. Photo by Blake Goll

Also coming up is the Pretty Big Bird Day , May 12 from as early as you wish until 6pm. Click here for more information about the event. This event is a friendly competition between teams to see who can spot the most species in the Willistown area. Families and birders of all ages are welcome! Form your own team or join an existing one by contacting Dick Eales at REales@gmail.com. Any interested PA Young Birders should contact me, Blake Goll (bhg@wctrust.org), by May 8th to join my team for a couple hours of the competition!

Early Spring Babies

Here is a picture of the happy bluebird babies in my own backyard. They all hatched successfully before the egg- pecking House Wren returned, and they are just 4 or 5 days from fledging! Unfortunately, the bluebird family at Rushton was not so lucky. They nested much later than mine, and their eggs were pecked this week by the aggressive House Wren. Hopefully, once the wren gets busy with his own nest, the bluebirds will have a chance. We also plan to place three more bluebird boxes at Rushton in a more open area of the fields, far away from the hedgerow. Bluebird boxes that are too close to hedges or the edge of woods are at high risk for wren predation.

The skies are alive at Rushton with the theatrical dynamics of the Tree Swallows, which are starting their nests. Fred De Long, Director of the Farm, remembers when there was only one lone pair of swallows 3 years ago when the farm was just starting out. This year, there are several pairs; like the orioles, the swallows seem to be flourishing with the maturation of the sustainable farm nestled in the nature preserve.

Tree Swallow relaxing on top of his new home. Photo by Fred de Long — Tree Swallow relaxing on top of his new home. (April 2012). Photo by Fred de Long

Lisa Kiziuk has a family of House Finches that nested in her wreath at her home. The babies have already fledged and the TAP students ( The Achievement Project of Chester), who have been learning about the farm and birds, were thrilled to have a chance to cradle the charming nestlings in their hands last week. House finches were once sold as pets and called Hollywood Finches; their sweet and amusing dispositions coupled with their beautiful song make it easy to see why they were desirable pets!

TAP student with House Finch baby. Photo by Blake Goll

Lisa's House finch. — Lisa's House finch nestling. Photo by Blake Goll.

Happy Belated Birthday to John James Audubon!

Born on April 26, 1785, he is one of the most celebrated French-American ornithologists, naturalists, and painters. His seminal work, “The Birds of North America,” is considered the finest ornithological work ever completed and can be viewed online here. This online version is definitely not as fabulous as the real thing (which is a wonderful coffee table book!), but fun to browse nonetheless.

Audubon Whip-Poor-Will — Audubon Whippoorwill from "The Birds of North America"

Excuse me, but I must go plant a tree for the birds…

Happy Arbor Day!

~Blake

Sunshine through a Dogwood Tree (http://mseagtaann.deviantart.com)

Spring has Sprung…And So Have Our Mist Nets

April 3, 2012 By Communications Team

That lovely green mist of ephemeral spring beauty has officially invigorated the land and awakened Mother Nature from her brief winter’s nap. You know what that means…bird banders are also emerging from their winter hibernacula and eagerly throwing up their own mist in the woods.

Public bird banding sessions at Rushton Woods Preserve will begin next Tuesday, April 17, and we can’t wait!!

We will be bird banding every Tuesday and Thursday this spring at Rushton Woods Preserve, weather permitting. If it rains, we do not band in an effort to keep the birds safe. Please feel free to come out any of those mornings to observe. We start at sunrise, 6:30am, and take the nets down around 11 am. Large groups should contact Lisa Kiziuk, (lkr@wctrust.org) for an appointment. Anyone interested in becoming a regular volunteer should also contact Lisa Kiziuk.

This Spring is shaping up to be one for the records! Red-winged blackbirds have already been back for over a month now, and (relatively) short-distance migrants like Eastern Phoebes, Chipping Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Tree Swallows, Field Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlarks, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets have been spotted earlier than usual setting up shop or passing through (in the Ruby-crown’s case). Some other interesting Chester County sightings this spring have included Pine Siskin, Palm Warbler, and Wilson’s Snipe. Dark-eyed Juncos and a few White-throated sparrows are still passing through. Waterfowl peak migration has passed, but you still might be able to catch a glimpse of some stragglers; sightings on ponds in the area included Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Mergansers and Common Mergansers. Wood Ducks will enter the stage soon and begin nesting.

Ring necked Duck by Shawn Collins (PA Birders) — Ring necked Ducks by Shawn Collins (PA Birders)

Wood Duck looking for nest cavity. Photo by Peter Quinn — Wood Duck pair looking for nest cavity. Photo by Peter Quinn

Look for the long-distance migrating songbirds (coming from Central and South America) to start showing up this month including Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird, Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush and the other wood warblers! The warblers are my favorite, especially in spring, when they are in their finest plumage and lighting up the forest with their vibrant colors and songs. However, warbler-ing can be overwhelming and therefore less enjoyable if you are not confident with your warbler identification skills.

Whether you are a novice or expert birder, I urge you to watch this youtube video, “Birding Warblers“. It takes you on an exciting birding trip with Cornell experts to a woodlot in Rochester, New York at the peak of warbler migration and offers great birding tips and techniques. Plus, you get a sneak peak at what is coming soon to a banding station near you. .. As far as I’m concerned, these amazing little warblers are our own birds of paradise, to be treasured and enjoyed right here in our own backyard. I’m grateful I live in the Eastern U.S. rather than the West, which has far fewer warblers than we do! (Click here, if you want to know why).

Palm Warbler by Gerrit Vyn (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds)

If you’d like to brush up on your warbler songs and ID for this spring, Cornell’s Macauley Library, the world’s largest archive of animal sounds, is a great resource that offers downloadable audio guides and hundreds of free sound recordings and video clips. The “All About Birds” website has another great warbler resource. Spring is a great time to get to know these birds in all their glory.

Speaking of glorious birds and early migration this year, I have hung my hummingbird feeders already, just in case! There have actually been reports of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Pennsylvania already starting on March 19th, which is almost a month earlier than the first hummer sighting last year. Check it out on the hummingbird tracker map, another great resource.

This year’s early spring has generated much discussion amongst the birding/ornithological community and could spell disaster for long-distance migrants, in particular, who are the last to know that spring is early up here in Pennsylvania. The following is an excerpt on this topic from a “PA-Birds” listing last month by Scott Weidensaul, natural history writer, hummer and owl bander extraordinaire:

“The unusual weather, and unusually early migration, raise some interesting points about migrants and climate change that Drew and a few others have touched on.

Phenology is the study of timing in nature, and there’s an extraordinary data set of weather and nature observations stretching back almost 90 years at the Mohonk Preserve in southeastern New York – the longest-running such data set in the country.

In addition to keeping track of first bloom dates for flowers, leaf-out dates for trees and the like, they also tracked first arrival dates for birds – and it’s clear from an analysis of the Mohonk phenology is that birds are responding to climate change in different ways. Short- and medium-distance migrants like eastern towhees and eastern phoebes, for example, are arriving weeks earlier than they did in the early 20th century – just as wildflowers are blooming weeks earlier today than in the past (hepatica by 20 days, bloodroot by 13). Some species have simply stopped migrating in the region entirely, and are now year-round residents.

However, the arrival dates for long-distance migrants like scarlet tanagers and black-throated green warblers have not changed significantly at all in the past 90 years. The difference probably lies in what triggers the migration in both groups of birds. Short- and medium-distance migrants primarily winter in the southern U.S. or Mexico; they travel north in short stages, each flight triggered by good weather and wind directions – like the strong, persistent southerly winds blowing up the center of the continent the past two weeks.

Long-distance migrants coming from Central America, South America or the Caribbean, on the other hand, tend to fly in much longer, nonstop flights, and their departure is obviously not based on local weather conditions up here – a scarlet tanager in Colombia has no way of knowing it’s an early spring in Pennsylvania. They depart based on internal circadian rhythms and subtle changes in the daily photoperiod.

Once they come north, of course, warm southerly winds will speed their movement north across North America, just as persistent cold, northerly winds will retard it. Ruby-throated hummers, for example, usually arrive in the Gulf region the first two weeks of March – and this year, many are hopping on the south wind train and being sped north far, far sooner than is normal.

There is a real risk for bird riding the flow north so soon, of course, if the weather turns cold. But there’s also a serious risk for those species that can’t easily respond to the changing climate, like all those long-distance migrants. They are supposed to arrive early enough in spring to pair up, nest and hatch babies just as the early June explosion of soft-bodied insects (read: caterpillars) reaches its peak. With the leaves coming out weeks early, they may miss it. That’s already happening with trans-Saharan migrants in Europe, and with catastrophic consequences. Some species, like pied flycatchers, have seen a 90 percent population collapse in the last few years because their unchanging migration timetable means they’re now disconnected from their food supply.” (Scott Weidensaul in PA Birds)

Yikes! I hope those long-distance migrants can evolve new timetables faster than we think or adapt to different food sources.

On a more uplifting note, I have noticed that the early spring is benefiting Eastern Bluebirds in my backyard. I have had a female sitting on 4 eggs for the past several days without having to worry about competition from the House Wrens, who have not yet returned from their southern sojourn. Last year, by the time my bluebird pair was ready to set up house, Mr. Wren had already started a nest in both of my bluebird boxes! He starts a stick nest in every cavity in his neighborhood to maximize the female’s options. She then chooses one and “re-arranges the furniture” and puts the finishing touches on the nest. Then the male fiercely (and selfishly) defends all cavities in the area, which would have excluded the bluebirds last year.

House Wren at nest box by Adrian Binns — House Wren at nest box. Photo by Adrian Binns.

The Willistown Conservation Trust is reinvigorating the nestbox program to provide more vital homes for cavity-nesting birds in our program area. This spring, we are focusing on bluebirds and have added 30 new boxes on our preserves: Ashbridge, Rushton, and Kirkwood. We are monitoring the boxes weekly throughout the breeding season to determine nesting success.

Please contact me (bhg@wctrust.org) if interested in helping out! It’s a great way to get outside to enjoy nature, contribute to conservation, and see into the lives of these beautiful birds. It’s also an opportunity to get involved with citizen science as all of our monitoring data gets submitted to The Bluebird Society of PA. A big thanks to Ken Leister who gave an impassioned presentation about bluebirds last month here at the Trust and has donated his time and energy to building our 30 new bluebird boxes. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to attend his fantastic lecture, I will do a bluebird blog in the future summarizing it, so stay tuned! My favorite quote of his was,

“The more you learn about nature, the more complicated it becomes.”

Winter and Early Spring Memories from WCT

The PA Young Birders met in November to learn about cavity-nesting birds and even made their own bluebird box!

Young Birders building nestbox. Photo by Adrian Binns (pictured on right).

They reconvened in December for the Christmas Bird Count…

Young Birder with an Eastern Screech Owl borrowed for the morning from our partner, the Great Valley Nature Center. Photo by Adrian Binns

Young Birders birding for the Christmas Bird Count

In February, the PA Young Birders learned what it takes for birds to survive the winter…

Blake Goll showing Young Birders the structure of feathers. Photo by Adrian Binns.

In March, our Young Birders discovered the importance of the rainforest and learned that our birds are actually birds of two worlds. After a shade-grown/organic chocolate tasting, they learned what labels to look for on their chocolate to ensure that they are contributing to bird habitat conservation while buying chocolatey goodness…

Blake Goll teaching Young Birders about shade-grown chocolate. — Blake Goll conducting Young Birders shade-grown chocolate tasting. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Local birders and supporters of our Bird Conservation Program enjoyed “Woodcocks and Cocktails” in March during which we were thrilled to watch two male woodcocks performing their aerial displays across the darkening sky.

Waiting for Woodcocks at "Woodcocks and Cocktails".

Also in March, our innovative “Beer for Birds” annual lecture and Dogfish Head ancient ale tasting, featuring Patrick McGovern, the world’s foremost beer archaeologist, raised over $5,700 towards our Bird Conservation Program!

Patick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Mark Your Calenders

The next PA Young Birder meeting will be held at Rushton Woods Preserve on Saturday, April 21st, from 9:30am to 11am. All children, ages 8-12, are welcome to come learn about and experience spring migration! Please RSVP to me (bhg@wctrust.org).

Young Birders at the Willistown Conservation Trust

A guided spring Warbler Walk will be held on Sunday May 6th, 7:30am at Kirkwood Preserve (on Grubbs Mill Road). This will be a great opportunity for birders of all skill levels to enjoy bright spring warblers at a beautiful preserve that offers grassland, riparian, and woodland habitats. Please RSVP to me (bhg@wctrust.org).

Get outside this weekend if you can! Buds are bursting, trees are flowering, wildflowers are thriving on the forest floor before leaf-out, pollinators are abuzz, salamanders and other amphibians are depositing eggs masses in vernal pools and ponds, raptors are breezing by hawk watches, and the Easter Bunny is hopping about!

Happy Easter and don’t forget, there’s a lot going on in the woods…

~Blake

Spotted Salamander by Bob Ferguson (PA-Herps)

Reminder to PA Young Birders- Change of dates

February 17, 2012 By Communications Team

American Robin fluffed up. Photo by Mark Lewer

Greetings Jr. Birders!

I just wanted to remind you that since this is a holiday weekend and many little birders might have flown the coop, the PA Young Birder meeting that was scheduled for this Saturday February 18th has been rescheduled to next Saturday February 25, 9:30-11am. We will be investigating adaptations of winter birds…look for more information to come next week; as of now, we will meet at the Trust headquarters (925 Providence Rd, Newtown Square PA). Please RSVP to Lisa Kiziuk (lkr@wctrust.org).

Bluebird & House Finch by Stephen Staedtler (PA-Birds)

If you have time this weekend, be sure to participate in Audubon’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)! All you need to do is count birds for at least 15 minutes in your yard one day this weekend to help scientists gain a national snapshot of winter bird distribution (and a glimpse into the beginning of spring migration, believe it or not). Here’s the website for GBBC instructions, data entry, and fun stuff for kids: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Have a great, long weekend!

~Blake

Yellow Diamonds in Snow

February 3, 2012 By Communications Team

Snowy Owl eyes from Voice of America blog.

We arrived in Cumberland County last Saturday just after 2 pm. The sky was overcast but the sun still managed to cast a soft golden glow over the rugged landscape. A cold, stern wind tore relentlessly across the bare corn fields and scattered rocky outcroppings. Ignoring the pungent smell of freshly spread manure, upon closing my eyes I could imagine I was in the unforgiving arctic landscape, alone in the wilderness in search of two precious yellow diamonds in the snow.

As we approached the intersection of Mud Level and Duncan Roads, my heart skipped a beat (and I began yawning a lot- presumably my brain trying to prepare my car-cramped body for the chase!) I began excitedly scanning the barren fields for the ghostly figure we were seeking while watching the road ahead for a caravan of birders parked on the side of the road, Yellowstone-style. Suddenly, there it was! A blazing white figure in the middle of the umber colored field. Deftly snapping my binoculars up to my eyes, I could just make out the…”Oh,” I sighed as my heart sank. “It’s just a plastic bag.”

Birders viewing Snowy Owl on Mud Level and Duncan Rd, Cumberland County, PA.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for my hope to be restored. Just around a bend in the flat road were a hoard of cars parked askew and eager birders perched against the wooden fence with all array of scopes, camera equipment, digiscope adapters and binoculars. We parked along the road and cast our binoculars in the direction of everyone else’s, and much to our wondering eyes did appear but a miniature white figure in the treeless distance! Less than 1/4 mile away sat a living glimpse into the arctic tundra.

Cumberland County Snowy Owl as viewed through a scope. Note: I am an amateur digiscoper! — Cumberland County Snowy Owl photographed through a scope. Note: I am an amateur digiscoper! (I could see the owl much better than this with just my eye and the scope).

Looking through the scope brought the creature’s stoic majesty into clear focus. A pure white cloak draped over two feet of muscle and bone. Aside from the quick movements of his neck as he often and mindfully inspected his alien surroundings, he was as still and silent as the polar night as he sat in solitude. The wild yellow diamonds in his snow-white face pierced my soul as he scrutinized me several times from afar, probably seeing the details of my face as well as I was seeing his through the scope. It felt as though he was reading more than just the details of my face. The intimacy and severity of his gaze stirred something unfamiliar in my core, awakened some wild ancient sense, connected me to the earth’s energy beneath my feet, and somehow made me more aware and compassionate of the human lives around me. As I breathed in the cold sharp winter, I imagined inhaling the elemental exhale of the owl… inhaling truth, light, serenity and life. I was renewed by the reflection of those rare yellow diamonds and a breath of the arctic, of all that is pure and beautiful and sad and terrifying.

The owl stretched out his long wing once and we could see his power. Then he opened his beak while tenderly preening his luscious coat of feathers, and we glimpsed his vulnerability in the bright pink of his mouth.

As we were heading back to the car, the sun’s rays broke through the somber clouds for a peaceful moment of satisfaction and gratitude. We gazed back at the Snowy Owl, now bathed in the beauty of the light, and I found it hard to fathom that the comfort of the sun’s rays is something this bird does not know for weeks on end. What is the light and the hope that carries him through the days of dark? Perhaps that is the secret behind his mysterious yellow eyes…Perhaps they are enigmatic pools of stored sunlight eternally preserved as yellow diamonds in snow.

If you’d like to have your own once-in-a-lifetime Snowy Owl experience be sure to track the local sightings on the PA Birding List website. This is also a great place to go to discover other interesting and sometimes rare bird sightings (especially in winter) in PA. You’ll find that the PA birding community is quite an avid fellowship; with at least a dozen birders posting on the site everyday, this is certainly the place to go for up-to- the -minute updates.

Unfortunately, much to the frustration of birders all over the state, the latest postings on this listserv (Feb 2) reveal that a “birder” with an attitude of entitlement waltzed into the Cumberland County cornfield and approached the Snowy owl at a disrespectfully close distance. The owl, which had been sitting there peacefully for the past month, took off into the distance and has not been seen since. This is a real shame for all the birders who may never get a chance to see the owl again, or any Snowy Owl for that matter. Even more grievous is the fact that the bird was forced to expend extra energy and endure added stress in now having to locate a new field in which to feed for the remainder of this winter.

Disturbing these long distance migrants is a BIG NO NO since the reason they are here in the first place is often starvation. Hunger caused by unpredictable or unreliable food sources is what draws them south from their northern haunts in the first place. Birders are encouraged to enjoy the birds from a respectful distance but should always be mindful not to crowd the bird and thus force it to use energy it does not have.

New birders are always welcome to the ‘sport’, but it is their responsibility to inform themselves of the rules and code of ethics as they would with any other sport. The American Birding Association has a nice summary of birding ethics, which is handy for all bird lovers to have at their fingertips.

Snowy Owl (from http://www.pauldfrost.co.uk/snowyowl.html#folklore).

Even though the Snowy Owl has no visible ear tufts, it is thought to be closely related to our familiar Great Horned Owl.

This Snowy Owl invasion, which is the biggest documented in the entire history of ornithology, has been causing quite a stir all over the nation. The reason for so many Snowy Owls coming south from the Arctic this winter is an abundance of lemmings (their favorite food) this past summer on the tundra breeding grounds, which led to greater breeding success for the owls (each adult pair had about 6 young fledge instead of the usual 2). Once winter arrived, the abundance of full-grown baby owls (plus adults) created heavy competition for food; the younger owls get displaced by the more established adults and must then move south for the winter. When food becomes abundant in the arctic with the coming of summer, the young will move back north.

Check out the National News report on the Snowy Owl invasion if you haven’t already seen it: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/reaction-to-snowy-owl-wow/6r90mfg?from. And here is a nice eBird article on the Snowy phenomenon.

If you were planning on going to see the Cumberland County Snowy, don’t lose hope! There is one even closer. On February 1st, this picture was taken of a Snowy at the Northeast Airport in Philly. Perhaps he likes the company of the cone…

Snowy Owl at NE Air, Philly PA 2-1-12. Photo by Frank Windfelder

Of course, you can still head out to Cumberland County to see the Townsend’s Warbler at 1133 Pine Rd, Carlisle PA. The homeowner is a very kind man who allows birders on his property to see the warbler, which regularly darts around his extravagant system of “squirrel-proof” bird feeders. This is only the 4th documented record of a Townsend’s Warbler overwintering in PA! Check out the slow-motion you tube video of the quick little warbler bustling about the feeders on Pine Road. Thanks , Dr. Green, for allowing me on your deck to see this fabulous bird!

Townsend's Warbler I banded in Washington State near Mt. Rainier. By Blake Goll

Willistown Conservation Trust Bird News and Upcoming Events

Our first family Winter Bird Walk at Rushton Woods Preserve went very well last weekend with an avid group of about 20 birders of all skill levels in attendance. We enjoyed seeing (and hearing) many usual winter residents including Eastern Bluebirds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, American Goldfinch, Towhees and Dark-eyed Juncos. Thanks to Alice Hausmann, who was kind enough to allow us on her property to check out her pond, we got to glimpse some handsome Hooded Mergansers and a lone Bufflehead female.

Be on the lookout for information about our next public bird walk, which will hopefully be an American Woodcock Walk! These cryptic shorebirds can be viewed at dusk in early spring (beginning as early as late February or March), with the males performing stunning aerial displays for the females who watch from below. More information to come…

SAVE THE DATE! We will be hosting a “Pretty Big Birding Day” 6 pm May 11- 6pm May 12, during which teams of 3-6 birders of all ages and skill levels will compete against each other to see who can find the most bird species in the Trust’s program area in 24 hours! The event will end with a party, complete with casual dinner, drinks and awards. Don’t miss this opportunity to bird the beautiful Upper Ridley/Crum IBA (Important Bird Area), including all of the Willistown Conservation Trust’s Preserves after dark (normally only open until dusk) and other birding hotspots that are normally not open to the public. Start forming your team now and contact Dick Eales (REales36@gmail.com) for more information and contest rules and to register your team. Registration fees are $25 for adults and $10 for children under 12. Sign up by April 15th.

Beer for Birds, March 2, is SOLD OUT! Patrick McGovern, the world’s foremost beer archaeologist, will take us on a fascinating tour and tasting of ancient brews to benefit the Willistown Conservation Trust’s new Bird Conservation Program.

The next PA Young Birders (PAYB) Meeting is February 18th, 9:30-11am (Location to be announced- either Rushton Woods Preserve or WCT headquarters). Kids, ages 8-12, are welcome to join us and the rest of the nation for The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Please contact Lisa Kiziuk to sign your child up for the PA Young Birders GBBC February 18th (lkr@wctrust.org).

The GBBC is an Audubon and Cornell citizen science project that offers scientists a real-time snapshot of winter bird distribution across the nation and is a very important source of population and occurence data. Check out the GBBC website to learn more about it and participate in your own backyard. You don’t have to be a kid to help scientists monitor birds, of course! It’s easy and fun; You just need to count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count, February 17-20, and submit your data online.

The PA Young Birders helped make bluebird boxed for the Trust and learned all about cavity-nesting birds this fall. — The PA Young Birders helped make bluebird boxes for the Trust and learned all about cavity-nesting birds at a previous meeting this fall.

That’s all I’ve got for now!

Bird on,

~Blake

http://thetinyaviary.blogspot.com/

Giving Thanks for the Owls of 2011

December 9, 2011 By Communications Team

Our banding station is officially closed for the year (both songbirds and owls), which means it’s time for us banders to get back in the office and put our lives (and our desks) back together again! We tried a few more times for owls around Thanksgiving when we heard that other banding stations both north and south of us were getting more owls. King’s Gap in Cumberland County (one of Scott Weidensaul’s banding stations northwest of us) caught 5 new Saw-whets on November 23rd! On November 21st Glenn Proudfoot, another owl bander in Poughkeepsie, NY, actually hand-plucked one female Saw-whet off of a rope that was holding one of his net poles up! She was not in the net and was totally free to fly away at any moment if she wished. This is not so unusual considering the surprisingly calm nature of some of these individuals. What is most notable about this story is that he named the owl Marsha Mellow! 🙂

We opened our nets the night after with high hopes and caught nothing…although we did see a flying squirrel spying on us and hear Saw-whet Owls calling in the woods. We suspect there are a couple of owls that decided to overwinter in our area, and they have grown weary of investigating the invisible, loud-mouthed male that sings for hours on end during some nights, in the midst of giant spider webs!

First and last Saw-whet of the 2011 season. — First and last Saw-whet Owl of the 2011 season at Rushton. (A Hatch Year Female) Photo by Blake Goll

Coincidentally, the very last Saw-whet Owl we captured this year (on November 19th) was the very first owl we caught this year (October 21st). We have no way of knowing if this young female (band # 37) was here the entire time or if she wandered many miles away and came back, which is very likely considering the nomadic nature of these woodland elves in winter (as discussed in my last blog post). In any case, it certainly seems that #37 is at least using Rushton as her home base this winter. Don’t forget, however, that these spritely owls have the ability to travel far and wide if they want to; this fall, one young female was reported to have traveled from a banding station in Ontario to one in Alabama in just one month!

Northern Saw-whet Owl roosting. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Our Saw-whet Owl total for the season is just 34, which is a comparable low to other banding stations in the east. The grande total ( a new all time low) for all three of Scott Weidensaul’s PA stations (King’s Gap, Hidden Valley, and Small Valley) is 116 as of November 30th; the previous low total for his stations was 201 in 2006. Last year, he banded over 340 owls across all 3 sites, and we banded 91 owls here at Rushton Woods Preserve. That was one of the best years so far.

I have not heard a definitive answer to the question of why there were so few owls showing up at eastern banding stations this year, although most banders agree that the resources up north were probably insufficient during the owls’ breeding season this year. The majority of banding stations banded more adult and less Hatch Year owls (birds born this summer) this year than previous years. This could be an indication that there weren’t many baby owls this year as a result of low breeding success; either the parents did not have the resources to have many babies, there was high juvenile mortality caused by lack of food or it was a combination of both scenarios. In certain previous years, lower numbers of Saw-whets traveling south actually meant that the resources up north were abundant, thus diminishing the need to migrate in winter. However, the low totals we saw this year coupled with the lower ratio of Hatch Years to adults is a sure sign that the little fuzzballs had a rough summer.

short-tailed shrew BINNS IMG_1264 copy — Saw-whet Owls' main food sources are rodents, like mice and this Short-tailed Shrew. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Even the Saw-whets’ plumage revealed evidence of stress. Just to give you some background, we age birds based on their species-specific molt patterns, with particular emphasis on the flight feathers. Molting requires a great deal of energy and nutrients, so a bird born this year (Hatch Year-HY) will not usually carry out a complete molt; it may molt all of its body feathers and only some of its flight feathers. The “unmolted” feathers are called retained juvenile feathers and usually appear dingier, lighter in color and more worn than the fresh molted feathers. We think of these retained juvenile feathers as the “cheap Kmart feathers”! The boundaries between tracts of new and old feathers are called molt limits.

A Second Year Saw-whet Owl. Notice the "cheap Kmart" feathers in the middle of the wing contrasting with the dark new outer flight feathers. — A Second Year Saw-whet Owl. Notice the "cheap Kmart" feathers in the middle of the wing contrasting with the dark, new outer and inner flight feathers.

An HY Saw-whet Owl will usually show no molt limit because they do not replace any of their juvenile feathers in their first fall. They have too many other things to be worrying about, like learning to hunt and stay alive! Therefore, an HY Saw-whet has all uniformly “trashy” looking flight feathers. A Second Year (SY) owl usually shows a molt pattern of several outermost primaries and innermost secondaries replaced; these feathers look darker and have less nicks than all the flight feathers in between. However, this year banders were seeing more SY birds with only a few outermost primaries replaced and no inner secondary feathers replaced. Such suspended flight feather molt is most likely another result of lack of adequate resources on the northern breeding grounds where the bird molted after mating.

Saw-whet wing under blacklight. Photo by Adrian Binns. — Ageing Saw-whet Owls is sometimes easier with a blacklight. Under a blacklight, the new feathers show up bright pink because of a special pigment they contain. This is a typical Second Year molt pattern, where an outer primary and some inner secondaries are replaced. The white feathers in between are older and have thus lost the pigment.

We are certainly thankful for the few beautiful owls that Mother Nature did send our way this year, and we wish them the best of luck as they survive the winter and return to their breeding grounds that will hopefully present better conditions in the new year! These owls are truly amazing little creatures, more adorable than the cutest stuffed animal, as whimsical as a fairy tale gnome, as silent and elusive in flight as the Luna moth, as mellow and approachable as a garden toad, more formidable a hunter than a wild cat, and at times as ferocious as a miniature fire-breathing dragon!

You can’t help but love them and be captivated by their steadfast, yellow-eyed gaze. I find myself wishing I knew what she knows, yearning to see the wild places she has seen, longing for the untamed solitude she has experienced, craving to fly on wings of silence through the night, and wanting to be close to her as a friend. She embodies nature at its finest.

Drawing by Kay Lake of a Saw-whet owl — Drawing by Kay Lake of a Saw-whet Owl.

Thank you to all who came out to our bird banding station this year, bringing interest, enthusiasm, and support. We are thrilled to be able to connect people to the nature that makes us whole, feeds our soul, and renews the bonds between us and the land from which we so easily become isolated.

A special thanks to our dedicated group of PA Young Birders who have been regularly attending our monthly meetings! We had fun at last month’s meeting learning about cavity nesting birds, looking for old bird nests in Rushton Woods Preserve and drawing our favorite cavity nesting birds. The Jr. Birders even learned how to use power tools to help make a bluebird box that the Trust will install on one of our properties!

girls-w-birdhouse-BINNS-IMG_3415-copy — Girls with bluebird house that they just helped build. Image by Adrian Binns.

Downy Woodpecker drawing by Emma Seving. Adrian Binns image.

Don’t miss this month’s meeting, “A Winter Bird Count”, on Saturday, December 17th from 9 AM – 1PM. PA Young Birders, ages 8-12, will meet at the Willistown Conservation Trust headquarters (925 Providence Road, Newtown Square, PA) where we will learn how to identify wonderful winter birds. Then we’ll learn about the honored tradition of the Christmas Bird Count before heading out into the field with our binoculars to see what we can see! We’ll return to the office for a Tally Rally of the birds we counted, while enjoying hot pizza and cocoa by the fire. Be sure to wear lots of holiday cheer and many warm layers! Please RSVP to Lisa Kiziuk (lkr@wctrust.org).

Jr. Birders birding! Image by Adrian Binns.

The Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 by a man, named Frank Chapman, who proposed counting the birds instead of shooting them. Unfortunately, it had been a holiday sport for local farmers and residents to shoot as many birds as they could until sensible people, like Frank, began showing concern about alarming declines in bird populations. Today, the Christmas Bird Count is the largest wildlife survey in the world.

Christmas Bird Count circles in Western Hemisphere. Image from Audubon.

You don’t have to be a kid to participate in the spirited tradition of the Christmas bird Count! You also don’t need to be an expert birder; since there is a specific protocol and the data is very important, beginner birders will be placed in a team with at least one other experienced birder. The Christmas Bird Count season is December 14 through January 5 each year. To learn more about this elaborate citizen science project and to find participating birders near you, go to Audubon’s website. It’s a great way to meet new people, build your birding skills, experience nature in winter and contribute to the conservation of birds during this season of giving. Plus, hot chocolate tastes better than ever after hours of winter bird counting!

audubon snowy owls — Snowy Owls by John James Audubon.

Speaking of searching for birds in winter, be sure to keep your eye out for SNOWY OWLS!!! Like the Northern Saw-whet Owl, the Snowy Owl is an irruptive species that is closely tied to the rodent population on their northern breeding grounds, especially lemmings. This is an irruption year for Snowy Owls, which means that the dramatic decrease in lemmings is drawing them south from their usual Arctic Tundra territories in search of food. So far this winter, there have been over 100 reports of these Arctic ghosts in Wisconsin and other midwestern states and even one in Hawaii! Just over a week ago, a Snowy Owl was reported by several individuals east of Allentown on the PA/NJ border!

snowy owl range map — Snowy Owl range map from Cornell Lab of Ornithology "All About Birds" website.

These magnificent rare beauties are coming our way. Stay tuned for when one shows up near us….you can bet the bird nerds, like me, here at the Willistown Conservation Trust will ‘stop, drop, and bird’ at the first local report of a Snowy Owl! The last time a Snowy Owl irruption of this magnitude occured was in 2006. Interestingly enough, 2006 was also the runner-up to this year in setting the record low for numbers of Saw-whet Owls traveling south from their northern haunts. Here’s a Google Map of Snowy Owl sightings so far this year, and click here to read a recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal about the 2011 Snowy Owl irruption.

snowy owl at beach — Snowy Owl (from Google Images).

Wishing you happiness in your home and a bounty of birds at your feeder this holiday season!

~Blake

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Giving Thanks for the Owls of 2011

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