Category: Birds

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Tracking Wildlife in Winter

Jumping Mouse Tracks
Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2011
Mark Larese-Casanova

Moose Tracks in Snow
Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2011
Mark Larese-Casanova

Cottontail Rabbit Browse & Scat
Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2011
Mark Larese-Casanova

Hi, this is Mark Larese-Casanova from the Utah Master Naturalist Program at Utah State University Extension.

The cold depth of winter is a time when many animals are hiding- either hibernating until the thaw of spring, or finding shelter and warmth in burrows, under logs, or in the tangled branches of evergreen trees.

However, snow falls in much of Utah, and even a dusting can reveal the stories of wildlife in winter. It’s a bit like solving a mystery. By reading the clues of animal tracks, we can know not only the type of animal that made them, but also where they were going and what they were doing.

The most obvious clue is the size of a track. Smaller animals make smaller tracks, and also sets of tracks that are generally closer together.

The shape of an animal track is also very revealing. Members of the canine family, including domestic dogs, coyotes, and fox, show four toes in front, each with a visible claw. Felines, including bobcats and mountain lions, also show four toes, but no claws. Tracks from members of the weasel family, such as mink, ermine, and skunks, show five toes, each with a claw. Raccoon, squirrel, and mouse tracks almost look like they were made by tiny human hands. The long tails of some animals, including deer mice, jumping mice, and weasels, often leave a characteristic line through the center of a set of tracks.

Combining the size and shape of tracks reveals further details about wildlife. The three inch long cloven hoof print of a mule deer is easily recognizable. An elk track looks almost identical, but is about four inches long. A similar moose track is even larger at six inches long.

Figuring out which animal made a track is only half of the story. If we follow tracks, we’ll surely find clues about an animal’s daily life. Wildlife often gather around sources of water that aren’t frozen, which are critical to winter survival. Perhaps rabbit tracks lead under a spruce tree where browsed branches and droppings indicate a frequent feeding spot. Maybe mouse tracks lead from tree to rock to log as it avoids owls and hawks.

While we are much more likely to see wildlife during the warmer months, winter gives us a chance to unravel the story of daily survival during the most difficult time of the year in Utah.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Mark Larese-Casanova.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy and Copyright Mark Larese-Casanova
Text:     Mark Larese-Casanova

Additional Reading:

Canadian Wildlife Federation: Tracking Down Winter Wildlife. https://www.cwf-fcf.org/en/action/how-to/outside/tracking-down-winter-wildlife.html

Murie, O. J. (1982). Animal Tracks. Peterson Field Guides. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Field-Guide-Animal-Tracks/dp/061851743X

Vermont Nature and Outdoors: Tracking Winter Wildlife. https://www.ruralvermont.com/vermontweathervane/issues/winter/97012/vins97012_tracking.shtml

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Winter Song Birds

A Black-capped Chickadee, Bridgerland Audubon Society

A Black-capped Chickadee
Bridgerland Audubon Society

In the icy, short days of winter, you may think that Nature itself has curled up to hibernate. Our gardens are drab and deciduous trees are stripped down to bare limbs and twigs. Many songbirds have bid us farewell and flown south. In truth, what remains to be seen and heard of nature here in winter is more subtle and less boisterous. Now is the time to learn calls and songs of birds that reside here year-round, to hear them in solo performances, before the confusing springtime symphonies of birdsong.

This first bird calls its own name [sound: “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee” #9 Songbirds of the Rocky Mountain Foothills]. Black-capped Chickadees take sunflower seeds one at a time from our feeders. When out snowshoeing or skiing in our forests, inquisitive chickadees are welcome companions. They bring joy to a wintry day.

Frequently, a winter chickadee flock includes other birds. [Sound: “annk-annk” #48 Songbirds of Yellowstone] This bird sounds like a child’s squeak toy, but that nasal call belongs to the Red-breasted Nuthatch. Look for this chunky small bird at your suet feeder, or cruising up and down tree trunks in its search for insects.

We also have a minimalist in our winter bird repertoire [Sound: “tew” #62 Songbirds of Yellowstone]. That single note belongs to the Townsend’s Solitaire, which looks like a lean robin, colored the somber gray of an overcast sky. In winter, solitaires dine predominately on juniper berries. Their call stakes out their winter feeding territory. They are regulars at our heated birdbath, perhaps washing down all those puckery berries. If you are lucky, you may also hear their musical warbling, which is more common in warmer months. (Kevin Colver: Songbirds of Yellowstone)

You often hear chickadees, nuthatches and solitaires before you see them, as their plumage is neither colorful nor splashy. If you notice these calls on a winter’s day, it is because you are quiet and focused on the nature around you, leaving civilization’s hubbub behind. Thank-you to Kevin Colver for his wonderful bird recordings.

Credits:

Bird Sounds: Courtesy and Copyright 2008 Dr. Kevin Colver, Songbirds of the Rocky Mountain Foothills and Songbirds of Yellowstone and the High Rockies https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections

Text: Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society https://www.bridgerlandaudubon.org

Additional Reading:

Black-capped Chickadee, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-capped_Chickadee.html

Red-breasted Nuthatch, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch.html

Townsend’s Solitaire, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Townsends_Solitaire.html

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Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count: Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus
Ruffed Grouse
Bonasa umbellus
Courtesy Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
I set out this week to investigate why so many gifts in ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ are birds. You know the song: there are swans a swimming, geese a laying, calling birds, French hens, turtle doves, and that partridge in the pear tree. Well, I never did find the answer. But what I did find was some interesting information about a native bird often incorrectly referred to as a partridge –a bird that is supremely well adapted to life in winter. Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count

Ruffed grouse resemble partridges in that they are ground-dwelling game birds of similar size and stature. Their name comes from a collar of long feathers surrounding the necks of males who fluff them out when seeking mates in spring. The birds come in two color phases, differentiated mainly by their tail feathers, which can be either gray or chestnut brown. While not well understood, a grouse’s color phase seems to be linked to climate. Grouse with gray tails are more prevalent in areas defined by cold winters, while brown grouse are more common in warmer climates.

Now that snow is blanketing the landscape across much of their territory, the ruffed grouse is in its element. Harsh winters that adversely affect populations of other ground-dwelling game birds such as quail, pheasant, and turkeys, don’t seem to faze ruffed grouse. Their ability to survive is dictated by a number of special adaptations. The first is on their feet, where each winter nubby feathers called pectinations grow on the sides of the birds’ toes. Looking like strange combs, the bristles act as snowshoes, allowing the grouse to walk on top of even the softest snow. More special feathers grow on grouse legs like personal leg-warmers, and also near the bird’s beak, covering its nostrils. Scientists believe the feathered mustache enables grouse to breathe in warmer air than they otherwise would, thus keeping their internal temperature more stable.

Changes in weather bring about some changes in behavior as well. Warmer months find the birds resting in evergreens or thick brush. But in winter, when a foot or more snow covers the ground, grouse roost in the snow. The birds create small burrows which hide them from predators, offer protection from frigid winter winds, and keep them surprisingly snug and warm. Many a backcountry skier or snowshoer has been startled by a hidden grouse bursting noisily from its snowy lair.

The birds’ diet also changes seasonally from a summer sampling of green foliage, seeds, berries and insects, to the protein-rich dormant flower buds of trees such as aspen and birch. Grouse also won’t hesitate to eat the sweet flower buds of domestic trees like apples, and were at one time considered a pest in New England orchards. And so it’s actually not out of the question that within ruffed grouse territory, you might wake up one Christmas morning to find a ‘partridge’ in your pear tree.

Speaking of birds and the holiday season, it’s nearly time for the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. Over the next few weeks, tens of thousands of volunteers around the country will join in this 113-year-old tradition, collecting data on the types and numbers of birds living in their area. This data allows scientists to monitor and track populations over time and space. Participants can be seasoned birders, first timers, or anything in-between. In Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake, and Zion National Park, the count takes place Saturday, December 15th. Other locations around the state will host their events between now and January 5th. To find a count near you, visit birds.audubon.org and click on Christmas Bird Count. For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count-Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Images: Courtesy Utah Division of Natural Resources

Text & Voice:     Andrea Liberatore,
            Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon.

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count-Additional Reading:

Furtman, Michael. ( 1999) Ruffed Grouse: Woodland Drummer. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.
https://www.amazon.com/Ruffed-Grouse-Woodland-Michael-Furtman/dp/0811731227

Ruffled Grouse, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=bonasa%20umbellus [Link updated January 2024]

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (2012) Ruffed Grouse. Available online at: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/45436.html

National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count:
https://birds.audubon.org/get-involved-christmas-bird-count-find-count-near-you

Utah Christmas Bird Counts:
https://utahbirds.org/cbc/cbc.html

Logan Christmas Bird Count:
Bridgerland Audubon Society Logan Christmas Bird Count 15 Dec 2012

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Blue, Blue, My World is Blue…

Blue, Blue, My World is Blue…Indigo Bunting
Passerina cyanea
Courtesy US FWS
Steve Maslowski, Photographer

Spring Azure(Male)
Celastrina ladon
Courtesy Wikimedia,
D. Gordon E. Robertson, Photographer
Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Holly: Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

If I were to ask you what your favorite color is, odds are your answer would be blue. All around the world most people prefer blue over any other color.

Maybe this is because blue is quite unusual in nature. We rarely see blue in animals or plants. Animals are brown, ruddy or grayish—sometimes white or black makes an appearance. Plants are green, brown, red and yellow. So the blue exceptions really stand out.

There are two main ways to be blue. The first way is thorough pigmentation. Pigments are chemical substances that selectively absorb light. We see color based on the light wavelengths that are not absorbed but reflected. For it is these reflected wavelengths that hit our eyes.

Blue flowers are the result of anthocyanin pigments. These pigments usually reflect red or purple, but in Uinta’s Alpine Forget-me-nots they create a pure sky blue that will stop you in your tracks.

The other way to be blue is through a physical rather than chemical approach. A physical or structural color is produced when incoming light interacts with nanoscale biological structures on an object’s surface. In birds, different shapes and sizes of tiny air pockets and keratin in feathers can cause different shades of blue. The lazuli bunting gets its bright blue head and back via structural color. So do indigo buntings and mountain bluebirds.

Some birds change color depending upon the angle at which you look at them. This shimmering iridescence is caused by a more complex interplay of light and feather structure which sends light bouncing off into different directions. Some of the light waves coincide to intensify color; nd others crash and cancel each other out. In Utah look for iridescent blue on the head and back of the tree swallow and on the black-billed magpie’s wing and tail.

Iridescence is quite common in insects—think of colorful beetle and butterfly wings . The dazzling morpho is the most striking example of an iridescent blue. While we don’t have morphos in Utah, we do have several species of butterfly in a subfamily group of the gossamer winged butterflies. This group is appropriately called “ the blues.”

By now Utah’s blue creatures have mostly expired or flown south. However, you can still get your blue color fix. Just look up! Utah’s sky is a deep and satisfying blue due to our aridity and high elevation.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy and Copyright 2003 Michael Kuhns, Extension.usu.edu
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading:

Color
Angier, Natalie. True Blue Stands Out in an Earthy Crowd. NY Times. Oct 22, 2012
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/science/with-new-findings-scientists-are-captivated-by-the-color-blue.html?emc=eta1

Fields, Helen. Why Are Some Feathers Blue? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Why-Are-Some-Feathers-Blue.html [accessed November 15, 2012]

Murphy, Pat, and Paul Doherty. 1996. The Color of Nature: An Exploratorium Book San Francisco: Chronicle Books

WebExhibits. Causes of Color. https://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/15A.htm l [accessed November 15, 2012]

Color Preference
Grieve, K.W. (1991), “Traditional Beliefs and Colour Perception,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 72 (4], 1319-23.

Krishna, K.P. (1972), “Colour Preferences as a Function of Age and
Sex,” Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 9 (1), 10-13.

Madden, Thomas, Kelly Hewett, and Martin S. Roth. 2000. Managing Images in Different Cultures:
A Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and Preferences. Journal of International Marketing. Vol. 8. No 4 pp. 90-107