Category: Birds

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Snipes Yipes!

Snipe, Heber, UT
Courtesy of and
Copyright © 2008 Kent R. Keller
As found on UtahBirds.org

The wild goose chase, the nocturnal tipping of cows and the snipe hunt are all good-natured tricks to play on gullible friends. Geese and cows are real, of course, but so is the snipe, a chunky relative of sandpipers. Its name may be the “common snipe”, but during most of the year, snipe encounters in Utah are anything but common. A few times annually, I flush snipe unexpectedly from the margins of a montane beaver pond, a patch of cattails along a suburban creek, or around valley springs and marshes, any wet place that gives the snipe mud that to probe for invertebrates and vegetative cover for camouflage. But come spring, the hunt for snipe is more hopeful, as I can listen for the male’s aerial courtship displays high above wet meadows and marsh margins. You aren’t likely to see him looping about at first, but when he periodically dives, the wind vibrating his outer tail feathers creates this distinctive winnowing sound:

[Audio: Common Snipe courtesy and copyright 2006 Kevin Colver available from “Songbirds of Yellowstone” https://www.wildsanctuary.com/the_wildstore.html and westernsoundcsape.org]

Common/Wilson’s Snipe
Courtesy of and Copyright
© 2004 Milton G. Moody
As found on UtahBirds.org

If you hear that sound near dusk or dawn, scan the skies, for you have found the elusive snipe. Wait a bit and he or his mate may perch atop a nearby wooden fencepost, a comical looking bird with its short legs and long delicate bill. A century ago, the snipe hunt was also real; market hunters devastated snipe numbers. Since then, snipe persist wherever their marshes, wet meadows and bogs have not been drained or filled. When next you are out someplace soggy to admire the spectacular plumage of spring ducks, remember to listen for the aerial display of the common snipe.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.
Credits:
Pictures: Courtesy and Copyright © 2004 Milton G. Moody and Copyright © 2008 Kent R. Keller, as found on utahbirds.org
Also Courtesy Digital Library, US FWS, Photographer W.F. Kubichek
Bird Recordings: Kevin Colver
Text: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Common Snipe
Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
W.F. Kubichek, Photographer

Wilson’s snipe, Gallinago delicata, Utah Conservation Data Center, Utah Division of Wildlife Services, https://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search/Display.asp?FlNm=gallgall

Diet composition of wintering Wilson’s Snipe.(SHORT COMMUNICATIONS)(Repo… An article from: The Wilson Journal of Ornithology by Jon T. McCloskey, Jonathan E. Thompson, and Bart M. Ballard, Digital 2009, https://www.amazon.com/composition-wintering-Wilsons-Snipe-COMMUNICATIONS/dp/B002HMJOUG

Wilon’s Snipe, Utah Bird Profiles, UtahBirds.org, https://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/CommonSnipe.htm

 

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Censuses and Surveys

Wolf with Radio Collar watches biologists FWS Digital Library, Photo by William Campbell
Wolf with Radio Collar
Photographer: William Campbell
US FWS

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

This year’s Census is the 23rd national headcount in United States history.

Census results affect the allocation of all kinds of government financial and program resources. The Census also determines the distribution of seats in
the state and federal House of Representatives.

It is also important to know the number and whereabouts of different wildlife species. This information is used for a number of management purposes– for instance, monitoring the status of endangered species or determining hunting or fishing quotas.

Mountain Lion with Radio Collar
Photographer: Claire Dobert
Courtesy US FWS

Counting wildlife isn’t as easy as counting people. You can’t mail
animals a survey with a self-addressed stamped envelope and you don’t necessarily know where to find them at any given point in time.

True censuses of animals are rare for in most cases a complete count is either too expensive or too difficult to undertake. Only animals conveniently and visibly grouped in a particular location can be censused– such as fish in a fish hatchery, or large animals along a certain migration route.

Setting a waterfowl capture net
Courtesy US FWS

Instead, biologists define an area of interest, then sample at random locations within that area. Samples usually consist of a number of transects or randomly selected quadrants. Counts from these samples are then extrapolated to an entire habitat or study area.

Along with selecting a sampling method, you have to figure out how you are going to effectively count an individual occurrence. This can be extremely tricky. Especially if your animal is reclusive or nocturnal. According to Dr. Eric Gese, a specialist in predator ecology at Utah State University, biologists use tracks, scats, scratches, burrows, hair samples –even roadkill counts as proxies for individual animals.

FWS Biologist Tracking a Black Bear
Photo by John & Karen Hollingsworth,
Courtesy US FWS

Capturing, marking and recapturing animals is one of the most reliable–albeit expensive– ways to do a direct count of animals. Captured animals are marked with ear tags, radio collars, dyes or even radioactive isotopes. In a future program I’ll describe an example of how one scientist tracks and counts large and elusive predators in the wild.

Thanks to Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources for supporting the development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:
Images: Courtesy US FWS Digital Library
Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center
Sources & Additional Reading:

Gese, E. M. 2001. Monitoring of terrestrial carnivore populations. Pages 372–396 in J. L. Gittleman, S. M. Funk, D. Macdonald, and R. K. Wayne, editors., Carnivore conservation. Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Video: Biologists track hibernating bears for research, KSL Broadcasting Salt Lake City UT, 27 March 2010, https://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=647&sid=10166167

American Black Bear, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wildlife.utah.gov/publications/pdf/bearnew.pdf

(tracking) Black-footed Ferrets, Wildlife Review Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wildlife.utah.gov/wr/0804ferrets/0804ferrets.pdf

 

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Calls of Two Common Owls

Calls of Two Common Owls: Great Horned Owl Photographer: Karen Laubenstein US FWS Digital Library
Great Horned Owl
Photographer: Karen Laubenstein
US FWS Digital Library

Societies and peoples the world over have harbored superstitious fears of owls. In truth, only small mammals and other like-sized prey should tremble in the presence of these fierce, stealthy predators. Most owls hunt by night, aided by light-sensitive vision and keen directional hearing. Most owls also call at night, and although not melodic, you can learn to identify owls by their calls. Today I will feature two common owls of the nine species that you can expect in Utah.

The Great Horned Owl is Utah’s largest owl, the size of a Red-tailed hawk. It’s correspondingly loud and booming call is a series of “who’s”.

[Kevin Colver: Great Horned Owl (Private Library)]

Great Horned Owls breed early, so expect to hear their hooting duets on our long winter nights. They hunt at night from a tree perch, swooping down to catch their prey. They primarily feed on rodents, skunks and other mammals.

Western Screech Owl courtesy and copyright 2007 Lu Giddings
Western Screech Owl
Copyright © 2007 Lu Giddings

My second choice is the Western Screech Owl, one of our several small owls. Its look-alike eastern relative makes a whinnying cry, far different from the Western Screech Owl’s own call, which sounds like a bouncing ball.

[Kevin Colver: Western Screech Owl (Private Library)]

These smaller owls all feed on mice, voles and large insects. The male calls at dusk.

With persistence and luck, you can see these camouflaged owls roosting in the daytime too. Check out flocks of mobbing birds. Crows commonly raise a ruckus around Great Horned Owls, whereas chickadees will fuss stridently around small owls like the Western Screech Owl. But listening at night remains the best way to meet most of Utah’s owls.

Thank-you to Kevin Colver for the use of his bird recordings.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Bird Recordings: Courtesy & Copyright Kevin Colver, Western Screech Owl & Great Horned Owl (Private Collection), https://wildaboututah.org/about-us/#7loons
Pictures: Great Horned Owl, Karen Laubenstein, US FWS Digital Library
Western Screech Owl, Courtesy & Copyright 2007 Lu Giddings
Text: Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Voice: Linda Kervin

Additional Reading:

Great Horned Owl, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Department of Natural Resources, State of Utah, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=bubo%20virginianus

Western Screech Owl, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Department of Natural Resources, State of Utah, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=megascops%20kennicottii

Backhouse, Frances, Owls of North America, Firefly Books, 2008, https://www.amazon.com/Owls-North-America-Frances-Backhouse/dp/1554073421

For Children:

Yolen, Jane, Owl Moon, https://www.amazon.com/Owl-Moon-Jane-Yolen/dp/0399214577

 

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Waxwings

Cedar Waxwing US FWS FWS Digital Library, David Menke, Photographer
Cedar Waxwing
Courtesy
US FWS Digital Library
David Menke, Photographer


For the chance to admire a flock of Utah’s most rakishly handsome songbirds, look to the sky or trees when you hear this call:

[Kevin Colver, Cedar Waxwing, Songbirds of Yellowstone and the High Rockies…]

That high, thin whistle indicates waxwings. All winter long, waxwings stick together in dense, cohesive flocks that fluidly fly and forage as one. Like locusts, a flock will swarm over a mountain ash, juniper or hawthorn, quickly stripping it of the small fruits that constitute their diet. They eat a wide variety of small fruits from berries to grapes to cherries. Cedar waxwings are commonly seen throughout Utah all winter long. They are nomadic; traveling to where ever fruit is abundant. Some winters, they are joined here by their northern cousins, the Bohemian waxwings. Both waxwings are debonair, with a sweptback crest and an angular black Zorro mask. The name waxwing refers to a line of scarlet waxy droplets at the tips of specialized wing feathers. More likely you’ll notice the bar of lemon-yellow feather tips across the tail. Both of those colors come from pigments in their fruity diets. The body of the smaller Cedar waxwing is more caramel-colored than the grayer Bohemian waxwing. Bohemian waxwings have a distinct rufus patch of feathers beneath the tail.

Cedar Waxwing feeding on berries
David Menke, US FWS
FWS Digital Library

So remember to pay attention when you hear that high-pitched whistle and look around you for trees decorated with these snazzy-looking waxwings. They will surely put some zing in your drab winter day.

Thanks to Kevin Colver for the use of his bird recordings.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Bohemian Waxwing Copyright © 2006 Stephen Peterson

Bird Recordings: Courtesy & Copyright Kevin Colver, Cedar Waxwing, Songbirds of Yellowstone and the High Rockies… //wildaboututah.org/about-us/#7loons

Pictures: David Menke, US FWS Digital Library

Courtesy & Copyright 2006 Stephen Peterson

Text: Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Bohemian Waxwings Copyright © 2006 Stephen Peterson

Creating Landscapes for Wildlife …A Guide to Backyard Gardens in Utah, https://digitallibrary.utah.gov/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=10215