Category: Birds

Posted on

Feed the Birds

Pine Siskins and a Goldfinch feed on thistle from a sock feeder. Photo Courtesy and Copyright 2008 Jim Cane
Pine Siskins and an
American Goldfinch feed
feed on thistle from a sock feeder
Copyright © 2008 Jim Cane

Hopper Feeder
Copyright © 2008 Jim Cane

Hopper Feeder with Squirrel
Copyright © 2008 Jim Cane

Suet Feeder
Copyright © 2008 Jim Cane

Many of our songbirds have flown south to spend the winter. I confess that on frigid days I envy them. Like you and I, though, many birds remain behind. They fluff their feathers to trap body heat and spend these short days in a perpetual hunt for food to keep them warm. You can help their hungry quest by feeding our diverse songbirds using a convenient birdfeeder.

For loose seed, I use a hopper feeder. The hopper resembles a tiny roofed house which is filled with seed that is dispensed from a trough at its base. Another common style of seed feeder is a broad tray. It will need a roof and drain holes to keep the seed dry and free of mold.

(https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections)

Our feeder is above a stone walkway for birds like juncos that prefer seed spilled on the ground. A ring of upturned tomato cages around this area excludes cats, and the season’s discarded Christmas tree will provide cover for the birds.

(https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections)

Chickadees and finches prefer black oil sunflower seed, rich in fats and proteins, with a thin shell. If you buy seed mixes, juncos and sparrows will take white millet, but milo or so-called red millet is a filler. Doves and jays like cracked corn.

(https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections)

Goldfinches and pine siskins flock to Niger thistle seed dispensed from a fine mesh sock that you can buy where you purchase the seed. Woodpeckers and nuthatches appreciate a suet feeder, which is a wire mesh cage containing a block of seed-filled suet. Expect magpies to hammer chunks off the suet block occasionally.

Don’t forget water, a scarce commodity for birds in winter. Plug in models remain ice free with scant power use.

Nothing quite cheers a wintry day for me like colorful songbirds noisily bustling at our feeders. If you do put up feeders, consider joining in Project Feeder Watch. You can find details on our Wild About Utah website.

Credits:

Photo: Courtesy & Copyright 2008 Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society, www.bridgerlandaudubon.org
Text: Jim Cane & Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Bird Recordings Courtesy and Copyright Dr. Kevin Colver, WildSanctuary, Soundscapes, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections

Additional Reading:

Project Feederwatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://feederwatch.org/

How to Attract Birds to your Yard, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1138

The Great Backyard Bird Count, Birdsource.org, https://www.birdcount.org/

Creating landscapes for Wildlife — A Guide for Backyards in Utah, A production of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah State University Cooperative Extension Service & Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/landscapingforwildlife.pdf

Posted on

Why Do Birds Stand on One Leg?

Black-Necked Stilt
Himantopus mexicanus
Copyright © 2011 Holly Strand

Hi I’m Holly Strand.

On a recent Saturday my family and I visited Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. Walking through the wetland exhibit we saw a couple of black-necked stilts—a common Utah shorebird–snoozing near the boardwalk. They stood at the exhibit shoreline, each one balancing on a single, long, skinny, leg—the other leg drawn into the plumage underneath their bodies. Rotated almost 180 degrees, their heads and bills were tucked snugly under folded wings.

Why do birds choose to stand on just one leg? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to distribute one’s weight on two? I’ve tried standing on one foot during yoga practice. It doesn’t feel like a good position for rest or sleep.

Over the years, several theories have emerged about this behavior in birds. One is that standing on one leg will reduce fatigue in the other leg. Then, if threatened, the bird could escape more quickly by using the rested leg to initiate motion.

Another theory is camouflage. Two parallel legs may look suspicious to ground level or aquatic prey. In contrast, one leg might resemble a reed or branch.

Perhaps the most common speculation is that birds are conserving heat via one-leggedness.

I wanted to test this last theory by standing barefoot in last weekend’s snow. First on one leg–and then on two for comparison. But I had a bad cold. I asked my biologist husband to do it for me, thinking he would be happy to support rational scientific thinking in the household. Alas, he rolled his eyes and made a noise that I’ve learned to translate as “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Giving up on him, I dug deeper into the scientific literature.

At last I found a recent study conducted by Matthew Anderson and Sarah Williams of St. Joseph’s University. By observing Carribbean flamingoes these researchers showed that more birds stand on one foot at lower temperatures than at higher temperatures. Further, we know that loss of body heat to water is significantly greater than to air. So it would make sense to see more birds standing on one foot in the water than on land. And indeed this was the case. 80% of birds in water stood on one leg. On land, significantly less did so. Thus it does seem that temperature regulation is at least one reason for standing around on one leg.

In Utah look for one legged roosting among stilts, American avocets, night herons, double-breasted cormorants, and storks. Ducks, magpies and pigeons also stand on one foot for several minutes at a time
–it’s just harder to notice it in them because of their short legs.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Table: Courtesy & Copyright © 2011 Holly Strand
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading:

Anderson, Mathew and Sarah A. Williams. 2010. Why do flamingos stand on one leg? Zoo Biology. Volume 29, Issue 3, pages 365–374, May/June 2010

Clark Jr., GA. 1973. Unipedal postures in birds. Bird-Banding, 44:22–26.

Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City https://www.tracyaviary.org/

Posted on

Nature’s Recyclers

Fungi Decomposing Fall
Leaves Outside the
Stokes Nature Center
Courtesy & © 2011 Andrea Liberatore
Stokes Nature Center


Redworms Eisenia fetida
from Stokes Nature Center’s
vermicomposting system
Courtesy & © 2011 Andrea Liberatore
Stokes Nature Center

On Tuesday, November 15th, our nation celebrates America Recycles Day. While the day itself tends to focus on human recycling activity, I thought we should also give a nod to nature’s recyclers. Worms, maggots, fungi, beetles, and bacteria – it sounds like a list of leftover Halloween horrors. But in reality, we should be more afraid of what our world would look like without these creepy-crawlies, for these are nature’s recyclers. Scientists call these organisms saprophytes, and as important as their role in life is, they are more likely to evoke a shudder than any feeling of gratitude.

What decomposers actually do is break dead things down into smaller and smaller pieces, until all that is left are the basic molecular components that make up all living things such as nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon, and potassium. Once broken down, this material is then free to be taken up again by plants and animals that use them to live and grow. This cycle of nutrients is vital to life on Earth, and our saprophytic friends make it all possible.

While decomposition would occur even without the help of the decomposers, it would take much, much longer. In some landfills, newspapers have been unearthed that are more than 20 years old, and still quite readable. This is because landfills often create anaerobic environments, where oxygen-loving insects, fungi, and bacteria cannot live and therefore cannot aid decomposition. If without decomposers, a newspaper can last 20 years, what would happen to much larger and hardier items such as tree trunks and roadkill? I shudder to think about it.

Did you know that the U.S. throws more than 33 million tons of food waste into landfills each year? This organic material goes to waste there – taking up valuable space and taking longer than normal break down. So this year, celebrate America Recycles Day by employing some of nature’s recyclers in your yard. Consider starting a compost pile where your fall leaves and food scraps can get broken down into nutrient-rich all-natural fertilizer for next year’s garden.

If you’re in Cache Valley and are looking for a way to mark America Recycles Day, please join the Stokes Nature Center for a tour of the Logan landfill to find out what happens to your garbage and how recycling programs ensure there is less of it. This free tour will be held at 4:30pm on Tuesday, November 15th. For details, visit the Stokes Nature Center website at www.logannature.org.

For composting tips and more information about nature’s recyclers, visit Wild About Utah online at www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic. 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.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy & © 2011 Andrea Liberatore, https://logannature.org/
Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org

Composting Tips & Information:

Farrell-Poe, K. and Koenig, R. (2010) Backyard Composting in Utah. Utah State University Cooperative Extension. https://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/HG-Compost-01.pdf

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Composting. https://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/composting/index.htm

Additional Reading:

Fogel, R. (2002) Waste Not, Want Not: Fungi as Decomposers. Utah State University Herbarium. https://utahpests.usu.edu/ipm/ornamental-pest-guide/diseases/wood-decay-fungi

Hoff, M. (2009) Young Naturalists: Nature’s Recyclers. Minnesota Conservation Volunteer Newsletter. July-August 2009. https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/volunteer/young_naturalists/natures_recyclers/natures_recyclers.pdf

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2011) Basic Information About Food Waste. https://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/organics/food/fd-basic.htm

Posted on

Lewis and Clark’s Taxonomic Legacy

Clark’s Nutcracker
Courtesy US FWS
Dave Menke, Photographer
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Courtesy US FWS
Dave Menke, Photographer

Thomas Jefferson will forever be remembered as our third president and author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson oversaw the acquisition of the vast Louisiana Purchase and soon thereafter initiated planning for an expedition that would be named the “Corps of Discovery”. That bold adventure was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. These two frontiersmen are immortalized by the plants and animals that taxonomists named in their honor.

The arduous 3-year expedition route passed far north of what would become Utah, ascending the tributaries of the Missouri River and later following down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson, being an avid naturalist, instructed the explorers to observe and make record of the geography, plants and animals that they encountered and to return with those specimens which they could carry. Hopes for discovery of a navigable inland passage to the Pacific were not realized, but in all other ways, the expedition was a singular success.

Lewis and Clark made collections of pressed plants along the way. These eventually went to Frederick Pursh, a German botanist in Philadelphia. One new genus of plant he named Lewisia. These are the bitteroots, one of which is the spectacular state flower of Montana. Another genus new to science he named Clarkia . Many species names of plants immortalize the men too, such as the blue-flowered flax, Linum lewisii, commonly used today for seeding following wildfire.

Bird names honoring the discoveries of Lewis and Clark include Clark’s nutcracker and Lewis’ woodpecker. Clark’s nutcracker is a big black and gray relative of crows. [https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections] This noisy resident of Utah’s mountains is notable for its habit of caching seeds of pine trees to be remembered and found months later.

The age of the pioneer naturalist in North America closed more than a century ago, but the names of men like Meriwether Lewis and William Clark live on with the plants and animals that bear their names.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy US FWS images.fws.gov
Audio: Courtesy & Copyright https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

The Lewis and Clark Herbarium, Images of the Plants Collected by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, 1804-1806, Presented by the University of Maryland and The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in cooperation with Cornell University, https://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/pbio/LnC/LnCpublic.html

Evans, Howard Ensign. 1993. Pioneer naturalists: the discovery and naming of North American plants and animals. Henry Holt & Company, New York. Illustrated by Michael G. Kippenhan. ISBN: 0-8050-2337-2, https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Naturalists-Discovery-American-Animals/dp/0805023372

And for a thorough treatment of Clark’s nutcracker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark%27s_Nutcracker

All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/lewiss_woodpecker/id

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clarks_Nutcracker/id