Bird Outing Saturday, 10 Jan?

View out the window

Snow everywhere. And, as usual, with our severe snow storm (between 1 and 2 inches total), the city is shut down. I don't mind a bit. I don't drive on slick roads.

The picture is the view out my front window this morning. Since the temperatures didn't drop below 32 last night, the streets look clear. We did get more snow overnight, so there is some nice wet snow everywhere else.

As for our monthly bird outing at Lake Arrowhead State Park tomorrow, we'll have to wait and see, but I expect it will be a go. If it is just cold (prediction is 26 degrees in the AM), I will be there. The issue is the ice. With today's high in the low 40's, all of the snow should be melted off, and we'll have clear roads tomorrow. But, if I get up and there is any ice on the road, I will not be venturing out. So, look out your window at 7 AM (about the time I would leave the house). If the roads look clear to you, come on out. If in doubt, stay home if you want to bird with a group.

Good birding!

Book Review: The Healing Wisdom of Birds

 

I mentioned in a previous post that I received several books for Christmas. I have lots of books about birds, so it can be challenging for my family to find something I don't already have.

One of the books I got this year is The Healing Wisdom of Birds by Leslie Morrison. In addition to birds, I have a deep interest in mythology and comparative religion, so this was a good find. It is not a book about the natural history of birds (although there is some information on certain birds scattered throughout the book). Therefore, if your interest lies only in knowing more about bird biology, behavior, and identification, this would not be a good option for you. However, birds have touched human lives and cultures throughout our history. If that interests you, then give this book a read.

The book isn't very long (a little over 200 pages) and is a relatively easy read.

The book discusses the symbology of different birds in history as well as many myths associated with birds and the gods/goddesses they represent. The majority of the book discusses the use of bird feathers in various healing rites. (Keep in mind that it is not legal to have in your possession feathers of any wild bird without a permit--the author did mention she has permits).

I did find the short section on alchemy especially interesting. In most discussion of alchemy the focus is on the chemical transformation of base metals into gold. What I had not seen discussed in other books is the alchemical philosophy on spiritual growth. The various stages of spiritual enlightenment are represented by different birds. For me, this short section was worth the cost of the book.

An interesting read overall. Personally, I would have liked a more in-depth review of mythology and symbology, but as the title says, the focus of the book is healing, so it is appropriate to spend most of the book on the details of that. That part of the book was less interesting to me personally.

As it happens a book arrived in the mail shortly after Christmas on bird symbology, so that's in the TBR pile. I'll review that book later.

Good birding!

Shrike!

Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0
 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>
 via Wikimedia Commons

 At the 1st Day Hike at Lake Arrowhead State Park we were excited to see a Loggerhead Shrike. For those of you who bird primarily in town, you may have never seen one as they are found in the countryside. They like open spaces for hunting.

The shrike is a beautiful bird, as you can see in the photo to the left. From a distance, it looks like a chunky mockingbird, but you can see it has cleaner lines and the black mask is a giveaway.

These birds are often called "butcher birds" due to their habit of impaling their food on thorns and barbed wire for consumption later. This allows them to capture prey when it is available, hungry or not, and keep it for when food is less available. 

As we walked the trail, we found several bugs impaled on mesquite thorns. I took a picture of a large grasshopper. In addition to this one, we found a smaller grasshopper, a damselfly, and a beetle, handy for a tasty snack. I would think it would be easier to have a larder with all its food together, but then, if some other shrike or bug-eating critter happened by, all of the food would be lost, so spreading out the largesse seems wise. That then brings up the issue of remembering where you put your food. You ever said to yourself, "I'm going to put this here for safekeeping," and then can't remember where you put it? Imagine doing that for multiple items. The damselfly looked a little crispy--perhaps this was one of those put away and forgotten. Of course, it wasn't near as tasty looking as the fat grasshoppers, so perhaps the shrike just chose better options.

Shrikes don't eat only insects and other bugs. They will also eat reptiles, birds, and small mammals. If they can carry it off, they will eat it, and they can carry their own weight in food.

The Texas shrike population has declined more than 76% since 1969. For shrikes, and all birds, please don't poison the invertebrates.  If you're walking out in the country, look for impaled insects and other prey in mesquites, on barbed wire, or in some case, stuffed in a small crevice.

Good birding!

Report Out 1st Day Hikes

Photo courtesy of Lynn Seman

Every January 1st, the state parks host 1st Day Hikes. I attended the hikes at Lake Arrowhead State Park. It was a beautiful, although chilly, day. Bright sunshine and a relatively light wind made it seem warmer.

The earlier hike was on the Dragonfly Trail and the later one on the North Onion Creek Trail. In between there was a gap of time that I used to bird other areas of the park. The earlier hike was not as well attended as the later one (go figure!) As far as birds go, the day was not the best, but I still saw some good birds. In addition, I watched a couple of coyotes and some white-tailed deer.

Birds seen/heard included: Canada goose, gadwall, green-winged teal, northern pintail, northern shoveler, American coot, double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, killdeer, ladder-backed woodpecker, black vulture, Carolina chickadee, common yellowthroat, Loggerhead shrike, song sparrow, savannah sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, and a flock of meadowlarks. The meadowlarks could have been eastern or western as both occur in our area.

On the way home, I picked up an American kestrel.

Plan now for next year. Pick a park and plan to attend one of the hikes.  The various hikes are at different times (to include beginning at midnight!), lengths, and difficulty.

Good birding!

New Year Bird Prediction

 

Bernard DUPONT, CC BY-SA 2.0
 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>
via Wikimedia Commons

I have a superstition that the first bird I see on New Year's Day is a predictor of my birding success for the upcoming year. Because of that, I tried very hard not to look at my feeders that morning. I was heading out to a hike later and thought I would likely see a better bird on the way. But motion in yard drew my attention anyway, and there were two birds on one of my feeders--a white-winged dove and a Eurasian collared dove. Just what I was trying to avoid!

I was bummed. I told some of my fellow Texas Master Naturalist members at the hike and one of them said I should look at it that I saw two birds and therefore, that would mean I will see twice as many birds, regardless of the fact that neither of these birds are particularly exciting. I'm going to use their interpretation.

                                                    Good birding!                                                   

Mohan Raj, CC BY-SA 3.0
 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>
 via Wikimedia Commons

  

Bird Books!

 

If there is one thing my family knows I would like for a gift at Christmas it is a bird book. Their challenge is to find one I don't have.

This year, I received two. I have provided pictures. Obviously, I took them with my cell phone in poor lighting, but I never claimed to be a decent photographer.

I have only browsed them so far, but will post reviews once I have had an opportunity to read them (I received several books for Christmas touching on many of my interests, so it may take a few weeks).

Good birding!

Christmas Bird Count Report

National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, the Wichita Falls CBC did not happen on the 14th. Due to some team members falling ill to a respiratory illness going around, we delayed the count for a week.

As I stated in my last post, we break our circle into three sections, with a different team for each one, and then consolidate our results with the other teams at the end of the day.

Frank was on my team. We started at the Lake Wichita Spillway a little before 7:30 AM. It was a chilly, but beautiful, morning. I was hoping we would get the rock wrens each of us had seen in the past couple of weeks, but of course, on count day, they were absent. We did see a small flock of American pipits, which was a new bird for Frank. When we got to the chat trail in Lake Wichita Park, we enjoyed a large number of cedar waxwings at the beginning of the trail. They were apparently attracted by the pool of water in the drainage ditch, as they were taking turns bathing.

Frank and I covered our section fairly thoroughly, driving 61.8 miles and walking another 5.4 miles on the day. The other two teams mostly drove. At the count dinner, eating delicious Luigi's pizza and nibbling yummy petit fours, we compiled our lists. Overall, it was not a great day in terms of numbers of species or individuals. The numbers of individuals have been in decline for years. I believe the only bird that we counted over 1,000 individuals was the European starling, and that is not a native to the U.S.

Overall, a fun day, but disappointing in terms of the numbers and types of birds. A consolidated list of birds seen by the three teams included (in order of the Audubon checklist): cackling goose, Canada goose, black-bellied whistling duck, gadwall, mallard, northern shoveler, northern pintail, canvasback, ring-necked duck, bufflehead, ruddy duck, wild turkey, pied-billed grebe, double-crested cormorant, American white pelican, great blue heron, turkey vulture, black vulture, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper's hawk, bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, American coot, Killdeer, greater yellowlegs, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, great horned owl, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, American kestrel, loggerhead shrike, blue jay, American crow, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, black-crested titmouse, eastern bluebird, American robin, brown thrasher, northern mocking bird, European starling, American pipet, cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, lark sparrow, fox sparrow, dark-eyed junco, white-crowned sparrow, Harris's sparrow, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow, spotted towhee, northern cardinal, red-winged blackbird, meadowlark, Brewer's blackbird, common grackle, great-tailed grackle, house finch, American goldfinch, and house sparrow.

Good birding!