A Mailbox Bonanza

I haven't had much of an opportunity to get out to watch birds lately, so I am suffering from withdrawal. Sometimes I have to get my birding fix some other way. Yesterday was a bonanza in the mailbox.

First, TOS is running a special by sending extra copies of old annuals to members. I asked for copies. They arrived yesterday, so I spent the evening reading old articles. I also got my Project Feederwatch materials from Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology. I have been a feederwatcher for several years and always get excited when the materials come. Project Feederwatch is one of several citizen science projects sponsored by Cornell. The data helps researchers learn more about bird populations and ranges in the United States. I'm ready to do my part.

In Project Feederwatch, people watch birds during 2-day periods between mid-November and March, and record the numbers of birds of different species that come to their feeders. There are some birds which do not come to feeders, so not all birds are covered in this study. But it does include birds that prey on birds at the feeders, such as roadrunners, merlins, and sharp-shinned hawks.

Good birding!

Chimney Swifts

This morning I stopped by Wild Bird Rescue on the way to work and was on the porch with Bob, the Executive Director, before leaving, watching the sun come up. The chimney swifts started coming out of the chimney swift tower.

Chimney swifts are some of my favorite birds and I lobbied hard to get a chimney swift tower built. Chimney swifts are declining in numbers across most of their range, probably because people now cap their chimneys. Although chimneys are not the only place these birds nest, they are an important nesting site. Chimney swifts also nest in hollow trees, cisterns, silos, and barns. Chimney swifts fly at all times they are not roosting. Once they leave the tower in the morning, they fly all day, capturing and eating insects on the wing.

Chimney swifts build a nest out of small twigs and saliva, which is the glue that holds the nest together and attaches the nest to the wall of the structure. Each tower has one nesting pair, although several birds may share the tower. The other birds that roost in the tower are unmated birds. It appears the unmated birds assist in the raising of the brood in the one nest. The young birds may cling to the side of the tower and exercise their wings. Once they fly out of the roost, the parents will not feed them again, although the young will continue to return to the roost at night.

The chimney swifts will be leaving soon for the Amazon Basin and I will be listening for their chittering call in the spring.

Recycling the Neighborhood

Out near the Lake Wichita Spillway there is an overpass that houses a lot of pigeons underneath year around and in the summer, hundreds of cliff swallows along the outside, under the overhang of the road. The cliff swallows have headed south, abandoning their nests for the year. As soon as the cliff swallows leave, the house sparrows move in. Last winter, almost every nest had house sparrows. So far this year, it appears to be about half. I am sure the nests provide better shelter than most of the places the house sparrows nested. The openings point down, which would keep the rain off and help make the shelter less accessible to predators. However, I do note that it appears the house sparrows gravitate toward nests that have some damage (and therefore, a wider opening)--at least at first.

I originally intended to check out the tank to see if any ducks were coming yet, but youth football season has started and the park was packed, so I headed toward the spillway. In a short walk along the biking/walking trail between the spillway and Southwest Parkway, I saw a great blue heron, American phoebe, killdeer, blue jays, mourning dove, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, starlings, barn swallows, chimney swifts, pigeons, house sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and an immature red-bellied woodpecker. There was also an Empodonax flycatcher I was unable to clearly identify. As usual. I also heard a belted kingfisher, but did not find him. So nothing spectacular, but the weather was beautiful and since I only had 45 minutes to spend before I had to get back to Wild Bird Rescue, it was good.

Later in the morning, I did see a green heron at Wild Bird Rescue.

Hurray for Bird Clubs

I first went to a meeting of bird watchers when I lived in Virginia. It was a relatively large group (20 - 30) people. There I found people who shared my passion for birds--I could rhapsodize about a bird with people who actually understood. Most importantly, there were people who knew a lot more than me. I went on trips with them, and they helped me improve my identification skills. They showed me the good places to see birds. I had my first experience with bird banding. Birders generally are very helpful to amateurs, remembering that we have all been (and many remain) novices.

When I moved to Wichita Falls, I started looking for a bird club, worried there wouldn't be one in a smaller town. Wichita Falls does have its bird club, the North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club. This club is not exclusively birds, but that is the primary topic of discussion at meetings. The club is very small, which is unfortunate. All of the same good things happen here. People are friendly and helpful, regardless of experience. The members rotate preparing programs for the meetings and bringing snacks. Friendly people, interesting information, and food--what more could a person want in an organization?

I know we would love to have more people visit and take part. Meetings are the third Tuesday of each month at 7PM at the NALC building on Southwest Parkway (next door to Wichita Valley Nursery) in Wichita Falls.

I Love the Discovery Channel

I am not a big TV watcher overall; neither am I often able co-opt the remote control from my husband. But I did last night.

My husband and I watch football together. It is about the only thing we both like, so Monday Night Football is rather like "date night" for us. Anyway, last night the Cowboys were playing and neither of us is a Cowboy fan. I know that is sacriligious in Wichita Falls, but there it is. We root for whatever team is playing against them, if we watch them play at all. So my husband went back to the office to play on the computer and said he would check in periodically on the game. So I flipped over to the Discovery Channel.

A great show about cloning dinosaurs ala Jurassic Park. So what does that have to do with birds? Well, the discussion was that it would be easier to reverse engineer a bird than to piece together the small pieces of DNA available through fossils and other remnants of dinosaurs for cloning. They were showing the many similarities between birds and dinosaurs and how a modification to various control genes caused dinosaur characteristics to show in birds. Characteristics like longer tails and teeth. Overall, fascinating. You would think after watching the show for an hour I would have caught the name of the program, but I didn't.

We did end up watching most of the Cowboys/Eagles game. It was a very good game, although in the end, the wrong team won....

Cool Stuff About Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are fascinating. They are probably the bird I get the most questions about and the bird I am asked to give the most presentations about. Since hummers seem to be on everyone's mind since they are present in large numbers right now, I thought it would be a good time to post a few interesting things about them.
- In flight, a hummingbird's heart rate exceeds 1200 beats per minute
- Hummingbirds can enter a state of stupor to survive cold weather, and their heart rate may drop to 50 beats a minute and they may not breath for long periods of time
- Hummingbirds are the only birds which can fly backwards
- Many ruby-throated hummingbirds cross 500 - 600 miles of open water
- Hummingbirds are polygamous and dad does not contribute to raising his babies

If you love hummingbirds, you should love spiders. Not only are small spiders prey for hummingbirds, but hummingbirds will pick small insects out of a spider's web and use spider silk to build their nests. Some larger spiders can eat hummingbirds, however. Other hummingbird predators include cats, shrikes, roadrunners, and large frogs.

If you have ever had a humimngbird in hand, you would be absolutely amazed that a bird so tiny is so hardy and resilient. Truly a miracle.

Hummingbirds on the Move!

Beverly McClure posted a comment to the last blog about the wrens, commenting on the increased numbers of hummingbirds in her yard over the past several days. I also received an email from a fellow volunteer at Wild Bird Rescue that she had 10 - 12 hummingbirds at her feeders this past week. It's that time; the hummers are on the move to their winter homes.

Here in Wichita Falls, we normally have 2 species of hummingbirds in the summer--the ruby-throated and the black-chinned. However, during fall migration other species may show up. So keep your cameras handy.

It is important to leave up your feeders during this time and leave your flowering plants (don't cut them down) so these little guys can tank up. Many of them fly over the Gulf of Mexico for several hundred miles without a stop and need the extra calories.

Please post if you have any interesting sitings.