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David LaPuma (Badbirdz) will be returning from his Dry Tortugas trip on Monday morning, and should be back on line with his migration radar images and  interpretations. From my perch here in Illinois, I thought I would check out the migration from Cuba, as west to west-southwest winds and clear skies back home in Florida suggested that there might be some action. Lacking David’s technical abilities, the best I could do was to pluck a few radar loops from sunset until bedtime. The one hour Central Time differential allowed me to peer into the early morning hours without disturbing my sleep cycle.

These five consecutive loops of about an hour each, were captured at hourly intervals, beginning at about at about 9:00 PM EDT. The midnight loop is repeated with enhanced imagery to show relative headings of the flocks. Click on each image for a larger view.

The first loop begins around sunset, which occurred at 8:02 PM EDT in Key West. A wave of birds is moving northward from the Keys, and there are some flocks already heading out of Cuba:



This is the next loop, from around 9:00 to 10:00 PM. The wave from the Keys is moving due north, approaching the southern tip of the mainland, and more birds are moving out into the Florida Straits from Cuba:



This is the third hour, from 10:00 to 11:00 PM, showing the biomass exiting Cuba’s northern coast to be quite dense:

The 11:00 to 12 midnight loop. The display fades momentarily when the signal shifts from clear air to storm setting. Note that a few storms have developed off the coast of Cuba:

The following image shows the direction and velocity of movement of both the birds and the storms, relative to the radar station in Key West, during the hour before midnight. As I am not competent to interpret this image, I will seek a better explanation from any expert. As I understand it, the green means that the targets are moving somewhat toward the radar source, while the red means that they are moving away. It is evident that the storms are following a more easterly course than the birds, which seem headed for landfall on the Florida Peninsula and along the west coast, rather than moving northwest out into the open Gulf as noted in the images I posted during the past week.

This final loop, from midnight to 1:00 AM Monday morning (Florida time), gives a pretty good impression of the northeasterly heading of the flocks, especially in the enlarged view (click on image):

Florida Migration Radar

This one hour loop from Key West radar ending at about 12:17 AM EDT this morning (Friday) shows healthy migration from Cuba across the Florida Straits. Many birds can be seen moving northwest into the open Gulf, under very favorable weather conditions. Keep on moving! Check BADBIRDZ for daily summaries and overnight radar graphics.

A Study in Scarlet, Rose and Pink

Lippold Park was alive with shades of red. Here is a view of the meadow:

Yesterday morning we paid a brief return visit to Lippold Park, just south of Batavia, off IL-31 on the east bank of the Fox River in Kane County, IL.

It was overcast, chilly and windy along the river. We heard a Northern Waterthrush, found a singing Warbling Vireo, saw several Yellow-rumped Warblers fighting the breese and darting in the treetops, and caught glimpses of several unidentified warblers. We photographed a House Wren, a Catbird and a Palm Warbler there, but soon walked inland to seek the shelter of the bike trail that connects Lippold with Glenwood Park to the north.

This turned out to be a good decision, for as soon as we started along the path, we saw a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak perched amid the blossoms of a flowering tree:

A little ways down, at about the same location where we saw the Cape May Warbler a couple of days ago, we heard the distinctive song of a Scarlet Tanager. To my ear it sounds like a Robin with a sore throat.

Since Mary Lou started birding only a few years ago, I have shared most of her new bird sightings. I find this almost as thrilling as when I first saw the same birds, many of them in my childhood. Just as I can remember many of my first sightings, her new “finds” also stand out in my memory.

She saw her first Scarlet Tanager at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The bird moved on rapidly and did not provide very satisfactory views. Yet, its brilliant red body and black wings made it impossible to mistake for any other North American bird. Later, when we were recapping our sightings for that day, Mary Lou did not include the Scarlet Tanager. Why? Because she did not see its tail and could not be sure of its color, whether black or red.  As I noted in this blog entry (when Mary Lou reached her 500 life bird milestone last year) , her standards have since “deteriorated” to the level required by ABA under the rules of the “counting game.”

The Scarlet Tanager was high in tree, providing mostly “underbelly” views:

Scarlet Tanager turns his back to show his black tail:

Perhaps a female was nearby, as the bird was singing energetically:

The Scarlet Tanager flew towards us and passed directly overhead before disappearing from view:



This Catbird lurked in a thicket along the bank of the Fox River:

A Palm Warbler peeked out at us from the shrubbery. We take these “Florida sparrows” for granted back home in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, as they are one of the most common yard birds, but they are really beautiful when decked out in spring finery:

This House Wren’s bubbly song belied its small size:

Male Cape May Warbler:

The weather forecast was very promising, so Mary Lou and I headed out early to Lippold Park, located on the east bank of the Fox River in Batavia, Illinois. We hoped to see warblers, and we were not disappointed. In addition to those pictured here, other brightly-colored birds we also saw included Chestnut-sided, Palm, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) and Blue-winged Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Northern Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles.

Ornamental fruit trees were in full bloom at Lippold Park:

A Cape May Warbler was our most exciting find, as neither of us had ever seen a spring male. Although it is named after a place in New Jersey (where the first specimen was collected), they are actually very rarely seen there. No surprise that I missed seeing one, despite growing up in North Jersey. We had seen them before in Illinois, but only in drab fall plumage.

Mary Lou had only seen one Rose-breasted Grosbeak previously, as she started birding when we lived outside this bird’s established range, in New Mexico. They are a delight for the eyes!

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak:

A female Rose-breasted Grosbeak “stood by her man” as he posed for our camera:



Another look at the male Cape May Warbler:

This Nashville Warbler did not allow me to take a very good photo. This is the best view I obtained of this active and reclusive bird:

A Wood Thrush lurked in the dark understory (I had to lighten the photo with the limited photo-editing program on my laptop):

Once again, the Key West radar shows a nice flight from Cuba. This one-hour loop was downloaded at about 11:30 PM Chicago time this evening (12:30 AM Tuesday, Eastern time). In a few days some of these birds may join us in Illinois.

A few photos from this morning’s walk around Nelson Lake/Dick Young Forest Preserve, Batavia, Kane County, Illinois.

Song Sparrow:

Northern Cardinal:

Indigo Bunting:

Common Yellowthroat:

Brown-headed Cowbird:

Potpourri: Birding with Agramonte,

a Frozen Goose,

and Key West Migration Radar

Closeup of Agramonte:

A reunion with 20 members of our Illinois family this past weekend, and preparations for a Cinco de Mayo party that our daughter’s family plans to host this coming Sunday have occupied much of our time. Happily, there is a new city park, only four or five doors away from their home in Batavia. It hugs the bank of Mill Creek, just a few hundred yards west of Randall Road, a busy thoroughfare. It opened a few months ago, and is a nice example of the many natural areas that are preserved by local and county governments in Illinois.

Some neighbors who enjoyed fishing in Mill Creek feared that the park would disrupt the surrounding woodlands and degrade its waters. Time will tell whether these fears were warranted. At the edge of what had been an almost impenetrable tangle of shrubs, vines and fine old trees, there is a play area and a parking lot that connect to about a half mile network of wood-chip trails. The trails generally steer clear of the banks of Mill Creek.

With my new birding companion, our daughter’s family dog, Agramonte, a (nearly) five month old Tibetan Mastiff puppy, we have been exploring the new park almost daily. If the granddaughters are with us, we spend most of our time at the new swings and slides. Almost always, there is time to visit the viewing area.

Viewing platform at Mill Creek, the only place where the trail is adjacent to the water:

One member of a pair of Canada Geese that are nesting near the overlook exhibited an interesting behavior. One of the birds was sitting on a nest, crouched low and barely visible, just across the small creek from our vantage point. Since there is almost always a mate keeping watch over a nest, I looked carefully for the second goose.

I finally located it, about 25 feet away, near the other side of the creek. I would not have seen it, but for the fact that it had been swimming in that location earlier. This bird was absolutely still in the water with its neck extended and its head partly under water. This posture hid its distinctive chin marking. It looked for all the world like a pile of debris. In fact, I had to scrutinize it with my binoculars to confirm that I was looking at a living goose. It remained motionless the entire time we were there, for over 10 minutes. Might the presence of Agramonte triggered this unusual defensive behavior?

Looking northeast at bend in Mill Creek. Canada Goose on nest is barely visible on bank to the right:

Looking southeast from viewing platform:

Birding has not been very remarkable, but as the leaves begin to erupt I am sure that the number of  migrants will increase.  Yesterday there were Blue-headed and Yellow-throated Vireos, and a Nashville Warbler present. I checked the Key West radar this evening and saw migrants departing northward from Cuba and the Keys in good numbers. Maybe some will follow a more westerly course and arrive here in Chicagoland in a few days.

At the bottom of this page is the Key West NWS radar view at a little after 10:30 PM, Florida time. As always, be sure to check BADBIRDZ in the morning for a full report on Florida migration radar for the entire night.

Some interesting flowers are in bloom. I am trying to learn all their names. Oh, to be seventy again!

Blue Violet, Illinois State Flower:

White Trout Lily:



Yellow Violet:

Wake Robin (Trillium recurvatum):

Toothwort (Dentaria laciniata):



Key West Radar, one hour loop at about 10:30 PM Florida time, shows impressive numbers of birds passing over the Straits of Florida from Cuba, and others moving northwestward from the Keys. :

 

Our granddaughters seem interested in the structure of the feet of this newly hatched chick:

Of Hamster Livers and Starling Ears

In college, I majored in biology. This was a direct result of my childhood interest in birds and all living things. More properly, it was a result of the intense curiosity that is stimulated by even the most subtle aspects of the morphology and behavior of living things. Curiosity causes one to ask many questions.  Whether trivial or sublime, so many questions remain unanswered. I don’t know who said it, but it is so true: “The last thing a science learns is what it is about.”

A fact that intrigued me was that Golden Hamsters appear to be immune from the effects of the alkaloid colchicine, a mitotic poison that freezes cells in the process of dividing. The theory was that the hamster evolved in a region where the herb that produces colchicine is common. It somehow adapted and survived by developing resistance to the effects of the chemical. Many anti-cancer drugs also prevent multiplication of tumor cells, so I thought the lowly hamster might provide a key to finding how to selectively protect healthy cells from damage during chemotherapy.

I kept a colony of hamsters in the college lab, and fed them high doses of colchicine. They appeared to suffer no ill effects, although they did not reproduce while eating the colchicine-laced food. In order to test my hypothesis that the substance may end up being concentrated in a particular organ, I euthanized the animals, pooled their organs, and using a primitive glass column chromatograph, analyzed their tissues for colchicine. This revealed that the colchicine was indeed concentrated in their livers. Histologic examination revealed no pathologic changes in the liver or any other organs. It was an uncontrolled, poorly designed experiment without a clear hypothesis, that wasted the lives of innocent animals. I never learned why or how the hamsters resisted the effects of the poison. Since hamsters are normally exceptionally prolific, their failure to bear young appeared odd, as their body tissues exhibited normal cell division.

After I graduated, it was off to medical school, and that was the end of my experiment. It left me with more questions than answers.Today, an Internet search reveals much sophisticated research on the same subject.  For example, it was subsequently confirmed that the natural resistance of the Golden Hamster to colchicine is not manifested in the developing embryos in utero. Francis Crick had discovered the double helix of DNA only a couple of years before I executed my hamsters, but now the unusual resistance of hamsters to the erstwhile toxin has been explained at the molecular level. Resistance to colchicine has been found to be associated with specific DNA  sequences containing genes which alter plasma membrane permeability, leading to a decreased uptake of several anti-cancer drugs. Now, 55 years later, I cannot find any reference as to the applicability of this knowledge to clinical medicine.

Gracielita watches as a Black Swallowtail butterfly emerges from its chrysalis:

The natural world is so full of questions. Before I retired, I traveled a great deal and spent lots of time at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. One day, in the mid-1970s, I noticed that European Starlings were feeding nestlings, whose heads popped out of nests located in crevices located where the jetways connected to the airport terminal’s walls. It seemed odd that the birds were exhibiting normal behavior in such a noise-filled environment. All the humans who worked in that area were wearing hearing protection. Yet these birds, of a species that is particularly vocal, seemed not to be suffering in the least. Surely, their sensitive ears must have been severely damaged by all those decibels.

Humans can adapt to hearing loss, through gestures, sign language and writing. Birds appear to rely heavily upon the subtleties of calls and songs, especially in their reproductive behaviors. Owls are known to locate prey by hearing alone. How did those starlings manage to rear their families amid the constant roar of jet engines? Incidentally, Killdeers were often present along the taxiways and landing strips– was it possible that they, too, were able to breed under these circumstances?

Internet research now provides me with an appreciation of the fallacy of anthropomorphising, of applying human attributes to birds. Just as my earlier assumptions about sex-linked characteristics in Muscovy Ducks proved to be 180 degrees away from the truth (I had falsely assumed that male sex was determined by the male parent, as in humans, whose males are heterogametic), I now know that the inner ears of birds, and most reptiles and mammals, have a unique regenerative ability to recover from damage to the microscopic auditory hairs (cochlear cilia) that are so essential to normal hearing. This fact was discovered by medical researchers who were looking for a cure for human deafness. Indeed, we humans are the oddballs in this respect.

Research conducted at the Laboratory of Comparative Psychoacoustics in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD explores the issues of the effects of noise on bird behavior. Remarkably, they have discovered that birds have the ability to block out or mask certain background noises and still hear the calls of others. The following is from an abstract entitled  The General Effects of Noise on Hearing in Birds

“A great deal has been learned over the last several decades about the effect of noise on hearing thresholds in both humans and animals including birds. One useful measure, the critical ratio (the ratio of tone intensity to noise intensity expressed in decibels), tells us how loud a pure tone must be to be detected against a background of broadband, white noise. The critical ratio is the level of the pure tone at threshold (in dB) minus the spectrum level (dB per Hz) of the noise.

“Critical ratios have been measured in the laboratory for a number of species of birds including: budgerigars, canaries, starlings, song sparrows, swamp sparrows, red-wing blackbirds, cowbirds, great tits, cockatiels, and barn owls. In general, the effect of white noise on hearing thresholds in birds (as well as in humans) doubles with every doubling of frequency. In other words, the critical ratio at 2.0 kHz is 3 dB higher than the critical ratio at 1.0 kHz. However, some birds, such as budgerigars, show a remarkably different masking pattern… [suggesting] that budgerigars hear better in noise than other birds at frequencies between 2-4 kHz. Importantly, these laboratory studies of masking by noise can also be used to make predictions about how environmental or anthropogenic (human-made) noise affects the abilities of birds to hear each other in the real world… “

My question about the starlings remains essentially unanswered. In this one narrow area, such unanswered questions abound. Following are some suggested areas for future research, excerpted from the UMD Web site,  The Effects of Environmental Noise on Communication in Birds.

“…When noise masks the biologically important signals of birds in the wild, and interferes with their ability to communicate effectively, it surely has a detrimental effect on their normal behavior and breeding biology…

“…There are virtually no data published on the effects of different types of noises (e.g. traffic or aircraft noises) on the perception of species-specific vocalizations. Such laboratory data are critical for understanding the effect of noise on acoustic communication and for developing reasonable guidelines for noise abatement…

“… It is important to understand that intense traffic or aircraft noise probably represents a substantial risk to normal acoustic communication in birds. It is not practical to think of eliminating the detrimental effects on communication completely. It is practical, however, to try and quantify the risks so that intelligent judgments can be made concerning the extent to which noise may interfere with the normal behavior and breeding biology of birds in the wild, and reasonable arguments can be made about how much risk is acceptable. At present, predictions made for detection of vocalizations in the environment only address the simplest case, the ability of a bird to tell whether a sound occurred (i.e. detection). Such a measure does not reflect a bird’s ability to communicate effectively in a particular acoustic environment, and may have little bearing on it…

” …At the present time, these worthwhile environmental projects are not funded. The ultimate goal of these studies is to generate a predictive model for evaluating the impact of noise on acoustic communication in birds in order save endangered species…”

The story of the Rosy-Finches of Sandia Crest, New Mexico.  This flag waves all winter on rosyfinch.com, when rosy-finches are present at Sandia Crest. It stopped waving on April 4, when the last flocks were seen. A few finches visited after April 4th, but no appreciable flocks. One Black Rosy-Finch was coming in for seed on April 8.  Feeders and sighting logs were removed April 9th. Now we can look forward to their return, next November! In the meantime, explore the links below and to the left, and know there is great birding in the Sandias and the greater Albuquerque area all year ’round.

(The rosy-finch flocks at Taos Ski Valley persisted until April 21, according to Gil Bachmann, Manager of the Kandahar Condominiums. A few individuals were still there on April 27. Gil said he missed the flurry of activity.)

View of the Sandia Crest House from the south. The large picture windows on three sides provide excellent viewing of the rosy-finch feeders. (Click on photo for full screen view).

Back on December 7, 1999, Mary Lou and I saw our first rosy-finch up there, in the parking lot of the Crest House at 10,678 feet. Then, they were considered “rare but regular” winter visitors to the Sandia Mountains. We had previously chased after them several times after seeing reports on the Internet, but had not succeeded in finding them until that snowy day. Since they had been attracted by bread crusts thrown away by some workers, we decided to return and scatter seed. It worked, and we kept putting out seed in the parking lot, and the birds have been visiting reliably every day of every winter since then. Usually, all three species and both the Interior and Hepburn’s (Gray-cheeked) race of the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch have been there together.

Within two years we had engaged the US Forest Service, the Central New Mexico Audubon Society, and some private wild bird feeder and seed suppliers in a cooperative venture. Sunwest Silver, the Albuquerque company that owns Sandia Crest House, is the key  to the success of the project, as they provided space for the feeders. The Forest Service prohibits feeding of wildlife on all but the “developed” or leased areas within its boundaries. (The Loveland ski resort in Colorado had its popular feeders removed a couple of years ago on order of the Forest Service. Frankly, their central location posed a traffic hazard as birders and skiers competed for parking spaces on the often slippery and snowy parking lot. Happily, Sandia Crest is far uphill from the “downhill” crowd, so there is usually plenty of parking.)

The first feeders at Sandia Crest were erected in February, 2001 and, as they say, “the rest is history.” You can read the whole story here in this article I wrote for Birders World. Much of the credit for the success goes to the USFS professionals and Volunteers, the Central New Mexico Audubon Society (the formal partner with the USFS in this project), notably to several young birders, merchants who continue to support the project, and the managers of the Crest House Restaurant and Gift Shop, which continues to host the feeders and accommodate the birding public along with regular customers. Organized research began largely in response to the efforts of the late Ryan Beaulieu, a High School student. His buddies have carried on the tradition (among them, Raymond VanBuskirk, Michael Hilchey and Cole Wolf, but I dare not try to name them all, for they are legion– just look at this page and this one as well!!). 

Steve and Nancy Cox, of Rio Grande Bird Research, with the help of many volunteers,  began a regular winter banding operation at Crest House in 2004.  So far, they have banded over 1600 rosy-finches and are also conducting isotope studies to try to unravel the life histories of the four races of rosy-finches that converge on Sandia Crest every winter. Dave Weaver and Fran Lusso, trained USFS Volunteers, took over our duties as coordinators of the rosy-finch feeding project when we moved to Florida in 2004, and have served ably and with great dedication. They did not consider themselves “birders” when they started, but they quickly learned to separate the rosy-finch species, and now they are experts at identifying most anything that flies.

Thursday Birder and Central NM Audubon Field Trips	Sandia Crest House Sighting Logs (1999 - 2008)	Table and Spreadsheet of all Banding Results	CORRESPONDENCE: Narrative Banding and Sighting Reports
ID Tips: the Four Rosy-Finch Races at Sandia Crest	Check Weather, Webcams and Road Conditions	Rosy-finch and Nature Center Banding Schedule	Return to ROSYFINCH.COM

Nelson  Lake, view from south shore looking north:

On our first chance to get out birding since our arrival in Illinois this past weekend, we got out early to Nelson Lake Marsh (Dick Young Forest Preserve) in Batavia, Kane County. We had not been there since last November, just before we returned to Florida (via Amarillo) for the winter. We rolled our socks over our trouser legs (we heard there were ticks galore) and welcomed the temperate climate.

The flock of White Pelicans that has been present for the past month has dwindled to 13, that we could see. Canada Geese were nesting, and we saw two Sandhill Cranes and heard several more. An American Kestrel was our only raptor for the morning. Northern Cardinals, and Field, Song and Swamp Sparrows were singing vigorously. The high Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker count suggested they may be migrating through, though many were engaged in courtship or territorial displays. Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers made it a Trifecta. Our only warbler was a Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), and we saw a Brown Thrasher and couple of Blue-headed Vireos and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

The only birds that stood still long enough for me to photograph were sparrows, including this Song Sparrow:



This fuzzy view of a Swamp Sparrow was about the best I could do:

Despite the close range, my shaky hands did not do too well with this Swamp Sparrow, making me dream about getting an image stabilized lens:

Mary Lou did not know I photographed her on this path along the south shore of Nelson Lake, looking east:

From our perch in Chicagoland we can enjoy the many reports of arriving warblers in South Florida, and hope that when we are finally able to get out in the field, they will have made it to our neighborhood. This is the Key West radar as we are turning in for the night, which is just after midnight Florida time. At this hour, the flights from Cuba and the Keys are less dramatic than a couple of nights ago, but certainly worth watching. Check out BADBIRDZ for the entire night’s action.

Pretty much on schedule, the winds shifted to the southeast last night, bringing about much more favorable conditions for migrants venturing across the Florida Straits. I expected that there would almost surely be some spectacular radar images overnight, for BADBIRDZ to display in the morning.

I checked the Key West radar at bedtime, and found a “teaser” image. While the one-hour loop provides little but a glimpse of the big picture of neotropical migration, the fluid motion from the quick refresh rate lends a dramatic touch.  The depth of the blue color (10-15 DBZ) suggests a density of  71 to 109 birds per cubic kilometer.  This morning, BADBIRDZ tells the whole story that is introduced by this “trailer.”

One-hour Key West loop at about 10:00 PM shows flocks departing en masse, first from the Keys, and then from the north coast of Cuba.

The Miami loop also showed a lot of activity, with a good number of birds apparently coming right over my house. I went outside, looked and listened for about 10 minutes. I heard nothing unusual. The moon was nearly full and straight up. I looked at it through binoculars until my neck and arms burned, and my eyes watered too badly, but saw no birds cross its face.

Miami radar one hour loop, at a little after 10:00 PM, again shows the beginning of what should prove to be a very interesting night. Now, we’re off to Illinois to catch up with that wave!