Warbler Spotting Tips

This little video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology makes me nostalgic. I used to love standing outside the aviary where I worked every spring giving bird watching tips to the visitors to get them excited about bird conservation. It was always great to see the children's reactions when they first learn how to follow their ears and spot a wild bird with binoculars. I can spend hours bird watching. It's spectacular fun, and you don't necessarily even need the binoculars, though they help a lot. And, don't think this means you have to go on some long hike, by the way. Check out this video with warbler watching tips from experts Jessie Barry and Chris Wood. They are looking for birds in a small neighborhood patch of woods. The footage is amazing. You don't need a huge forest, just some patience and a few pointers. Don't forget to drop by The Ravens Crossing to read my latest published young adult flash fiction story, Morgan and Holly. If you read the entire story from the start, you will find they've been bird watching, too. Big surprise.

Check out the Condor Cam

Photo by USGS photographer Sue Haig

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has just announced a new California Condor cam. You will be able to check in with Sisquoc and Shahtash while they incubate their egg, and barring complications, watch them hatch and rear their chick.

The largest bird in North America, with a wingspan nearing ten feet, these condors are also one of our most endangered species. But, thanks to programs like San Diego Zoo Global's Condor Conservation, the wild population is once more on the rise, though there are still fewer than 400 known birds in existence.

For this reason, the San Diego Zoo practices careful monitoring and controlled breeding of captive pairs who's offspring might be released back into the wild. The program has successfully released around 80 birds using these methods. It remains one of the most successful captive breed and release programs of endangered species in existence.

Michael Mace, bird curator for the park, reports that Sisquoc and Shahtash are sitting on an artificial egg while their actual egg is incubated by the staff. Although this is complicated business, much more so than you might imagine, it is also a common practice with a very high success rate. Obviously, few organizations in the world do it better than these people.

I'm sure I've mentioned that for twelve years I was a bird keeper who did some of my own incubating and hand-rearing of endangered birds. About ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to land an internship under one of the San Diego Zoo's outreach programs, the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center in Hawaii. I learned from the best about the San Diego Zoo's hugely successful incubation rate and their hand-rearing techniques with the endangered A'lala or Hawaii Crow. The program uses many of the same techniques as the Condor Conservation Program, though, unfortunately their release rate has not been nearly as successful.

The image is of a condor chick being hand-fed with a puppet to avoid it imprinting with it's keepers. A'lalas are also fed using similar Hawaii Crow puppets. This feeding technique is often employed when the parent birds or other surrogate birds cannot be found to raise the chicks.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is you need not fret too much for the egg. It will be in very good hands and safe from many of the things that might prevent it from hatching should it remain in the nest. Early in March, the egg will be returned to the Condors who will be none the wiser, and judging by the established success rate, the birds should accept it back into the fold without incident. They will most likely continue to hatch and care for the chick as if it never left the nest. So for now, expect only to see the occasional swapping of adult birds incubating, and some gentle turning and manipulation of their artificial egg. Mostly, they have a boring job of sitting still and keeping their egg at just the right temperature. The real excitement won't begin for those of us watching until March, when the egg hatches. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the condors and their keepers in hopes of another successful release to the wild.

Keen Eyes

On a crisp day last week, we ignored the tufts of clouds threatening possible afternoon rain and drove thirty minutes straight uphill to Harvey’s Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is not an unusual past-time for us, when we feel we want to get away from the hustle and bustle of city living, but for the next few weeks, Harvey’s Knob will not be as quiet. What is bringing out the crowds? Why, the hawk migration, of course, and it’s a regular bird watcher’s party.

When we arrived, the parking lot was filled with people in their camping chairs, dogs at their feet, telescopes and binoculars trained to the skies. Everyone waved, happy to greet us, and a quick hello got us all the hawk counting statistics we needed to know for the day and most of the facts on last year’s counts from Virginia to Mexico and back again.

People from all walks of life had left their daily grinds to cluster on this particular scenic overlook. Apparently, bird watchers on similar mountain ridges across this vast continent join in hawk counts from mid-August all the way through late November. One couple said they planned their annual vacation around the hawks. They come to Harvey’s Knob every year, leaving jobs as a fire fighter and a school teacher to help HMANA, Hawk Migration Association of America, with their annual count. This year, they will spend two weeks of October in Veracruz, Mexico where the fire fighting bird counter reports, eyes sparkling, that they can see five to six million hawks fly by in one day.

The excitement is contagious. Groups of school students, retired businessmen, a police officer, and several medical professionals spent an enjoyable afternoon with us trading bird watching stories and information on good locations to see Raptors from Alaska to Florida. I found myself teaching some of the students and my mother some tricks on finding the birds with the lenses of their binoculars. Other volunteers patiently described where we all could see the sixth Bald Eagle of the day in a distant break between two fronts of clouds. Everyone, no matter how old or how experienced, felt the thrill when they joined in counting the day’s largest kettle of three hundred Broad Wings as they silently circled over our heads. Imagine our surprise when the day’s count for this one species at this one overlook totaled 3,604.

These stout bodied, brown and beige hawks are one of the first Raptor species to go, leaving their summer breeding grounds in the forests of North America in late August to mid-September. The Broad Wings are not an easy species to observe during their summers here. You will rarely see more than a glimpse of one circling overhead looking for prey. But, they become much easier to spot when they congregate to begin migration. They travel in groups called “kettles” that can number up to thousands of birds, and the groups get larger as they draw closer to their winter habitats.

A recent study by Cornell University used satellite transmitters attached to Broad Wings’ backs to track their migrations. The study found they averaged 111 kilometers or 69 miles a day and traveled over 7000 kilometers to the tropical forests of Central and northern South America. But, once they arrived in their wintering grounds, they inhabited very small ranges staying in territories that averaged just one square mile.

So, if Cornell is tracking these birds, why do they encourage so many volunteers to assist HMANA with their hawk counts? Well, one reason is that birds can be used as indicator species. That is to say, one can study data about their population numbers to track environmental trends and find potential problem areas. With migratory birds, the data collection becomes increasingly difficult when their ranges span continents. But, so too does the importance of knowing their status increase, because knowing if these species' populations are healthy could help scientists identify and address potential environmental issues before they can effect human populations over the many countries where the birds live and migrate.

How does one go about helping with the HMANA Hawk Migration Count? Well, that part is easy. Go to http://www.hmana.org/ to locate a watch area near you. Bring binoculars if you have them, but often you’ll find people with an extra set who are willing to share. You’ll want sunglasses, sun screen, and a comfy folding chair. No prerequisites and no experience necessary, just bring yourselves, your willingness to learn, and your keen eyes.