GICL: The Early Birder Gets the Win

Yes, yes, I know I skipped out on you last week, but my perfectly good reason is that I needed enough memorable material to blog about. I don’t feel the need to preserve the memories of the more mundane parts of our lives, either for our own reminiscing or for your reading pleasure (?), but rest assured, if there is any sort of laundry adventure or dishwashing caper, you’ll hear about it. Today, though, the focus will again be on birds, some new, some old but in a new light.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

As you can see, this pretty sparrow caught my ear with its perky chatter while it picked through the crumbly sidewalk next door to our place. I always feel a little bad for the sparrows being so numerous and generally plain and therefore usually ignored by anyone with a camera, me included.

A Common Raven encourages visitors to ignore the sign.

Oh, the naughty, glossy-feathered, wickedly smart ravens! A pair of these large troublemakers routinely stalk the parking lot near the dwellings trail head waiting especially for pick up trucks which often have beds filled with an assortment of raven party supplies. As destructive as they can be, I have been entranced watching them hop up to the back windows of trucks and even the door of the trail head museum and “ask” to be admitted using their clickity-clackity-croakity language.

I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the summer birds. A friend and fellow park volunteer, Frances, knew that there was one in particular I’d been dying to see, and as soon as she spotted them down the road at her place, an invitation for a morning birding excursion was extended.. I arrived, coffee in hand, promptly at 0700 to her cute tiny house, which I now refer to as Frances’ Bird Blind. She has created a haven for birds with several types of feeders, plants, landscape features, and charming seating areas.

The thistle bags were already full of finches when I pulled up.

House (red) and Lesser (gold) finches

Neither of these are new to me, but they made such a pretty color combo.

The area beneath all the feeders was also alive with the ground-feeders.

The striking male Black-headed Grosbeaks were plentiful.

A Brown-headed Cowbird put in an appearance.

 

I suppose some would think this bird rather dull, but it is softly pretty with a touch of iridescent green in its black body feathers.

Juvenile Spotted Towhees were abundant, their call an annoyance to their hostess, who said they sounded like small children crying incessantly for their mommies.

 

This Scrub Jay swooped in, his blue feathers flashing and giving me a start, thinking it was The One.

There was also no shortage of mischievous chipmunks who thought the birds were stealing their food. Above their heads, the hanging feeders were full of buzzing hummingbirds and a few other little cuties who prefer to feed higher up.
The adorable and acrobatic White-breasted Nuthatch loved the sticky seed block.

 

As did the Juniper Titmouse.

The morning was passing quickly, and we were beginning to lament that The One wasn’t going to show. Then, suddenly, there he was.

The Blue Grosbeak!

I had been wanting to lay eyes on this blue beauty ever since I’d seen its picture posted in a Texas bird blind last autumn. We’d missed their migration then, and I had no idea when we might cross paths with them again, but when I saw them on the summer bird list here, I knew I couldn’t let the season pass without espying at least one.

I got to espy one twice.

And a female, as well, though you’d hardly pair them up if the only thing you had to go on was color.

Before my visit was done, we made plans to travel down to Mimbres together to attend the annual Hummingbird Festival over the weekend. The festival is held at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site and offers a chance to watch hummingbird leg-banding in action.

 The banding is done primarily to track the migration patterns of the various hummers. The process we saw while we were there started with someone operating the trap, which consisted of a cylindrical mesh bag hung over a nectar feeder and attached to a string held by the operator. (Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the only picture I had of this Wile E. Coyote-type setup.) All of the other feeders that are normally hung all around the site are removed so that the birds have to come to the trapping one. When they did, the trapper would drop the mesh over them, feeder and all. Then she could just reach in and pick up a hummy. The bird was put into a small mesh bag and taken into the bander. The bander had a series of tasks that began with extracting the bird’s left leg through the mesh and attaching the teeny-tiny uniquely-numbered metal band with special little tools.

A birdie burrito on the scale.

Next came the weighing, and that was accomplished by removing the bird from the mesh bag and rolling it in a small square of even finer mesh and placing it on the tiny scale. See the green straw in the above pic? The bander used that to blow on the bird’s stomach feathers to get a visual of its two fat pad areas. Chubby fat pads mean the bird has been in the area long enough to replenish its stores and will soon be ready to start the next leg of its migration. Lean fat pads mean it has arrived recently, having used up its fat stores to get here, and it will be hanging around for awhile to fatten up.

Lastly, the bander holds the bird to a feeder so it can get an energy boost, then releases it.

I was tickled to get to see the Calliope hummingbirds, with their streaked magenta throats flashing in the sunlight. While this variety can be seen regularly in the Mimbres area, about 40 miles away, they rarely make their way up to where we are. However, since visiting the festival and the writing of this post, to my unquantifiable glee, a few have shown up at my feeder.

The above photo was taken at the festival, where that little guy wasn’t feeling very well after his banding. The process does stress the birds quite a bit, as you can imagine, and while it was interesting, I came away a bit conflicted about it as I often am over various animal practices. Is what we’re learning about them truly still helping or simply satisfying our continued curiosity? When do we know enough?

I didn’t get to find out if that particular one perked up enough to be released, but I choose to believe he did and is one of the ones visiting us here now, putting the chub back in his fat pads.

COMMENTS

Shannon Like you, I am a little concerned about whether animal tagging does more harm than good, especially with really small animals that are easily injured by our fat fingers or infected with human micro-organisms. Collars on bears, wolves, and elk don’t bother me as much. And don’t get me started on catch-and-release fishing; it’s nothing but pure torture of the fishes “for fun.” I am more in favor of hunting/fishing when people actually eat the game.

I will step away from the keyboard now before I really start ranting!

Chasing Dirt I know that tracking the animals can help us toward better preservation practices, etc., it’s just unclear to me how much we already know and how much more we think we need to know, ya know? The collars on the elk, etc. (and I know this having had them on our property for years, with one cow losing her collar in our wetlands and going out with the tracker to locate it) that the collars are chipped to release after so many years so the animal doesn’t have to be re-captured to get it. Not so with the little hummy bands, which have to be recaptured in order to be tracked. I bet that our advancements in micro-technology could help us with this if the practice is deemed to be beneficial!

MonaLiza Whoa, my favorite models! Yup, the Raven is one of the smartest bird out there. Laurel and I have experienced bird banding at Fort Morgan SP in Alabama. Not only did we get to observe the volunteers doing their work we got to hold a bird, pet it 🙂 and release it back to the wild. Actually, it was a cool feeling holding their delicate body.
On the other hand, I agree it does stress the bird but we humans are too curious and want to know it all 🙂

Chasing Dirt I remember those posts about you and Laurel with the hummies! I got to hold a hummingbird once — when it bumped into our window, was stunned, and retrieved by our cat. I managed to get it from her before more harm was done, thankfully. They are so tiny, you hardly know you’re holding anything. I think it’s good that we learn about them in order to better live in harmony. There is room on Earth for us all, it’s just such a delicate balance sometimes and difficult to know when we’re helping or hurting. Observing them as birders, though, doesn’t hurt anyone, and we learn so much just by watching and enjoying them. I share your enthusiasm in that! 🙂

chapter3travels Definitely an interesting question – one we’ve thought about several times at the various zoos and sanctuaries we’ve visited. How much are we really learning here and is it worth the stress on the animal? I don’t know, but these are questions we should all be asking…

It is nice that they let you watch the banding process. I’ve often wondered how they handle these smaller animals. At least they got some power juice on their way out the door!!

I also appreciate your sending a bit of love to the poor, overlooked sparrows! Yeah, they’re not the glitziest birds on the block, but they’re worth looking at too!! 😃

Chasing Dirt Pondering the animal stress question stresses me out! You know that zoos are like crack to me, and I can only continue to educate myself on current best practices to try to support those. Working here this summer, I have learned about the evolving archaeological practices over the years, and how our beliefs about what is helpful/harmful have flip-flopped and continue to change, or even the definitions of “helpful” and “harmful” and “our!” The folks at the festival did handle them with great care and did recognize their stress and potential for harm (there is a strict training process they have to go through to become banders; I think only something like 150 of them exist.) I, too, thought it was adorable that they got an energy drink after their check-up!

Poor sparrows! The daisies of the bird world. The different kinds are also really hard to tell apart, and sometimes I have a good pic but don’t want to share because I can’t definitively say what it is. I do sometimes text the pics to our more knowledgeable birder friends 😀

Laurel I share your sentiments about bird banding. We’ve been to a couple of bird banding events, and it’s fascinating to see the birds up close. I’ve asked a lot of experts questions about bird banding and they all seem to think that it provides valuable information that ultimately, helps to protect the birds. But still…I am conflicted. And I’m especially sad if I think there is a wild bird that’s been harmed in the process. 😦

It makes me happy that you’re attracting Calliopes to your feeders! And your photos of the Blue Grosbeaks are wonderful. And yes, those rascally ravens are troublemakers but they’re so smart and funny while they’re going about their destructive ways. I agree with you about the sparrows, too. When I really take time to observe them, they’re beautiful little birds. I must say, I’m not crazy about cowbirds because they are parasitic nesters. It’s just awful to see a little Junko raising a big gangly cowbird baby.

Chasing Dirt I am all for gathering info that helps protect the birds and makes it possible us all to live in harmony, and I know you are, too ❤ I think the little guy that wasn't feeling well did make it, but it was sad to think he was that upset. I know those doing the banding would feel awful if they harmed a bird.

The Calliopes are wonderful, and they seem to be holding their own amid the bossier ones. I have learned so much more about the hummies this summer with the ability to watch them so up-close. The Blue Grosbeak sure is a beaut. We now have some as-yet-unidentified birds digging in the ant hills outside the rig. The anthills have been there the whole time, but only recently have we noticed these birds doing that. I wonder if the rains have changed something?

I did know about the cowbirds being brood parasites, but I can't be mad at them since that's how they were made, and humans are at least partially to blame for their exploding numbers. That's a big topic for a campfire discussion 🙂

Laureen The last picture is my favourite – he (or she) is adorable. My cat would love him;)

Chasing Dirt Those Calliope hummingbirds are the smallest of the kinds we get here and most definitely adorable! When we lived in a house and had feeders, my cats loved to lounge around where they could keep an eye on the hummingbirds, too. 🙂

Laureen And what is a cat thinking when a bird is flying around? Do you fit into one meal? Or two?