On June 17th, I witnessed a Song Sparrow with an apparent injured leg (it was hopping along on one leg as it foraged in the leaf litter) feeding a fledgling Brown-headed Cowbird. Quite a feat for this injured sparrow to be tending to another bird’s offspring twice its own size. This is the third species of bird that I’ve witnessed parenting a Brown-headed Cowbird this season. The other foster parents were Eastern Towhee and Pine Warbler.

At this time, Gray Catbird seems to be the most commonly observed species of bird on the Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind Loop. The two pictured here were twenty feet from one another “meowing” at each other, one in a Baldcypress, the other on a post of the boardwalk leading down into the Wetlands.

An Indigo Bunting was heard and seen in front of the Lemur House on 28 June.

I’ve yet to see juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the Bird Feeder Exhibit. There have been reports of recently fledged birds coming to feeders in South Carolina and in the Sandhills of North Carolina but it should be a week or so before we start seeing them here.

The Belted Kingfisher has returned. As was true last year, there was a four-week period when a kingfisher was neither heard nor seen in the Wetlands. The only explanation that I can come up with for the female’s absence is that it was off sitting on eggs, although both male and female share incubation duties, which last about 24 days. I think, though, that the female does the bulk of the egg sitting.

On June 13, I saw a kingfisher carrying a fish in its bill. This is not an unusual occurrence, for sure. However, the bird did not swallow the fish on site, which is usually the case, but was headed off to the west when last seen. What does that mean? It probably means that there are hungry little kingfishers sitting in a dark burrow somewhere along a stream bank (Ellerbee Creek?) waiting and squawking with bills agape.

Fledgling Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, Brown-headed Nuthatches, Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows, and Brown-headed Cowbirds have all been seen at the Bird Feeder Exhibit or elsewhere around the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop, the cowbirds being hosted by Eastern Towhee and Pine Warbler foster parents.

The female Belted Kingfisher, usually a daily fixture in the Wetlands, disappeared until the 29th when I heard its raspy call coming from the trees on the far side of the Wetlands.

It may be cold outside – hardly an insect in sight, reptiles laying low, groundhogs (usually) sleeping it off  - but there’s always birds to entertain the winter hiker. On Monday the 19th, at least three frogs were caught by the Red-shouldered Hawk who frequents the swamp across from the Wetlands Overlook. The hawk may have taken more frogs that day, but I was only witness to three. There was ice on the water, but enough free water remained to allow the hawk to continue hunting frogs. With the water frozen solid on the 21st, I didn’t see the hawk on its now familiar perch in the swamp. However, I saw it take two more frogs on the cold and raw 25th of January. I don’t know if it has any relevance, but it seems that the frogs that this hawk is now catching are smaller than the frogs I’d seen it take previously.

This hawk is becoming a much sought after feature of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. Museum guests are coming down to the Wetlands with the expectation of seeing the hawk and are disappointed when it’s not there. Some ask whether the hawk is part of an exhibit! I suppose that in a way it is: it’s part of the Wetlands’ fauna, free to come and go as they please.

As I was making my last round of the day on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop on January 25, I heard an abbreviated call (the last two syllables, “you-all”) of a Barred Owl coming from the tall Loblolly Pines behind the Meadow across from the Bird Feeder Exhibit. I called back. The owl answered. Then silence. I looked but couldn’t visually locate the owl. I walked on. The owl, I assume, went on with whatever it was doing.

An Eastern Phoebe can still be seen on nearly every visit to the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop.

The cold weather quickened the pace at the Bird Feeder Exhibit. Six Pine Siskins (see Pine Siskins, January 1-15, 2009) were at the feeders during the first week of this period. That number doubled the following week. Pine Warblers have also been very busy at the feeders.

A Winter Wren was in the woods across from the Lemur House on the 18th of the month.

A Hermit Thrush was seen below the bird feeders. I saw two of these winter thrushes together near the Wetlands Overlook and another behind the Lemur House.

Noteworthy was a Gray Catbird seen next to the Ornithopter on January 24 as it dined on holly berries. Although most catbirds vacate the area during winter, migrating as far south as Central America, there are often a few that linger in our area each year. Still, not having seen one at the Museum since October, I was excited to see this bird. Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher, the other resident mimic thrushes at the Museum, can be seen throughout the winter months, although the mockingbird is the standout, the thrasher a bit more reclusive.

I first noticed Northern Cardinals in song on 24 January and occasionally thereafter. Cardinals often start singing early in the year. By the end of February they should be in full swing. It’s not unusual to see them singing amongst newly sprouted Red Maple buds. Females sometimes sing as well, although not quite in the same manner as the males, who, intent on being seen and heard by everyone, in all their redness, seek out the most prominent of perches, stretch themselves out to appear as tall as possible and belt out their song, their bodies shaking with every note. No, the female’s song is more of a whistle-while-you-work kind of song, like a happy worker busy at her craft who can’t help but to start whistling a tune while she goes about her business among the branches of the trees and shrubs.

Besides the cardinals, the lengthening days are apparently having an effect on other avian hormonal flow. Song Sparrows began singing during the last week of January. Evidently, one male was successful in attracting a female, at least temporarily. I watched as a female (I assume it was a female) landed on the ground at the base of a cedar. The male, who had been singing from a perch in a small sycamore next to the cedar, dropped down beside her. The male began to run back and forth in front of her, doing semicircles around her while singing his song. He sang not the loud “here I am” song he caroled from the perch, but a shorter, softer, more subdued version of the same. The female, for the most part, remained stationary, occasionally sidestepping to the left or right, all the while her tail flicking up and down, her wings now and then flashing open, a blur. At times, the female would fly off a few feet, the male quickly following until they were eventually fifty feet from where they had started. The song and dance went on for nearly ten minutes. And then, it was all over, the female flew off and the male resumed his post on the sycamore. He was still singing when I left at the end of the day.

Three Field Sparrows were seen in the tall grass next to the Sailboat Pond. A group of White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos have been seen foraging in several locations along the path around the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop throughout the winter, lately concentrating on the area between the main entrance to Catch the Wind and the Bird Feeder Exhibit. There is a large, four-trunked Sweetgum on the south side of the path. Look in this area for the birds. Towhees, Song Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and other birds are often mixed in with this group. Still no Fox Sparrows. I thought that the cold weather would bring in one or two of these large, handsome sparrows. There’s still time, but it’s running out quickly.

In the case of the three raptors, Osprey, Bald Eagle, and Northern Harrier, the habitat, again, is not suited to their feeding requirements. A fly-over by those species is probably all we can hope for, which is a good reason to look up every now and then while out on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. With the Museum being located between two large reservoirs (Jordan Lake and Falls Lake) that are used extensively by both Osprey and Bald Eagle it’s not unreasonable for us to expect to see more of each, at least during the spring and fall months. With well over 300 bird species possible in our area (a good number of those are highly unlikely here at the Museum because of the habitat) I’d say that 101 species is a respectable list of birds. I’m very confident that this number will rise as time goes by. If you want to see for yourself what species to expect in our area, a check list of all birds seen in Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties can be downloaded from Carolina Nature. The list was compiled by Will Cook whose other interests in nature you will discover when you click on the link.

For the past few weeks I’ve seen an immature Red-shouldered Hawk perched in various locations around the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. Possibly, it’s one of the offspring of our resident Red-shouldereds, although it’s difficult to determine that for sure. Unlike the adult red-shouldereds, the immatures have brown-streaked undersides instead of the reddish barring of the adults.

A Hawk Story: One December 27th, as I was pointing out a Great Blue Heron to a Museum guest, an adult Red-shouldered Hawk that had been sitting unseen in a tree, came down in front of us, crashing in the water of the wooded swamp on the west side of the path next to Wetlands Overlook. The hawk sat motionless in the water, up to its belly in water and tree branches. It looked around as if trying to figure out how to get out of the water, how to get out of the mess it was in. Had this hawk actually caught something with its crash landing into the water? As the hawk struggled to gain a steady footing, I caught a quick glimpse of a webbed foot – a frog. After some consideration, the hawk flew up, with much effort, onto a downed pine tree a few yards in front of us. By now, a small crowd of people had gathered to witness the drama unfolding before us, cameras clicking away. The hawk, tightly gripping a frog in its talons, stood on the tree trunk, briefly assessing the situation, eventually taking off through the trees, Bullfrog dangly behind.

The Hooded Mergansers in the Wetlands have been performing courtship displays since their arrival during the second week of November. Over the past two weeks, I’ve witnessed these small, fish-eating ducks mating. With the female floating motionless in the water, her head down on the surface of the water (she looks like a small piece of wood floating in the water), the male swims about her bobbing his head, alternately, from one side to the other. This pre-copulatory behavior continues for as much as ten minutes before actual mating occurs, all the while the female remaining in her “prone” position. This seems strange to me. I don’t know exactly what’s going on. I was surprised to see courtship behavior this early in the season. It’s doubly surprising to see the mergansers actually copulating, the purpose of which is to fertilize the female’s eggs. Is she laying eggs? If so, where? If she’s laying eggs, why now in the middle of winter? More research is needed. In the meantime, Happy New Year!

For nearly a week after the passage of the cold front that moved through on the 18th/19th of October the skies were mostly clear with high cirrus clouds making it easy to pick out high flying birds. The 18th and 19th were busy bird days with lots of familiar avian visitors returning from the north. Warblers and other passerines rode in on the back of the front. The rest of the week was busy as well, mainly with high altitude hawks, but with a few other bird types as well. A flock of 13 Double-crested Cormorants in classic echelon formation flapped their way south on the 23rd of the month.

Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures sail over Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind daily, but on the 23rd they were truly soaring high. A group of 8 Turkey Vultures glided by at “little black speck” altitude with a few Black Vultures mixed in. Turkey Vultures (TVs) and Black Vultures (BVs) are fairly easy to separate (images at left). TVs have relatively long tails and soar with their wings held above the horizontal (dihedral). Additionally, TVs tend to teeter, or rock back and forth while soaring, giving them an unsteady appearance in flight. BVs have very short tails and although they sometimes hold their wings in a dihedral they are not consistent in doing so. They also tend to flap their wings rapidly, then glide, rapid flaps, glide. There are other differences, but at great distances these two characteristics are easy to see.

The 23rd was an interesting day for raptors. A Sharp-shinned Hawk and at least two Cooper’s Hawks (at left) were seen soaring high above. Cooper’s Hawks were seen each day following the front. Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks were both up and soaring high and were fairly easy to pick up visually with the lofty cirrus clouds as a backdrop.

For the past few weeks, at least six of our local Blue Jays have been busily flying back and forth over Catch the Wind. They’ve been observed daily flying to large Willow Oaks well behind the Ornithopter, each with an acorn in its bill on the return trip, and probably several more stuffed in its throat. They’re burying, or caching, the nuts. Willow Oak acorns are small and, although I don’t know for sure how many acorns these Blue Jays can stuff into their gullets (perhaps 5 maximum), they’re likely carrying more than one at a time. I once watched a Blue Jay cram 16 sunflower seeds into its throat and one in its bill before flying off to cache the seeds.

I haven’t determined where they’re going with all of those acorns, where they’re burying them, but the cache must be quite large considering the amount of trips observed. Blue Jays will fly several miles to cache nuts. Many of the nuts cached by birds (and squirrels) are never relocated, leaving them to germinate and grow into trees. In effect, the birds (and squirrels) are planting trees. In a paper I read many years ago, one researcher theorized that Blue Jays played a significant role in the reforestation of eastern North America following the most recent period of glaciation. Some have suggested that squirrels were the real heroes of the reforestation story, but squirrels don’t carry acorns far from the mother tree before burying them, perhaps fifty yards if at all. While it’s true that acorns don’t fall far from the tree, Blue Jays will take them there (far from the tree, that is).

Picture the landscape 15,000 years ago when much of North America was under a thick sheet of ice at least as far south as Long Island, NY (Long Island is a terminal moraine). At that time the great eastern deciduous forest was much further south, hundreds of miles south of where it is today. Moving north from this ancient deciduous forest you would probably encounter boreal forest with spruces and other conifers (remnants of which can be seen today on the highest mountain peaks of western North Carolina), scrublands, perhaps steppe or vast dry grasslands, tundra and finally the glaciers themselves, a much different landscape then we see today. As the climate warmed and the glaciers slowly retreated northward at the end of the glacial period, those habitats or biotic zones moved north with them. But how did they move north, and so fast (10-12 thousand years is not a long time)? The trees couldn’t simply uproot and walk north.

As noted, most seeds or nuts that fall from trees, fall directly under the tree. Even the maples, ashes, and poplars with seeds that are carried by the wind and “helicopter” to earth don’t travel very far from the source tree. Left to their own devices deciduous trees would have taken perhaps hundreds of thousands of years to move north to their present locations. Squirrels would help somewhat by carrying off seeds and burying them at least some distance from where they fell to earth. And, as alluded to, it’s well documented that squirrels (or birds) that cache nuts don’t relocate many of the nuts (more than half, if I remember correctly), those nuts later growing into trees. Even with the squirrel’s help, this reforestation would still be a very slow creep north.

A bird that could carry nuts and seeds perhaps half a mile, 2, 5, or even 10 miles from where they originated, and of course, later forget where they were buried or simply just not have enough time to recover them all, would quicken the process considerably. There are many studies showing that Blue Jays will and do carry vast amounts of acorns and other nuts miles from where they were gathered, to be buried and subsequently forgotten, or in which the nuts buried germinated on their own before being used as food. And, the birds don’t put all of those nuts into one hole, but spread them out over the area so there could be many trees sprouting over a relatively wide area. In one study observers witnessed a group of jays move 133,000 acorns. In another, 150,000 acorns in just under a month’s time. That’s a lot of nuts! How many of those were never dug up and eventually grew into trees?

I saw the first-of-the-season Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet on the 18th of October. I consistently see Ruby-crowned Kinglets foraging with groups of warblers.

A Hermit Thrush was seen on the 29th and was the first one of the season. This bird, and perhaps a few others, will stake out a claim at the Museum near a good source of berries and stay the winter.

If you like sorting through hundreds of warblers, the 18th and 19th of the month was the day to be at the Wetlands. Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers, and Palm Warbler, were all seen on those two days. Butter-Butts, or Yellow-rumped Warblers, arrived en masse on the 18th, making it difficult to sift through them all to pick out the other warblers in the bunch.

Yellow-rumped Warblers should be around for the duration, or at least until they’ve devoured all of the Wax Myrtle berries at the Museum (see Wax Myrtle, Explore the Wild Journal, September 1-15, 2008). While they do quite a bit of flycatching, these warblers can stay farther north than most of their fellow warblers, which for the most part, are strictly insectivorous and need to follow the season south. Besides feeding on the Wax Myrtle, you may catch a glimpse of a Yellow-rump at the bird feeders slurping suet along with one of the the local Pine Warblers.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are named for the yellow patch of feathers on their rump, just anterior of the tail (image above). Although much less colorful in their drab winter plumage, they also show a patch of yellow on each side of the breast. The yellow on the breast varies in brightness according to the age, sex and current plumage of the individual bird but there is usually al least some yellow present.

A few sparrows also showed up during the past few weeks. Chipping Sparrows arrived with the warblers on the 18th of October and a Field Sparrow was seen the following day. Several Song Sparrows were also observed. White-throated Sparrows have returned (see image), and should be with us until early May.

A male Rose-breasted Grosbeak flew in on the 18th and flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds were seen winging by overhead.

There are many young American Goldfinches about. For the past month they’ve been seen at the bird feeders and foraging among the ripening seeds, especially the Tick-seed, alongside the path in Catch the Wind. While the adult Goldfinches have molted into their drab winter plumage making them difficult to separate from the immature birds, the young finches can be differentiated by their buff, or tan-colored, wingbars.