Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Tuesday's View



apple
aquamarine
beryl
blue-green
chartreuse
fir
forest
grass
greenish-blue
jade
kelly
lime
malachite
moss
olive
pea
peacock
pine
sage
sap
sea
spinach
verdigris
viridian
willow 

... there are not enough crayons to color summer


Friday, May 25, 2012

Bird Populations Change with the Landscape


Bird populations have been changing over the past couple hundred years. That’s what Kevin McGowan says, and he should know. He co-edited the latest Bird Breeding Atlas for NY.

Last month he reflected on historic changes in bird populations. There’s about 200 years of recorded bird history in New York, beginning with JJ Audubon (1834) and continuing to present day. One of the things that McGowan found, looking through that history, is that the landscape has a big impact on bird populations. As the forests return, grassland species are declining.

The Loggerhead Shrike, which was already rare when they collected data for the first Atlas 20 years ago, is no longer breeding in the state. That could be due to loss of agricultural lands or it could be due to collisions with vehicles and, perhaps, the accumulation of pesticides from insects they eat.

Upland sandpipers, grasshopper sparrows and northern bobwhites have declines as well, but the biggest decline has been the Henslow sparrow. It likes grassy areas, says McGowan, and now it’s nearly gone from the state.

As the forests move in birders are seeing more juncos, ravens, turkey, tufted titmice and red-bellied woodpeckers. The folks counting birds for the Atlas also noticed an expansion of breeding pairs of Merlins. The small falcon has established populations both in the wilds of the Adirondacks and in urban areas – including Ithaca, NY.  These birds are very noisy when nesting; the screams they make can be heard a long distance away.

Climate change could be contributing to range expansion, but it’s not as simple as saying that bird populations are moving northward as the earth warms. Because, McGowan says, some northern species seem to be moving south – at least in NY.

Scientists need some help. If you love to watch birds, keep a journal. Note the birds you see in your neighborhood – when they arrive, when they head south, and those that stick around all year. Join in on bird counts and other citizen science activities. And share your data with scientists. Check out what else is happening in science over at STEM Friday.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Friday, May 18, 2012

Making Your Yard Bird Friendly

Tired of mowing the lawn? Let the grass grow a bit taller this year – and if the neighbors say something, tell them you’re creating a “bird friendly” yard. Taller grass means more bug habitat – bugs that provide nutritious meals for baby birds. Of course, that means that you’ve got to quit spraying insecticides, but they’re not healthy for you or the birds.

You can also plant some flowers for the birds. The bees and butterflies will sip nectar and collect pollen all summer, but come fall the birds will snack on the seeds. Here are some flowers that provide birdseed in the fall:
  •  Bee balm (Monarda)
  • Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
  • Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta):
  • Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
  • Lavender (Lavendula)
  • Sunflowers (Helianthus)  
Leave the dead flowers standing. You might think that a garden or dried up plants is ugly, but the nuthatches, titmice, and chickadees scouring the branches for insect and spider eggs will love it. So will cardinals and goldfinches harvesting seeds from the plants.

Check out what else is happening on STEM Friday.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Another Good Book: Bird Talk

Bird Talk: What Birds are Saying and Why
Written and illustrated by Lita Judge
48 pages, ages 6 -9
Flash Point/Roaring Brook 2012

Spring is noisy: the days open with a symphony of bird calls. Who are these raucous neighbors and what are they singing about? If you want to know what those chirp, warbles, quacks, coos, rattles and screeches mean, then ask Lita.

Lita Judge grew up with birds on her brain: she spent early mornings in the marshes watching hawks; she raised orphan birds; and she recorded birdsongs in order to learn their calls. In Bird Talk, Judge plays the role of avian-to-human translator. She shows how birds sing to attract mates, proclaim their territory and call their chicks.

Some birds strut their stuff, banging and booming to let others know they’re in the neighborhood. Others dance, leaping and bowing in an elegant ballet. Chicks peep to alert mama that they’re ready to come out of their eggs. And not all birds are born knowing the family song; some youngsters learn to sing by listening to their parents.

I managed to catch Lita during a free moment between projects for a quick interview. Clearly, this book is the culmination of a lifetime of observing and sketching birds. But once she decided on this project, it took her three years. Of course, she was working on another project as well.

“I worked back and forth a lot, researching and drawing one bird and then the next,” says Judge. “My goal was to create an overview of several different kinds of communication behaviors and give readers a better understanding and respect for the complexity and beauty of bird communication.”

Lita gets eye-to-eye with a crow
Judge grew up surrounded by birds – her grandparents were ornithologists and her parents photographed wildlife. As a kid, Judge recorded songbirds. It wasn’t fancy equipment – just a clunky cassette recorder. “But what I lacked in equipment I made up for in patience,” she says. “I learned how to be very still and get very close, and on a calm day was able to capture some pretty wonderful sounds.” Some of her favorite tapes were recorded in a marsh. “Picture a happy kid wading about the marsh from the inside of a big inner tube, camouflaged under a tipi of marsh reeds. I was devoured by mosquitoes and black flies,” says Judge, “but I can still hear the trill of Yellow-winged Blackbirds and Marsh Wrens in my ears.”

 One of the things Judge mentions in her book is that Robins have hundreds of songs. Really?

“Yes,” says Judge. “Male robins use a combination of simple whistle ‘caroling’ phrases and more complex high-pitched ‘hisselly’ phrases to create a seemingly endless variety of calls.” She references Don Kroodsma’s book (The Singing Life of Birds) and reveals that the best time to hear these songs is at dawn and dusk, when male robins sing long combinations of the ‘carol’ and ‘hissely’ phrases together.

Judge refers to her illustrations as loose sketches and watercolor washes. “I focused more on the gesture of the bird rather than the exact feather pattern and scientific detail,” she said. “For this book I thought capturing the body language of the birds was essential. How a bird lifts its head, places its body, leans toward its mate is just as important as the sound of the call.” And after all those years in the field, Judge has noticed that often her rough, quick sketches capture the nature of a bird much better than a detail drawing .

So what words of advice does Judge have for young artists and naturalists?

“Be patient and enjoy! Learn how to be sit still and quiet in the woods – you will see so much more. When you walk and talk and do other activities the birds often stay at a distance and their behavior is interrupted. If you sit quietly under a tree, they’ll come back and start going about their business.

“Watch one bird over a long time and you will start to notice behaviors you’ve never seen before. And draw what you see in a journal. Also try following where a bird goes when he flies and you might find where it’s nesting – but don’t go too close to the nest. You don’t want to disturb the babies or leave your scent nearby which might bring a predator close. Instead, wait for the baby birds to fledge and leave the nest.

“And listen to the different calls they make. My favorite sound of all is the sound a baby bird makes when being fed. It’s kind of an overexcited gagging kind of call that will alert you instantly to the presence of a baby bird nearby once you hear it.”

Judge is busy working on a new project, but she still has time to watch the birds in her back yard. A couple weeks ago the phoebes started building a nest in her woodshed. What’s going on with the birds in your backyard?

Check out other science and math book reviews and kid-oriented STEM resources at STEM Friday. And make sure to drop by Nonfiction Monday too. Book provided by the publisher.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Tuesday's View


Phoebe calls the morning
singing the same two notes again
and again until at last
the sun awakes

Friday, May 4, 2012

Checking out Bird Nests

This is a good time for a walk around the neighborhood, to check on which birds have returned and are busy building nests. Our phoebes have returned and are cleaning up their old digs, and I see other birds flying off with bits of grass grasped tightly in their beaks.

Birds like messy yards… places with tall grass, brush piles and shrubs to hide in. Our forsythia is a favorite place for nest-builders. The birds use all sorts of things as construction materials: dried grass, twigs, pine needles, leaves, lichens, tufts of fur – even strips of foil and pieces of plastic bags.

Gather some nesting materials and build your own nest. When you're done, test it out by putting some chicken eggs inside. Then go check out who is nesting in your back yard - and what they are using to build their nests.

Check out what's happening at STEM Friday.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012