Lights Out for Birds

Photo: Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative

Indigo Bunting, tower-killed in downtown Columbus, Ohio

Turning out skyscraper lights saves migrating songbirds

Columbus Dispatch
NATURE

Sunday September 2, 2012
Jim McCormac

More than 420 species of birds have been found in Ohio, but most aren’t permanent residents. More than 300 species show up annually; the rest are rarities with few recorded sightings. This core group of 315 or so species is of greatest conservation concern within Ohio. These are the species that breed here or depend on Ohio’s habitats as way stations on much longer journeys.

Our annual avian visitors include 125 species strictly passing through the Buckeye State. About 170 species nest here but spend the rest of the year elsewhere. By far the smallest core group of Ohio’s birds is the permanent residents. Only about 22 species are largely nonmigratory and with us year-round. This latter group includes familiar feeder birds such as the Carolina chickadee, downy woodpecker and white-breasted nuthatch.

Ohio plays host to vast numbers of migratory birds, and during spring and fall, the passage of feathered journeyers spikes into the millions. The largest group of long-haul migrants is the songbirds: flycatchers, thrushes, warblers and others. Their ranks include colorful favorites such as the Baltimore oriole, indigo bunting, scarlet tanager and rose-breasted grosbeak. The songbird species that travel through our state winter in the Caribbean, Central America and South America and breed as far north as Alaska.

If they make it.

A songbird’s journey is fraught with peril. Most species migrate at night, for several reasons. Predators such as sharp-shinned hawks aren’t active; winds are often calmer; celestial objects play a role in many species’ orientation; and nighttime passages leave the day free to forage.

One of the greatest manmade hazards to migrant birds is the proliferation of skyscrapers that rise into their flight paths. New York’s 1,454-foot-tall Empire State Building was topped out in 1931 and remained the world’s tallest building for the next 40 years. Its construction sparked a boom in high-rises, and today North America’s largest cities bristle with behemoths. In Columbus, 17 buildings exceed 300 feet — well into the flight paths of migrant songbirds.

Night-flying birds now must run a gantlet of big buildings. One of the big problems is the lights that are either left on or used to illuminate the structures. Birds are disoriented by artificial lights and tend to fly toward them and strike the building. An estimated 550 million birds die annually from building strikes. Such incidents are a major contributor to the diminishing numbers of many songbird species. To put this carnage into perspective, 550 million birds equals the entire collective populations of our 14 most common warbler species. Exact numbers aren’t known, but scores of birds perish from building strikes in Columbus each year.

The solution is simple: Turn out the lights! The Lights Out campaign began in the 1990s in Chicago and has been embraced by most managers of tall buildings there. Lights Out coordinators recommend dimming the lights during spring and fall peak migratory periods. Doing so has drastically reduced bird deaths. In Columbus, the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative and the Grange Insurance Audubon Center are spearheading Lights Out and have secured the cooperation of managers of several of Columbus’ tallest buildings. It would be great to see even more tall buildings go dim when songbirds are passing through.

To learn more about Lights Out Columbus, contact Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative coordinator Amanda Conover at 614-432-8489 or send email to LightsOutColumbus@gmail.com.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Photo: Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative

Baltimore Oriole, tower-killed in downtown Columbus, Ohio

Pipe Creek Wildlife Area: waders galore

The perimeter dike at Pipe Creek Wildlife Area separates the site's marshy impoundments from the open waters of Sandusky Bay. Click the photo to enlarge, and you'll see some of the giant rides at Cedar Point in the distance.

I found myself near Sandusky, Ohio yesterday morning, and took the opportunity to stop in at the always interesting but not heavily birded Pipe Creek Wildlife Area on the eastern edge of the city. Pipe Creek juts into what is essentially the easternmost edge of Sandusky Bay, and the much better known landmark of Cedar Point Amusement Park is just a stone's throw northwest of the wildlife area. Inveterate twitchers will recall Pipe Creek as the scene of Ohio's second Black-bellied Whistling-Duck record (read about that HERE), found by Larry Richardson almost exactly two years ago.

I was delighted to discover some superb shorebird habitat at Pipe Creek, and have marked the best impoundments on this Google Earth map. The red line is a suggested walking path for those interested in the most expedient route to the good stuff. I ended up walking the entire perimeter, heading counterclockwise, but didn't see a lot for my efforts until reaching the wetland units marked with the stickpins. The two impoundments on the easternmost side are largely grown up with marsh vegetation, but are still worth a look if you have time.

Pipe Creek does require some hoofing. You'll be in more a mile or more of walking, and you'll definitely want a scope along. But as long as the habitat remains as it currently is, the hike will be well worthwhile.

The 97-acre Pipe Creek Wildlife Area is entirely manmade; the pie-shaped wetland complex was constructed about 20 years ago as mitigation for wetlands that were destroyed elsewhere. Think what you may about wetland mitigation, but if well devised and placed properly, artificial wetlands can be very productive. Pipe Creek is an excellent example of a wetland mitigation site that has become a valuable stopover site for long distance migrant birds, and a raft of other flora and fauna.

This is the wetland marked as "2nd Best Flats" on the previous map. A lot of aquatic vegetation, such as that big bed of American lotus, Nelumbo lutea, are encroaching on the open shallows. Nonetheless, lots of shorebirds were foraging here and if you visit, you'll definitely want to scope out this unit.

Acres of mud and shallow water - manna from heaven for birders. I was thrilled to see the condition of the northwesternmost impoundment and as might be expected, it was full of birds. Shorebirds were evident everywhere, and the loudmouthed killdeer and yellowlegs vociferously announced my presence as soon as I wandered into view. Birds are coming and going constantly, and as Pipe Creek lies along the shore of Lake Erie, there will be lots of turnover among birds migrating through the region. Who knows what might pop up here in the coming weeks; maybe Ohio's second record of Red-necked Stint or something equally exciting.

While rarities are always great, these big mudflats are more important as migratory stopover and refueling sites for the regular cast of characters that have moved in large numbers through the Great Lakes since the last glacier. While I found no great rarities on this visit, I tallied plenty of common shorebirds, as follows:

Semipalmated Plover - 2
Killdeer - 55
Spotted Sandpiper - 2
Solitary Sandpiper - 4
Greater Yellowlegs  - 6
Lesser Yellowlegs - 95
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 14
Least Sandpiper - 60
Pectoral Sandpiper - 15
Stilt Sandpiper - 5
Short-billed Dowitcher - 25

The most conspicuous birds were herons. This wetland takes on a Floridian look, with all of the big white waders standing about.

Great Egrets were the most frequent of the herons; perhaps 50-60 were present. Second in terms of abundance was the Great Blue Heron; I saw maybe 30-35. Adding to the heron total was a Green Heron, and a Black-crowned Night-Heron that flushed from a tree.

This has been a boom year for Little Blue Herons in the north, and I was not surprised to find three of them at Pipe Creek, All were immature birds, such as the one above. Little Blues are white for their first year of life, and it can be easy to miss them if they hanging out in a crowd of white egrets. They especially resemble Snowy Egrets, but lack the prominent yellow feet and brighter yellow lores of that species, among other differences.

Little Blues tend to be somewhat sluggish and methodical in their hunting. A bird on the hunt in shallow water will frequently stir its foot in the substrate, spooking prey from the bottom. Animals flushed in this manner are quickly spotted and snapped up by the heron.

Twelve Snowy Egrets were present - a good number for one locale in Ohio. Even though this species is slightly larger than the Little Blue Heron, they usually appear a bit more diminutive to me. That impression may be due to the egret's habitat of keeping its neck hunched in an S-shape, and its slighter bill. Note the prominent yellow lores (skin at base of bill and around eye). The bird on the right has its foot raised, showing its striking golden "slipper". The Snowy Egrets are dwarfed by the Great Egret in the background.

Snowy Egrets tend to be hyperactive hunters, often dashing madly about and whipping their feet around in the mire. This video gives a taste of their frenetic ways, and offers a brief panorama of the Pipe Creek heron fest.

OOS Conference - be there!

The Ohio Ornithological Society's 8th annual meeting takes place September 28 - 30, and you won't want to miss it. These conferences are tops for birders, and this year's event is all the better in that it will take place at the beautiful Lakeside on the shores of Lake Erie, where the past two Midwest Birding Symposiums were held. Lakeside is an oasis for birds and birders, and as fall migration will be in full swing, you're liable to see plenty of good stuff right on the grounds. Walk out Lakeside's pier, which juts far into Lake Erie, and who knows - you might tick some mega, like a Long-tailed Jaeger. Stranger things have happened...

Of course, there'll be excellent birding in nearby exotic locales such as Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Meadowbrook Marsh, and East Harbor State Park. Expert birders will be stationed at all of these places, and whether or not your blogger fits in that category or not I'll still be manning East Harbor. I've got a long history with that place, which might be termed Magee Marsh East, and fabulous birds can turn up here. Not to mention rare plants, but we'll try to keep our eyes on the sky...

The OOS has managed to snare the legendary birder/photographer Kevin T. Karlson, and plans on shipping him all the way to Lakeside from his - and Bruce Springsteen's - home state of New Jersey. Kevin's imagery is stunning, and scores of books and publications have featured his stuff, including his newest book, Visions: Earth's Elements in Bird and Nature Photography. Kevin is an entertaining and engaging speaker, and he'll be keynoting Saturday night, in addition to offering a photography workshop.

 Photo: Wildside Nature Tours

Providing the Friday night keynote address is Lukas Padegimas, seen here addressing an Ohio Young Birders Conference. Many of us in Ohio have known Lukas since he was just a wee lad, and he has morphed into one of the Buckeye State's rising ornithological stars. He spent last summer in the wild's of Alaska's Arctic tundra, assisting with a shorebird census and gathering ecological data on declining species. He's going to tell us all about that and it's sure to be interesting.

Photo: Dr. Bernard Master

There's much more - there always is at an OOS conference - including the chance to meet your fellow birders from far and wide. And meet plenty of birds, too. Late September offers a rich blend of avian species along Lake Erie's south shore. Shorebirds, such as this artfully photographed Long-billed Dowitcher, are winging through, as are plenty of songbirds. You'll rack up a healthy list, guaranteed.

I hope to see you up at Lakeside in late September, and pass the word - the more, the merrier. For complete conference details and registration, just CLICK HERE.

More on escaped waterfowl and our whistling-duck

The other day, I posted about a Ringed Teal that turned up at the exact same place and in the same time frame as a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. The latter, if considered to be a wild bird, would be Ohio's third (fourth, in some estimations) record. I don't think anyone will try and make the case that the teal is a wild bird that arrived here from South America under its own steam.

Both of these species are kept in captivity with some frequency, and when I learned of the appearance of the teal, I made a post to the Ohio Birds Listserv about it. My post had two messages: 1) alert whistling-duck seekers to the presence of the teal and a link to its photo (most people in these parts probably aren't familiar with Ringed Teal); and 2) offer some thoughts about the possibility of the whistling-duck being an escapee (totally within bounds of listserv guidelines). Thought #2 set off one of the listserv users, who followed with a post that stated that "I believe the issue is best left with the OBRC (Ohio Bird Records Committee), and not to individuals (your blogger, presumably) guessing."

I tried to do my best to avoid "guessing" at such things during the ten years that I served on the Ohio Bird Records Committee, and when my last term expired, I was not required to turn in my magical avian divining rod that offered me mystical insights into the wildness of free-flying waterfowl. So as far as I am concerned, I - and anyone else for that matter - should be free to discuss such fare on the Ohio Birds Listserv. Even while an OBRC member, I did not subscribe to some rule that stated that only official OBRC members are free to publicly discuss records of rare birds. For that matter, there is no mandate that states that anyone has to accept an OBRC decision - I certainly disagree with a few, and that includes some records that were accepted/rejected when I was on the committee!

Part of the problem, I believe, is that birders have a predisposition to want to prove that rare birds that have the potential to be escapees are wild. I think we should always view such animals with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially if there is evidence that suggests that a captive origin is possible. In many cases, we'll probably never know with certainty, and in the final analysis, whether it is one individual "guessing" such as me, or an Ohio Bird Records Committee of nine people making the guess, there is oftentimes still an element of guesswork. Once a firm pattern of wild vagrancy becomes established, as may eventually be the case with Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks in the Upper Midwest and Ohio, issues of provenance become less critical. But in the infancy of such apparent distributional shifts, care should be taken to investigate extralimital records, especially of waterfowl species that are known to be widely kept by aviculturists.

Anyway, my Ohio Bird Listserv message about the ducks triggered a private response from someone who wrote me the following: "I think you've got it Jim. I've seen a "duck" farm on the edge of Mt. Vernon with loads of exotic birds for many years. It's on RT 3 at the north edge of town. I always look at it with fascination on my way to Wooster to the O.S.U. AG. Research Station." Further discussion with a colleague who lives near Mount Vernon revealed that there was, and may still be, a farm on the outskirts of town whose owner kept Trumpeter Swans, among other waterfowl. I am uncertain if this is the same farm as the one cited in the email quoted at the beginning of this paragraph, but if someone really wants to thoroughly investigate a record such as the Mount Vernon Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, these are the sorts of things that need to be looked into.

The above exchanges led to my discovery of something else relevant to this case:

This is a screen shot of the website of the Meyer Hatchery in Polk, Ohio, which is about a one hour drive north of the pond where the teal and whistling-duck appeared. If you can't read the captions on the photo, click it to enlarge, as with all photos on this blog. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, and Ringed Teal, both for sale.

I shot off a quick email to the Meyer people, and they responded that none of their birds are missing. But the Meyer Hatchery is a large and professional outfit; there are scores of private breeders out there who have many of the same species and are much harder to track down.

All I am saying is that caution should be exercised when evaluating supposedly wild waterfowl records, and the Mount Vernon whistling-duck sends up a few red flags, at least in my estimation. I'd like the bird to be wild as much as the next avid lister but trying to determine its true status should trump another tick on the list.

Breaking News: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck!

I just received word late this afternoon, along with the photo above, of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck that was found in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, which is in Knox County. The bird was found towards dusk on Wednesday evening, and hopefully is still in the area. Vagrant whistling-ducks do sometimes have a tendency to stick, and with luck so will this one.

Here are the directions, as provided to me: "The duck turned up in an apartment complex called The Arbors of Mount Vernon. They are on Yauger Rd., just off of 36 at the east end of town. I hope some folks can find it. As I said, we are close to the Kokosing River, and about 20 minutes south of Knox lake." A map is below:

Note the pond just south and west of the apartments, which are outlined in red. That might be a good starting point in a search for the whistling-duck.

Following is a note from the observer: "Last night [Wednesday, June 20] as I was sitting on my patio, a duck flew over the roof of the apartment, and then it landed on the roof. I had never seen a duck land on a roof. It stood very upright, had a black belly, a chestnut breast, and sent up a long sing-song cry. I immediately got my iPad to identify it. It turned out to be a black bellied whistling duck! The call on the website was identical. The duck flew away, but as I played the call, it returned and landed again on the roof, whistling a reply. I took a few pictures and a video, but it was so high that the quality is poor. I did get the call on the video though."

Here's a photo of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck that I took in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas a few years back. This species is expanding its range, and extralimital northern records are becoming more commonplace. Ohio's first record dates to 2004. That bird, which was near Cincinnati, also turned up in an a suburban apartment complex. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks can be quite "tame" and often frequent highly urbanized locales. Our second record was found by Larry Richardson in August 2010 at Pipe Creek Wildlife Area on Lake Erie.

I'm sure we'll be seeing yet more of these wonderful gooselike whistling-ducks, and good luck with the chase should you try and find this Knox County bird.

Hummingbirds: early to return, or not?

A gorgeous male Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, held by Bill Hilton. Bill caught this bird on April 28, 2010 in West Virginia at a banding demonstration for attendees of the New River Birding & Nature Festival. Its arrival in West Virginia was right on schedule. Male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds show up in this region around mid to late April, preceding the arrival of the females by eight days or so.

A friend forwarded me this map today, from the website http://hummingbirds.net/ Judging by all of the records on this map, there are plenty of contributors providing their hummingbird sightings, and the map purports to show the phenology, or timing, of hummingbird migration as the birds move north in their seasonal occupation of eastern North America.

But WAIT! I know it’s been an exceptionally warm spring, and some flora and fauna are well advanced beyond what would be the case in a “normal” year, but WOW! The map shows hummingbirds as far north as central New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin! Numerous records are sprinkled throughout the Upper Midwest, including Ohio. The map invites incredulity.

I have not heard of a single credible Ruby-throated Hummingbird report from Ohio as yet, and I try to keep my ear to the wall. The first Ruby-throats appear in the Buckeye State in the third week of April (exceptionally early records from around April 10), but they don’t become widespread and frequent until early May. That timing holds true for other states at this latitude, and it takes a bit longer for the birds to reach more northerly haunts.

While I have issues with the map above, I do want to say that the hummingbirds.net site is quite well done and does feature lots of good hummingbird information. I suspect that the records that comprise the hummingbird migration map are accepted from contributors at face value and plotted with no attempt to verify the record. I don’t want to come off as some sort of hummingbird scrooge, but extraordinary claims that contradict what it is known about the biology of a well-studied species should have solid evidence as backing.

This map is courtesy of eBird, and reflects Ruby-throated Hummingbird data that has been submitted as of today. The darker the purple, the greater the number of individuals that were reported. The eBird map shows just about what we would expect to see at this time – Ruby-throated Hummingbirds just beginning their spring infiltration of the United States, with nearly all reports from the Gulf States or lower Atlantic Coastal Plain region. Most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds winter in southern Mexico and Central America, and make the 500+ mile open water crossing of the Gulf of Mexico on their northward journey.

So why the huge disparity between the eBird map and the hummingbirds.net map (keeping in mind that eBird probably has far more contributors)? Well, Project eBird is quite diligent about reviewing data before publishing it. The project employs a small army of expert birders who vet unusual sightings – such as a mid-March hummingbird in the Upper Midwest – and if details are insufficient, the sighting does not appear in the literature. In short, eBird data is well reviewed and scientifically credible.

Documentation of the arrival of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in spring in North America, and their subsequent progression northward, has been well described over a long period of time. The hummingbirds.net map has them arriving in many places a month or more ahead of schedule. Fact, or fiction? And if the data is fiction, what could account for such a spate of misidentifications?

Birds are not normally confused with insects, but in the case of certain big sphinx moths, it happens quite frequently. This is a white-lined sphinx, Hyles lineata, which appears astonishingly hummingbirdlike. Some refer to the so-called hummingbird moths as “hummingbird mimics”, but their resemblance may actually be an example of convergent evolution.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

An amazing photo of a snowberry clearwing, Hemaris diffinis. The sphinx moths in the genus Hemaris resemble hummingbirds to an incredible degree. Many a person has been fooled by these day-flying moths, and upon seeing one, some might swear that a hummer just shot by.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This is a hummingbird clearwing, Hemaris thysbe, and it is probably the champion of hummingbird lookalikes. These moths hover before flowers, extracting nectar with their long tongues. Their wings beat so rapidly as to be just a blur, and they aren’t much smaller than a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. To top off the illusion of a hummer, Hemaris moths even produce an audible buzzing with their wings, as do the birds.

Both the hummingbird clearwing and snowberry clearwing are common, widely distributed species throughout eastern North America, as are a few other sphinx moth species that resemble hummingbirds, albeit to a lesser degree. If one of these moths buzzes by, and good looks are not had, and the observer is not all that experienced, they can and do get reported as hummingbirds.

Members of the honeysuckle family, such as this arrowwood viburnum, Viburnum dentatum, are the host plants for Hemaris hummingbird moths.

This is the caterpillar of a snowberry clearwing. The adult moths lay eggs on suitable honeysuckle family hosts, which eventually hatch these cool-looking caterpillars. The cats then feed and grow, molting through several instars before reaching maturity.

Photo: Patrick Coin

Once a hummingbird moth caterpillar is fully mature, it drops from its host plant into the leaf litter below. Ensconced in the leaves, it transforms to its pupal stage, as seen above. The Hemaris hummingbird moths pass the winter in the pupal stage, and warming spring weather triggers their transformation from this penultimate stage to the beautiful winged adults.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds should not be influenced to arrive in the United States any earlier than normal because of our unseasonably warm weather. Most of the hummers are 1,500 - 2,000 miles away – how are they going to know that it’s been balmy and spring is ahead of schedule up here? The impulse for Neotropical birds to begin migration is triggered by photoperiod - changes in daylight length - and possibly other environmental cues.

On the other hand, moth pupae overwintering in leaf litter could, and probably would, mature earlier than normal in the presence of unusually warm temperatures. Hemaris moths normally emerge in March in the southern U.S., and can be on the wing in April in the northern U.S. The well above average temperatures of late winter and early spring have likely prodded the moths to rise early from their winter slumber, and eager hummingbird seekers may be mistaking them for their wished-for feathered harbingers-of-spring.

At least that’s one theory to explain the hummingbird.net map. Another might be that most or all of those hyper-early hummingbird reports pertain to vagrant western species, such as Rufous Hummingbirds, which do have a penchant for appearing outside the windows of normal Ruby-throated Hummingbird passages. An ever-increasing number of non-Ruby-throated Hummingbirds winter in the Gulf coastal states. I can’t buy that, though – there is no precedent for a sweeping vernal invasion of scores of non-Ruby-throated hummingbirds in the eastern U.S.

Yet a third theory might be that these reports represent Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that overwintered in the southernmost U.S., as a small number of birds do. Perhaps these hummers might be compelled to begin migration earlier, as they could possibly somehow be better tuned in to climatic factors in the northern reaches of their breeding range. That would mean that they are either overriding the built-in photoperiod response that stimulates physiological changes and induces migration, or somehow the mild winter altered their brains' interpretation of the normal cues that instigate migratory behavior. As far as I know, there would be no precedent for this.

This is hummingbirds.net’s map from 2011. Everything looks just about spot-on in regards to timing, although I would question the northernmost red dots, which indicate March sightings.

We may indeed set some legitimate early records for returning Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Ohio and other northern states. The abundance of prematurely early flowering plants may speed them along their way as they advance northward from the Gulf States. But I don’t believe that we’ve had hummers up here yet, and in the absence of concrete evidence, I certainly can’t accept the map at the beginning of this blog. It seems more likely it charts the emergence of clearwing hummingbird moths than the northward sweep of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Hummingbird versus eagle

I received an interesting email from Tim Tolford yesterday. He saw that I would be at the Amish Bird Symposium in Adams County this coming Saturday, and that my talk subject is hummingbirds. So, Tim piped along a really cool photo of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that he caught and banded in 2010. This got me thinking about the tremendous diversity of avifauna, and just how tiny hummingbirds really are.

By the way, the Amish Bird Symposium is always a blast, and you may still be able to get in. CLICK HERE.

An adult Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, floats gracefully overhead. I took this photo in the winter of 2010, in Ohio. So, this is one of the tough northern eagles, and they grow bigger than the wimpy warm weather southern eagles, such as are found in Florida. And, we're going to assume she is a big fat female - girl eagles outweigh the boys by a good margin. I'm pegging her weight at the upper end of the spectrum - 15 pounds.

Contrast that beastly big bird with a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which tapes out at 3.75 inches, has a wingspan of 4.5 inches, and weighs all of 3.2 grams. It would require nearly 8.5 hummingbirds, arranged from bill to tail, to equal the body length of the eagle. Whoop-de-do. That's not a staggering factoid. The line of hummers would have to be expanded to 18 birds to bridge the eagle's wingspan - a bit more impressive but still somewhat of a yawner comparofactoid.

But wait - what about weight? This is where comparisons between these two birds get mind-boggling. You would need a pile of 2,128 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to equalize the scales, if this Bald Eagle was the counterbalance. That is a LOT of hummingbirds! Considering that Ohio's total breeding population of hummingbirds is probably about 50,000 birds, we only have enough hummingbirds in this state to make 23.5 Bald Eagles.

So, let's say you had your hands on that pile of 2,128 eagle-equaling hummingbirds, and placed them in a line, tail to bill. Then you pulled out the tape measure and paced off the row of hummingbirds. You'd have to step off 665 feet before you reached the last bird!

That skyscraper above is the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower, the tallest building in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Our string of hummingbirds, if dangled from a helicopter, would have to be held at a height 36 feet HIGHER than the 629 foot tall Rhodes Tower before the last bird would touch the ground.

Wee though they may be, we'd all be in mortal peril if these hummingbirds were the size of eagles. The little nectar-sippers are tough as nails and absolutely fearless. I have no doubt whatsoever that if a Bald Eagle rudely impinged on a hummingbird's turf, the hummer would terrorize the comparatively elephantine and sluggish raptor. And in the world of avian aeronautics, nothing holds a candle to hummingbirds in the stunt-flying department - certainly not an eagle.

It's about time we get to know the gull next door

Jim McCormac/For the Dispatch

The Columbus Dispatch
NATURE

By Jim McCormac
Sunday, February 19, 2012

Almost everyone can recognize a sea gull. The neatly patterned gray and white birds are fixtures of the seashore.

Perhaps that’s why central Ohioans are surprised to see so many of the feathered scavengers in our landlocked area. Large flocks can be found roosting in mall parking lots, wheeling over rivers and reservoirs, and grabbing rubbish at the landfill.

Probably 98 percent of central Ohio gulls are ring-billed gulls, with a smattering of larger herring gulls mixed in.

Several species can seem to be present in a flock, as some birds are brown while others are clean gray and white.

These different forms represent different ages. It takes a ring-billed gull three years to reach adulthood; a herring gull, four years. They begin life cloaked in dingy brown and each year molt into progressively tidier white and gray plumage.

Dismissing this interesting group of birds as sea gulls does them a disservice. Their family — Laridae — is large and diverse, with 36 gull species known in North America. Their ranks include some of the world’s handsomest birds, and not all are prone to Dumpster-diving.

Two of the rarest species, the ivory and Ross’s gulls, winter along Arctic pack ice, trailing polar bears and mopping up their kills. Beautiful, dainty Bonaparte’s gulls, which are common Ohio migrants, are strict sushi eaters, deftly snagging small fish from the water.

Ring-billed and herring gulls and many of the other large species are omnivores; they’ll eat almost anything. Smart and opportunistic, gulls capitalize on the offal of humans. Our rubbish and castoffs are their fortune.

As human society — and our attendant trash — has expanded, so has the gulls’ population. That’s why we see so many in central Ohio.

From the mid-1800s until the 1920s, ring-billed gulls were slaughtered in great numbers for the millinery trade. Tacky as it might seem, women’s hats were adorned with the feathers of gulls and many other birds — sometimes even the whole bird. When the practice ceased, it took awhile for gulls to rebound, but there are probably more of them than ever.

From 1960 through 1965, only one ring-billed gull was tallied on each of the annual Columbus Christmas Bird Counts. In recent years, counts have reported several thousand birds.

Hard-core bird-watchers love picking through big gull flocks, seeking rarer species. The Franklin County landfill south of town has become a hot spot. Scores of gulls converge there to feed and loaf in nearby fields. Experts have discovered much rarer species among the legions of herring and ring-billed gulls, including Arctic- nesting glaucous, Iceland and Thayer’s gulls, as well as the European lesser black-backed gull.

Ohio’s current most famous avian visitor is also a gull. Since November, a black-tailed gull has frequented Ashtabula harbor on Lake Erie. The Asian species is rare in North America and had never been found before in Ohio. A thousand or more bird-watchers have stopped by to see it, and the gull has been in newspapers and on television.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Further afield

Richard Crossley, author of the newly released The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, 505 W. Whittier St. Crossley hitchhiked about 100,000 miles while chasing birds around the globe, and he’ll have stories galore. For more information, visit: http://www.columbusaudubon.org/

White-winged Crossbills

A young White-winged Crossbill, Loxia leucoptera, poses at arm's length in an Eastern hemlock that is festooned with cones. The bird still shows the heavy blurry streaking of a juvenile.

I was up in the Toledo area last Saturday, to meet with photographer Brian Zwiebel about a project that we are collaborating on. Brian lives but 25 minutes from Woodlawn Cemetery on Central Avenue in Toledo. Woodlawn is legendary for attracting winter finches, and this year there has been a pack of up to 100 White-winged Crossbills present. We really wanted to observe and photograph the x-bills, so after our work was done, off we went.

Woodlawn's 160 acres is heavily populated with magnificent trees, including many stately cone-bearing conifers and fruit-laden alders and sweetgum. Thus, its attraction for seed-eating winter finches. By the way, this photo was taken with my Droid smart phone. The cameras in these latest generation phones are becoming insanely good, especially for landscape scenes.

We had barely stepped from the car when a couple of friendly birders wheeled up and reported the crossbills in a nearby sweetgum. A short few minute walk and we were there, and so were the crossbills. About 15 birds were plundering the spiny balls that copiously adorned a large sweetgum, which has one of the most mellifluous of botanical names: Liquidambar styraciflua.

I don't really think of sweetgum as the fruit of choice for crossbills, but there they were, digging in with gusto. A pink adult male is bottom center, and look closely and you'll see three females, or parts thereof. Two other of the spectacular adult males were present, and one young male who was beginning to develop a pinkish bloom on his breast. The remainder of the flock were adult females and juveniles.

It wasn't long before the flock erupted into flight, filling the air with harsh electric jips. Crossbills are real talkers when not busy stuffing their faces, especially when aloft. We had no problem tracking them to this large Eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis. White-winged Crossbills depend heavily upon the cones of spruce, especially white spruce, Picea glauca, when in the boreal forest. When they irrupt to more southerly latitudes, south of the range of spruce, they really go for hemlocks and their small cones. Fortunately, cemeteries are fond of planting hemlock which is one of the reasons that graveyards make good places to seek winter finches.

A female White-winged Crossbill makes mincemeat of a hemlock cone. Note how she grips it with her powerful foot, and then inserts her oddly shaped asymetrical mandibles between the cone's scales. Using the crossed upper and lower mandibles like tongs, the crossbill quickly forces open the protective scales, allowing access to the tasty seed within.

The crossbill doesn't pluck the seed with its bill - it uses its long barbed tongue for seed extrication. In this photo, the tip of the tongue can just be seen, caught in the act as the bird flicked it into the cone's interior. White-winged crossbills are incredibly adept at accessing conifer seeds, and work through cones with astonishing speed. I took hundreds of photos on this foray, and only a few images show the tongue in action.

Although the clarity of this photo would have benefited from a faster shutter speed, you can clearly see the crossbill's long pink tongue plumbing the depths of the cone's scales. This whole process - forcing the scales apart, and tongue-flicking the seed out - happens so fast that the bird's actual technique is not really visible, apart from the scale spreading.

Once crossbills are immersed in seed-eating, the flock usually falls silent and it would be quite easy to pass by a tree full of feeding birds. One give-away is the soft cracking and crunching of cone scales being fractured, and the gentle rain of cone fragments drifting to the ground.

Here's what the crossbills lust for - conifer seeds. These are the scales of a hemlock cone, and a shiny oblong-shaped seed remains at the base of the scale on the right. Conifers are part of a plant group known as Gymnosperms, which translated literally means "naked seed". Naked these fruit may be, but that doesn't mean that the conifer doesn't do a good job of protecting them within the tight woody scales of cones.

I've extracted a few hemlock seeds - much more clumsily than a crossbill, I might add - so you can see how small they are. What conifer seeds lack in size, they more than compensate for in nutritional value. They are the cashews of the boreal forest, loaded with rich fatty oils, and it makes complete sense that a group of animals would have evolved the ability to efficiently harvest conifer seeds.

And boy, can crossbills harvest seed. It is claimed that a hard-working White-winged Crossbill can pluck 3,000 seeds a day! CLICK HERE for an incredible video of crossbills feeding.

Distribution of White-winged Crossbills in North America, courtesy the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Their range mirrors that of the vast belt of conifer-dominated boreal forest that sweeps across the northern part of the continent.

Crossbills play an integral role in the ecology of the boreal forest. Their North American population is estimated to be about 20 million birds. While a single bird is claimed to be able to harvest 3,000 seeds a day, let's be more conservative and knock that back to 1,000 seeds daily. If I did my math correctly, that equates to the entire North American White-winged Crossbill population consuming something on the order of 20 BILLION seeds daily! That's hard to fathom, and even if one were to quibble about the numbers, the fact remains that crossbills consume an enormous number of conifer seeds.

Not all of those bony little fruit get digested. Some of them are sure to pass through the crossbill intact, and possibly even scarified and ready for germination after exposure to digestive compounds. Thus, the crossbills serve as a giant army of feathered Johnny Appleseeds, spreading fir, hemlock, spruce and other conifers about the Great White North. When one considers the youthfulness of the boreal forest - this region was under a mile of ice only ten thousand +- years ago - it stands to reason that crossbills played an enormous role in reforestation of the boreal following the withdrawal of the ice sheets.

Crossbills are a blast to watch. Brian and I spent several hours watching the Woodlawn flock, and ended up overstaying our welcome. We arrived at the gates to find they had already been locked, and we had to phone the very nice security officer to release us.

As few if any people inhabitat much of the remote boreal forests where crossbills breed, the birds do not seem to acknowledge humans as a threat. It is easy to quietly sidle up to within a few feet of a feeding bird. As long as you don't do anything suddenly or loudly, the crossbill will utterly ignore you and continue about its business. To me, they suggest little parrots. Just like many of the Psittacids, crossbills use their feet to hold food, and of course their crossed bills are like Swiss army knives and vital to the extraction of food, just as with parrots. Another endearing parrotlike habit of crossbills is their tendency to pull themselves about with their bill.

A White-winged Crossbill makes for a heck of a "spark bird", and perhaps that's the case here. A number of other birders were in the cemetery admiring the crossbills, including this young man, Nathan. He is pointing at a crossbill that is only about three feet from his outstretched finger, and it looks like the bird made an impression.

These White-winged Crossbills have been present in Woodlawn Cemetery for a month or so, and may persist for a few more weeks. The cone crop is quite luxuriant in the cemetery so there is still plenty of food. Also, it appeared as if much of the remaining untouched cones are near the ground - low-hanging fruit, if you will - and that means your chances of seeing the birds up close and personal is good.

Wildlife Diversity Conference - March 7!

Wednesday, March 7th marks the date of the 28th annual Wildlife Diversity Conference, and you won't want to miss it. This conference started in a small way, with 40 enthusiasts coming together to learn more about Ohio's wild critters. Last year, there were nearly 1,000 attendees. Sponsored by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the Wildlife Diversity Conference brings together not only a diversity of natural history topics that are presented by leading experts, but the event attracts a great blend of people who share an interest in the natural world. The array of vendors and displays is staggering, and worth the price of admission alone. You'll depart with a bagful of cool free swag.

The conference always has a theme, and this year it is "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (with apologies to Senor Eastwood). Subjects this year include freshwater mussels, earthworms, the results of a landmark two-year Lake Erie aerial waterbird survey, crayfish, wetland restoration, and three of my favorite mammals: fisher, beaver and porcupine.

As an added bonus, the brand spanking new 2012 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp (OWLS) will be on sale. It features an image of one of our coolest amphibians, the spotted salamander. Some of you who read this blog will be familiar with the photographer whose stunning photo is depicted on the stamp: Nina Harfmann. I happen to know that Nina will be in the house that day, and you should stop by her table and meet her. Read more about the OWLS stamp HERE.

The conference venue is the capacious and easily accessed Aladdin Shrine Center on Columbus' northeast side. For complete conference information and registration, CLICK HERE. Hope to see you there!

Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve opens!

The 88 wedge-shaped acres that comprise Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve juts into Lake Erie, just east of downtown Cleveland. Although the site is entirely artificial - created originally as a dredge spoil impoundment - it has morphed into a fabulous refugia for wildlife. I've spent many an hour on that peninsula, and have seen many an interesting bird there. Back in the day, when we knew the place as "Gordon Park", and it was still muddy unconsolidated spoil, CLNP was a magnet for shorebirds. I saw my first Ohio Piping Plover there, and Ohio's first state record Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, way back in 1984.

For many years, Cleveland conservationists have labored tirelessly to see this all too rare chunk of lakefront habitat protected for birds and nature. They've finally won the battle, with the official opening of CLNP to the public yesterday. Read the Cleveland Plain Dealer article about the grand opening HERE.

An Ohio Ornithological Society field trip into the wilds of the CLNP back in October 2010. We saw lots of birds, including hundreds of sparrows of many species. This site is a fabled migratory stopover site for the little brown jobs, including rare Le Conte's and Nelson's sparrows. I once saw, by my estimation, some 500 White-crowned Sparrows drop into CLNP at dawn's first light a few years back, the birds having just made the southbound Lake Erie crossing. Until yesterday, accessing CLNP was a bit of a hassle and required advance permission. No more; interested birders can just show up and have at it.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in the protection of the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve!

Barred Owl

Photo: Gary Meszaros

I've got a wealth of photos and subjects to share - that's nearly always the case - but couldn't resist promptly posting this wonderful photo of a Barred Owl, Strix varia. The bird was imaged by master nature photographer Gary Meszaros near Cleveland. Barred Owls are faring well in much of Ohio, the beneficiaries of an overall maturation of Ohio's forests. Even well treed neighborhoods often have their complement of these fabulous hooters, and people often are curious about them, especially when they hear the unearthly squalls and hoots that a talkative owl can produce.

As said famed bird researcher Arthur Cleveland Bent: "The antiphonal hootings of a pair of these owls, heard at any time of the day or night, will hold the hearer spellbound; when heard close at hand at night, they are fairly startling, as if a pair of demons were fighting".

Demons battling in the backyard are sure to arouse the curiosity of the average suburbanite :-) Thanks to Gary for sharing his work.

Merlin becomes TV star!

Ben Gelber, NBC4 meteorologist (L) and Buzz the camera man bask in the presence of a very extroverted female Merlin in Columbus, Ohio's Green Lawn Cemetery. The bird is perched in the gnarled boughs of a Kentucky coffee tree, only 30 feet above Buzz's camera.

NBC4 and Ben are great about airing short natural history segments, and I've worked with Ben on several of these episodes. After our last shoot, I suggested going after this Merlin and seeing if we could manage any footage of her. Ounce for ounce, this particular Merlin must be one of the world's most fearless birds. She's been in residence at Green Lawn all winter, and has been seen by hundreds of people. You can walk right under her perch, and she'll not even bother to give you a glance.

We managed to work some other sights into the shoot, including this massive bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa. About 90% of all of Ohio's native trees can be found in Green Lawn, which is also considered an arboretum. This oak is my favorite of all of the giant trees in the cemetery, of which there are many. It's got a gargantuan pillar of a trunk, and anastomoses into an elegant snarl of branches that form a canopy the size of a large building. Green Lawn was founded in 1848; this tree is considerably older.

Gelber provides a size scale to the monstrous bur oak.

But back to our primary quarry, the Merlin, seen here giving your blogger a haughty stare. When Ben, Buzz and I arrived at the scene, no Merlins were in evidence (as many as three - one female and two males - frequent the cemetery). They have a favored section of the cemetery, and more often than not can be found loafing on conspicuous treetop snags. Of course, when you really want 'em, they're nowhere to be found. So we launched into another story, but I was quite disappointed that we couldn't produce one of the exciting little falcons.

I was in mid-sentence, bloviating about something, when I saw the Merlin torpedoing through the trees. Yes! She shot to the top of her lofty sycamore snag, and Buzz whipped the camera around and locked her in. Beautiful, now we had our story and the subject was cooperating, albeit at a distance.

To our astonishment, Mrs. Merlin suddenly dropped from her perch and came sailing right at us. As if in slow motion, she flutter-glided a mere 20 feet over our heads, and swooped up onto a branch only 30 feet away. She was clearly checking us out; I could see her cocking her head sideways to better scope us out as she soared overhead. Once on the branch, she cast a few more disdainful looks our way, then set about grooming herself. This was just too cool - FAR better than I could have hoped for! Buzz got some great footage of her in flight, and once she was perched on the nearby branch he was frame-filling her.

Our fearless little Prima Donna poses for the camera. She was still there when we left. It may be that she is an attention-hound, saw the camera and the newsman, and knew a limelight opportunity when she saw one. More likely, she is starting to feel territorial. Merlins have overwintered in Green Lawn Cemetery for about five years now, and for the last two or three winters there has also been an adult male present. I think it's just a matter of time before they nest in the cemetery, and this girl may have been a bit feistier than normal because she is plotting out a household somewhere nearby.

John Pogacnik documented the first modern nesting of Merlin in Ohio in 2009, in Lake County. The following year, Danielle McCament found a nest in the middle of the city of Mt. Vernon, in Knox County. I think Green Lawn will soon be added to the registry of Merlin nesting sites.

If you'd like to read a bit more about these interesting little falcons, HERE is a brief general interest article I wrote about them a few years back. For today's NBC4 video of today's Merlin adventure, CLICK HERE.

Thanks to Ben Gelber and NBC4 for their efforts to bring natural history to a wide audience. And major props to this Diva of a falconiform. I hope her TV appearance nets some new nature enthusiasts.