Bird Call

Bird-nerd-word of the day: Introduction

Sometimes, with the best of intentions, people try to establish a bird species in a new place. Sometimes it works; that's called Introduction.  Sometimes it doesn’t; that's called failure. But sometimes it works really, really well, and that's called a mess. That's what we have with these guys. True they were invited (introduced), but that didn't give them a license to make a nuisance of themselves. They've invaded. There are millions of them here. They aren't good for much and elbow out better looking birds, so we birders tend not to like them very much. Some of us get downright grumpy about it. There are states that have even tried to kill them. All of them. It didn't work.

I think we're stuck with them don't you? It's all Shakespeare's fault you know.

But more on that tomorrow. :)

  What the heck is it? Hover over text or photo to find out.

 

Bird Ballet Starring...Horned Grebe

 Horned Grebe   star of blog and YouTube. :)

Pretty fancy constuming wouldn't you say?  Those feathers look almost good enough to eat. Apparently the grebe thinks so too. Professional bird nerds don't know exactly why, but grebes eat their own feathers. Lots of them. It's a little like us biting our nails. The most popular explanation is that Grebe's gizzards don't work all that well grinding up sharp fishbones. They eat a lot of those too. So, as the story goes, the bird eats fish with sharp bones, his gizzard* won't keep up, so he eats feathers to keep from getting punched full of holes. Maybe. But didn't anyone ever think it might just be a bad habit?  :) 

*(see ventriculus.....if you want)

Click to Enlarge

 

[Want to see where you might find one of these birds? This link will take you to the way cool interactive range map at ebird.org.]

 

Bird Ballet

A couple weeks back my brother and I birded two bays in two days,and I bragged about it. As it turned out, you only got two birds from one bay (the scoter and the tern). That hardly seems fair. So I’ll make it up to you.   :)

Would one bird in two bays do?

In bay number one (Mission Bay, San Diego) we found this bird still wearing his winter outerwear. But not for long. He’s about to do a complete molt during the next two weeks. When they do that they’re grounded-- or watered in this case—because as the saying goes (which I made up): “You can’t fly without feathers.” So he’d found a nice safe place to change clothes. And change he did.

Distinguishing Marks in Winter: Dreary. Boring. Gray. White cheek and throat.  Big straight beak. Blurry white spot in front of very red eyes. (I’ve had that, have you?)

Click to see blurry mark and red eyes :)  

 

 

   Distinguishing Marks During Molt: Ugly, ugly.

  Click To Enlarge

 

 

But remember there’s still another bay…I found him again (well not the same exact bird of course) two weeks later on Chesapeake Bay. Nearly molted and ready for takeoff, this handsome version looked days away from winging off to Canada for breeding season. He let me take his picture all dressed up. :)

Distinguishing Marks: a hard-to-believe-it’s-the-same-species, fancy gold plume. Same beak though. :)

 

 Click to Enlarge

Boring Fact: He's part of a family famous for courtship rituals. They’re monogamous so before running off together they want to get to know each other a little—like whether he leaves the toilet seat up or not, so to speak.  I guess the real show is on the breeding grounds, but here’s some early courtship behavior I caught on camera.  Sad it didn’t work out for the young couple though.

 

As seen on YouTube. :) Click the YouTube symbol to Check out my new channel.

 

What the heck is it?

(Hover over link to find out.)

 

Bird-nerd-word of the day: Ventriculus

I was disappointed to find ventriculus [vin-TRICK-ya-lus] didn't mean a bird that could throw its voice. Instead it's just a fancy word for gizzard. Ventriculus, gizzard, whatever you want to call it, it's actually part of a bird's digestive system--kind of a second stomach--where it grinds up those pesky hard to digest things like clam shells. How? It rotates whatever is in there against whatever else is in there, kind of like polishing stones in a tumbler. To help the process, birds that can't leave the hard nuts or shellfish alone will sometimes snack on sand or gravel between meals.  :)

 

And just for the record, meadowlarks and terns can throw their voices. :)

DdoS Attack on Bird-Call :)

Apparently my blog host is on speaking terms again with my domain server. Maybe. The two have been having their troubles, but if you can read this, then Bird-call should be up and running again in no time.  If you have technical questions such as, "What happened?" here you go: Technical stuff

If you're still reading, thanks for staying with me.

 

A Perfect Tern

Our Olympic plunge-diver (A Perfect 10) was a Forster's Tern.  For some reason I like these little birds. I can't help it. I know some authorities say they're fiesty, but they've always been nice to me. :)

I secretly suspect experts read each others books anyway to find which facts the others think important. For example, nearly every one makes the point that the Forster's Tern is one of the few to spend the entire year in North America. ??  Big deal. So do I. :)

That may seem remarkable to them since its close cousin the Arctic Tern commutes pole to pole during migration--more than 20,000 miles down and back. Impressive. But it's a lousy plunge diver.

At least some experts have a sense of humor. WhatBird (a pretty cool site by the way if facts are what you want) says that a group of terns is called a "U" of terns.  I think they're pulling our leg, don't you? :)

[In any case here's the ebird link so you can see for yourself where Forster's Terns have been hanging out.]  

 

I got a comment from Dan last week worth passing on:

"Answer: Duck Dive.

Question: Where do old drunken ducks get a drink?"

:) Thanks for reading my blog Dan and for your nice comments.

 

 

A Perfect 10

 If you were looking forward to another duck today, I’m sorry. I realize the whole dabbler, diver, plunge-diver thing could have made you expect a plunge-diving duck next. I sympathize, but it still won’t be a duck.  :)

Ducks just don’t plunge-dive. And for good reason. Think about it: curved flat bill, plump little flotation-device-body, big webbed feet.  It  would be like you diving off a platform holding a snow shovel in front, a little rubber life preserver around your middle, wearing snow shoes.  I doubt you’d try it more than once. They don’t do it.

This  is a plunge-diver!

He's more closely related to gulls than ducks, but I’m sure he wouldn’t admit it. He’s not fond of gulls. For one thing, they’re bullies. He dives to catch fish; they chase him for it. Second he probably wouldn’t like them anyway.  Ornithologists say he doesn’t play well with other birds. He's “Hostile” to be blunt.  

But in the air he is attractive, agile, and graceful, a marvelous, sometimes beautiful flyer...

(Click photos to enlarge)

                                                               with attitude.

 

As far as skill, these birds carry a rating of so-so in the world of plunge-diving. I don’t know a thing about world class diving except that the sportscasters say it’s all about the splash.  If so, and if this was in the Olympics? I’d give it a perfect 10. :)

Distinguishing marks: red-orange bill with a black tip and black cap in summer. In winter, black bill; black spot on eye; looks like he's balding. :)

What the heck is it? (Click to enlarge) 


Boring Fact: plunge-diving birds don't have to run on the water to take off like divers, nor do they burst up from the surface like dabblers. Instead, they appear to fly out of the water, give a little shake like a dog, and off they go.

Bird-nerd-words of the day: Plunge Dive

First we had dabblers, then divers. Now come the Xtreme-divers. Some birds execute what is called a Plunge Dive. They rocket free style into the water from 30 or more feet.  If they're lucky, they nab a fish.  If not, they spear the shallow end of San Diego Bay. : )

The Big Weekend that wasn't really big...Surf Scoter

The Duck is a Surf Scoter [rhymes with Voter].

Sometimes Surf Scoters like quiet water, but you usually see them in the surf earning their dinner: looking like they're playing they wait until the last possible second before scooting under the waves so they don't get clobbered. This maneuver--known as duck-diving and described in detail below--has become widely popular among surfers. :) 

Our birds, as you know, were on the bay.  While they can't play in the surf there, it does make a perfect runway for taking off, and that takes them a good long time, wings humming, feet pattering across the water, to get airborne. :)

Listen: Wings at Takeoff

 

 

 

 

The Big Weekend that wasn’t really that big but fun anyway

A couple of weeks ago my brother trekked to the west coast for some makeup birding. "The Big Weekend" we had planned for March turned out to be no match for the "The Big Rain," so he brought his pontoon boat and a navigational map to San Diego waters.  We hit it hard. Two days—two bays. :)

Wondering what a pontoon boat looks like?

Actually the birding turned out so-so, but we accomplished one very big goal.  We didn’t run aground in San Diego Bay! Landlubber that I am, I never realized the whole south half of San Diego Harbor is one big wading pool with a few (and I mean a few) channels cut in for boats. There’s a big one for the navy and a couple small ones for sailboats, but the rest of it, a good third of the bay, is waist deep, or less.  All I have to say is: If you ever visit the south bay of San Diego harbor, don’t expect to dock your dinghy in Imperial Beach unless you can run in a foot of water.  

We tried.  (That’s where the birds were of course.) :)

My job was to sit at the front of the boat (probably to keep me out of the way), and watch the pontoons skim inches above the bottom.  Meanwhile, my brother and the depth finder had a private conversation about the contours below. Long story short, we did just fine. I should have guessed. My brother (I say this proudly) is one of those people who, whenever people want to do something really hard? They invite him.  And even if we had stuck in the sand, we always could've hopped out and walked. :)

Back to birds. For his efforts my brother did get a life bird.  In fact thousands. Too many to count. Unfortunately they were all the same species. But they were everywhere. My guess is the harbor was a staging area for migration. Where did I learn that? I saw Duckumentary (I'm not making that up.)   :)

So, Ta Da!  We managed to bring one home.

Just kidding. :)

Now, Ta Da!

Click to enlarge

He’s not a dabbler.  He isn’t a diver either though he dives.  The field guides call him a sea duck.

Distinguishing marks: The male? goodness gracious what a beak! The female? A little tougher. Two white markings on her face.  Browny-black.

Here is his significant other:

Click to enlarge

Boring fact: these ducks don’t have much to say.  When they do, their wings usually do the talking. They make a rapid squeaky noise. (Tune in next time to hear it). :)

 

 

What the heck is it?