Bird Call

Wild Turkey

It’s turkey season. Family and football. For most of us.

For some it means a hunting trip. All you need is a gun, a license, some camouflage, a turkey call and a lot of patience. And of course some skill.

But don’t start counting you giblets just yet. Wild turkeys are cagey. They know it’s hunting season too. It’s hard to get close.

Except during hunting season.

I know that doesn’t make sense at first. But think like a turkey here. If someone was waiting for you at your favorite hangout with a shotgun you might want to find a new hangout. And so they do.

Front yards. Patios. Parks. Driveways. Schoolyards. Any place off limits to hunters.

I told you they were cagey.        

But if you really want to bag Thanksgiving dinner yourself this year you can save a lot of trouble and money with a bag of chicken feed. I’m not suggesting you poach one. No, no, no.

Here’s the plan. First spread the feed around your property well in advance of the season. Attract as many Turkeys as you can. The more the better. Pretty soon they’ll be making a real mess of the place. The state is so overpopulated with turkeys it happens quite a bit. And Fish and Game isn’t sympathetic to this behavior.

Then sure enough, pretty soon one will go too far and chase your kid up a tree?

Now you’ve got him!

Go get a predation permit which allows you to get rid of nuisance animals. All perfectly legal. (I think.)

That’s it. Easy as pumpkin pie.

And sure beats having to thaw one in the fridge for three days. : )

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Tropical Kingbird

 

I had a tough time with this one. It looks so much like the other kingbirds. I went back and forth--back and forth. Yes the beak was a little bigger. The yellow went up a little further. The tail wasn’t quite as square. Still tough.

 

I thought it was a Tropical Kingbird. But I still wanted to see the photos.

So I spent a ridiculous amount of time poring over them. I looked

at them from every possible point of view. And?

After further review, the call stands.

 

Note: a little birdie told me that the haboob video imbed didn't work last time. It is worth seeing so try this link. Haboob.

 

Of Birds and Haboobs

Do birds get lost?

Sure.

What causes it?

Well it turns out some just have a poor sense of direction. Really.

Sometimes it’s inexperience. Take this young bird.

Very unusual. Hatched in Arizona he should have migrated to the tropics with the other locals. But maybe he didn’t know the way back to paradise yet and got on the wrong bus.

Weather?

A storm could have pushed him off course. Happens all the time. He probabably got so tired fighting it he had to find a place for the night. Likely the first one he saw. When he woke up he found himself in a strange place.

California :)

Then there’s one extra thing Arizona birds have to deal with.

Haboobs.

Giant dust clouds.

If he got caught up in one of those he was swirled around in all directions. Meanwhile the whole thing was moving like The Blob across the desert--dust so thick he couldn’t see out.

So think about it. He was turned around in circles, essentially blindfolded and dropped off somewhere pointing away from the piñata. He could be forgiven for flying off in the wrong direction.

So he followed the food (read agriculture) to the Imperial Valley then over the mountains to San Diego. It was time to migrate. He knew he was supposed to be going somewhere. But when he saw the ocean he thought to himself, “waaait a minute. This doesn’t look right.”

So he stopped. And having no idea where he was he stayed.

And that my friends is how such an unusual bird came to spend the winter in San Diego.

Hey!

It could happen.

 

Don't believe in Haboobs? check out the YouTube vid below.

 

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Northern Cardinal

Bird-nerd-word of the day: Lift

Lift.

 Everyone knows that’s what keeps birds in the air. (And planes.)  Right? And we’ve all seen the thing that shows how air flows faster over a wing than under.

That makes it thinner. So less pressure=lift.  Right?  

Well….

Nothing’s ever that simple is it? If we depended on that to get us off the ground?  Our skinny seats would stay on the tarmac. And birds would be hitchhiking.

Actually….

You might be surprised to know it’s so complicated there’s a big controversy over it. With several different explanations.  What that means is experts--physicists, pilots, engineers-- aren’t exactly sure how it works.  Hmmm.

But before you cancel your trip to grandma’s for Thanksgiving remember they do stay up there. How? Engineers might not be able to agree on an explanation, but the math works.

Too bad we can’t ask birds how they do it. But we can ask someone who knows the secret.  Flight attendants.

They know what birds know.  So what keeps planes and birds flying?

Lots of hard work. : )

Pink-footed Shearwater

Boring Fact: Of the half dozen or more explanations of how wings work most involve some combination of lift (though much more complicated than the picture) and a downwash of air. Lots of air. Tons of air per second for planes. The more air that goes down, as Newton told us, the more the plane goes up. Same for birds. : )

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How to Hang With Dad

Birds survive by finding their feeding niche. One wading bird might have a long curved beak. Another a short straight one. Different depths in the sand… different food. It keeps them from getting cranky with each other.  Mostly.

This one has found an unusual niche.  And is not afraid to stick his nose in it.

He roots around under seaweed. Turns small stones over. Digs in the sand. For food other birds missed. This starts very young. On the tundra

Mom and dad both build a nest there and share hatching duty. Then both help around the house for a couple of weeks. But after that the female skedaddles and leaves him in charge.

Since he doesn’t cook any better than most dads, the fledglings are pretty much on their own when it comes to finding food. They learn to look under rocks and leaves. That doesn’t leave much for dad to do. So he watches for predators and just hangs out till they learn to fly. It works out.

Very like Sunday afternoons. When dad’s got the kids? They all eat anything they want.  He watches football. Everybody’s happy.  : )

Distinguishing Marks: In summer black above white below. Some white on the face and a few speckles on the breast. In winter loses the white and turns brown on top.

What is it? Hover to find out.

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