At their January Board meeting, the agency I work for, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB), awarded a bunch of money to an organization that has been doing tons of bird and climate research and conservation work for decades. That organization is Point Blue Conservation Science (PBCS).
In the name of full disclosure, I have volunteered for PBCS for many, many years, and I have written about that work on this blog many, many times (for example here, here, here, and here). However, I was not involved in the review, selection, or approval of the funding from WCB.
These funds will be used to launch a whole bunch of different projects to restore meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and also to support community-based ecosystem restoration on working lands, statewide. Read more about how PBCS plans to use these funds from their blog post!
This is a photo of Lower Perazzo Meadow which is an example of the type of habitat the funding from WCB to PBCS will be used to restore. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.
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Rain falling outside my window. Photo by Aaron N.K. Haiman
I few days ago, my daughter and I were standing in our backyard when it rather suddenly started to rain!
The rain was not a tremendous downpour, so we decided to stay out and enjoy the weather. And it turned out we were not the only ones to make that choice.
I was somewhat surprised to see a Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) fly out of cover and up to the top of one of the trees near our yard. The reason form y surprise is that, most of the time, birds tend to seek shelter during wet weather. Exposure to wet weather generally means wet feathers, and wet feathers are cold making it harder for a bird to stay warm. A wet and cold bird then has to use more energy to maintain its internal body temperature, which means it will run out of energy faster. This in turn means that the bird will need to go out and find more food which is time-consuming, uses energy as well, and may expose a bird to predators. So, staying dry and warm seems like a good, general survival strategy.
A Northern Mockingbird fanning its tail in a similar way to the bird I watching in the rain. Photo by Aaron N.K. Haiman
However, this Northern Mockingbird had other ideas. It decided to ignore the many trees that could have provided the dense shelter of leaves or needles, and instead specifically choose a high and exposed branch with no leaves or shelter of any kind. In the rain, it started fanning its tail out and spreading its wings to catch the drops for a rain bath. It was wonderful to watch this bird enjoy the rainfall. And, as if to illustrate how much the bird really was enjoying its shower, it started singing! A bird singing in the rain!
This drove home a point that has been driven home for me many times, but still sometimes surprises me, and the point is this. Many birds are so well adapted to their environments that they often don’t need to guard and horde their energy reserves so jealously. They have the energy reserves to spend on getting a bit extra cold if it means getting some feather maintenance done. This birds was confident enough that it would be able to get warm, and get food, that it did not have to worry about the rain. It was even willing to get a bit extra wet and cold by taking some extra time to sing in the shower.
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About a year ago, we had a bit of an invasion in our yard. Rats, in ever growing numbers, were eating the birdseed from the feeders in our backyard (and also eating just about everything else they could find). So, to make the area less hospitable, we decided to take down the bird feeders and so remove the birdseed as a food source. Let me me tell you, I really missed having birds frequenting the yard to eat!
But it worked! We removed all the food sources we could find and trapped the rats like crazy for quite a while, and we have not seen a rat in a couple of months. So we, tentatively, refilled the bird feeders and rehung them in the yard.
Once the feeders were rehung, I was curious to see how long it would take for them to be rediscovered, and which species would be the first to notice and take advantage of this food source. For the first two days the feeders went ignored, but on the third day a flash of feathers dropped onto the pole that the feeders hang from.
It was an Oak Titmouse!
Oak Titmouse (Photo by Aaron N.K. Haiman)
The titmouse looked the feeders over from its perch on the top of the pole, and then flew off without dropping down to actually take a seed; its exit just and sudden and purposeful as its arrival. Just a few minutes later the flash of feathers appeared again, and once again there was an Oak Titmouse on the top of the pole. This time the titmouse did drop down to one of the feeders, grabbed a sunflower seed, and rapidly departed. A few minutes after that, the flash of feathers occurred once again, and again there was a titmouse on the pole. This time, it only paused there a moment before going for a seed, and while it did so, a different flash of feathers appeared! A second Oak Titmouse joined the first on the feeder, each bird took a sunflower seed, and both flew off. The two birds, very likely a mated pair, visited the feeder numerous more times that afternoon and evening.
Watching these birds appear to drop out of nowhere so suddenly is such fun! They are so filled with character and curiosity that watching them investigate the bird feeders and the rest of the surroundings is a constant source of entertainment, and they fly in so fast and with so little warning, and then leave so abruptly, that each flight coming or going is a surprise and gives me a thrill of excitement.
The Oak Titmouse pair has continued to be frequent visitors to the feeders. They have been joined, so far, by a handful of House Finches, a California Scrub-Jay, a pair of Mourning Doves, and a pair of Lesser Goldfinches.
It is hard to put into word just how happy I am to have birds back in the yard! I just hope the rats stay away.
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Have you ever seen a v-shaped flock of geese fly overhead and wondered, why do they do that? In this video I share some information explaining this interesting behavior. I also talk about the other species that also fly in v-shaped flocks, and dispel an oft repeated myth.
If you enjoy the videos I am creating, two ways to stay informed would be to subscribe to the A Birding Naturalist channel and/or become a follower of this blog.
Eurasian Cranes (Grus grus) flying a v-formation (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
This video is from a recent visit my family and I made to Staten Island in the central Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Staten Island is a 9,200 acre reserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy specifically to provide foraging and roosting habitat for Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) and also waterfowl, shorebirds, and many other species.
If you enjoy the videos I am creating, two ways to stay informed would be to subscribe to the channel and/or follow this blog.
Sandhill Cranes (Photo courtesy of the USFWS – John Magera)
With the opening of 2021, I am excited to share the news that I am starting a new project. In addition to continuing this blog, I am launching an “A Birding Naturalist” YouTube channel!
This blog has been a really rewarding experience to write over the last eight years, and I want to continue to grow this blog and the spread and sharing of knowledge that is its core. One way that I have decided to do that is to branch out to a new platform and medium. My hope is that the YouTube channel and video format will add to the ABridingNaturalist community and provide an additional way to learn about birds, birding, and the natural world in general.
You can check out the channel here. So far, I have a small number of videos posted, but more will be coming!
I hope you enjoy the material I have, and will, post and that you subscribe to the channel and join me on this new adventure.
Special thanks to my amazing wife who is doing all the video editing and production, without whom, this project would never have gotten off the ground!
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