Welcoming the New Year

Last year put us through the wringer in just about every way you can imagine: we're thankful that 2013 is behind us! The year did wrap up with a bit of a media flurry, however, and everything just hit at once: NPR beat the Wall Street Journal by one day (Jan 2 and 3), and the Cenizo Journal has just gone to press. Not bad for the first week of 2014, eh?

As in all things media, KRTS/NPR's Nature Notes started out loosely based around the "feathers" topic, and ended up re-written entirely a few times before being re-written again after submission. But, hey, my mom was really excited about it, and that's what counts! This makes a cumulative three instances in which Matt and I have ended up on KRTS in the name of birds/nature.
Click here to hear about feathers on KRTS. (Brown creeper context here.)

The Wall Street Journal piece was incredibly thorough: more than a dozen birders were interviewed at length and the results were comprehensive as well as... a bit strange. I spent a lot of time griping about how casual playback during a drought is irresponsible and could cost the birds their lives (no, really, there are a TON of dead bird posts from 2011 on this blog) so that wasn't really directly related to the Brown Thrasher anecdote. While Matt was not quoted, he was interviewed and contributed context.
Nonetheless, check it out: Birders Use Smartphones to Play Bird Songs.

Next up: we'll keep y'all posted as we hear more from the Cenizo Journal. It's a bit of a double-feature, weighing Aplomado Falcons and Great Horned Owls in the region!

(Our last print mention was in August 2012, in Texas Monthly. Keep scrolling, we're down there in the "Bookmark" section!)

Birding requires bins, boots, and a book. Camera optional. Actually, all of that is optional. Just get out there and enjoy nature with respect. We'll see you on the trails!

August - it's not quiet here!

Much to my surprise, the blog has been pretty quiet for August. A closer look reveals that we've been up to our ears in interesting stuff in the meantime! *

August 11th surfaced with a really lovely blog post by the Kaufman team; Kenn and Kim have such an eloquent way of describing the region and their time here... ah, we may be biased but it's still a great honor!

So, a few of the birds definitely present around town this month, starting with heard-only, flyover Upland Sandpipers on a daily basis...

August 11th:
1 Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus
Cuckoo with dark bill, buffy chin, white breast/belly, buffy vent, slaty crown/nape, rusty brown back/wings, under tail was uniform buffy gray ALL OVER, save very, very fine white edging on the tips of the tailfeathers. (no photos, gah!)

August 12:
Black-throated Green Warbler (Gage Hotel)
Dickcissel (Gage Hotel)

August 13:
Painted Bunting (yard)
Yellow Warbler (yard)
Zone-tailed Hawk (yard)
Peregrine Falcon  (Post Park)

August 15:
Swainson's Hawk - dark morph (ok, just a few miles south of Imperial, but still in the Trans-Pecos and a slight chance that it's the bird that was on Post Road earlier in the year!)

August 16:
Canyon Wren - possibly the same bird that had been around in early August (starting 30 July - yard)

August 17:
Orange-crowned Warbler (yard)

*  ...and, unfortunately, things will likely be quiet for a while still, due to a last minute CA bird survey gig for Matt. But it's not for lack of good local birding!

Also, during the month, some 'new' blog posts have been added to the archives - crossposted from our informal blog, Seetrail, things relevant to the scope of this blog have been introduced. Things like videos! Aplomado Falcons! Things that deserve more than one exclamation mark! Right now only the July 2010 archives are fully up to date, but we'll be adding more over time; this blog didn't exist in its current form until October of 2010, so there's still a bit to add.

Aplomado Falcons vs. Northern Harrier

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Finally, the video you've all been waiting for (even if you didn't know it!) ...three Aplomado Falcons chasing a young Northern Harrier. This is from September 4th around 7 pm. The drama lasted for a few minutes and the harrier was escorted out of the Aplo territory. I suggest having your volume all the way up to hear the little fellows.

[someday, there will be a video here]

Shadowboxing mantis footage might take a while ;-)

A quick personal update:
Yes, we really are moving to Marathon officially. This update is from Waco, because the internet here is amazing. We'll be on the road this weekend (so be extra nice to folks with U-Haul trailers!) and then it's back to making the house livable. One more coat of paint in the living room and two on the trim should do the trick. The kitchen is another story entirely though!




Edit: See? The video DOES exist!

falcon finale

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Things have been busy lately between cleaning two houses and packing! So for the silence, we offer our apologies. It is at least with good news that we wrap up our ~2 months with Aplomado Falcons.

10 September - 93 showed up for dinner carrying his own small, unidentified snack.

8 September - 16, 95, H7, 93... two birds from Group I, two from Group III. 95 had been gone since 1 September, so it was a surprise to see him again.

Here are the final numbers for our groups - since most birds were at or just under 40 days when released, you can base "Age Last Seen" on that. Good news: pretty much anything over 61 days, in this case, counts as successful.

Group I - Released 10 July
Name / Sex Date Last Seen Age Last Seen
Green K8 / F 17 August 77 days
Red OK / M 28 August 89 days
Green 16 / M 8 September 99 days
Red 59 / M 11 July 40 days
Green 95 / M 8 September 98 days
Red 78 / M 11 July 40 days
Green 58 / M 30 August 90 days

Group II - Released 11 July
Name / Sex Date Last Seen Age When Last Seen
Red OP / M 11 July 40 days
Green K6 / F 24 July 56 days
Red C2 / F 13 August 71 days
Green 66 / M 15 July 42 days
Red 43 / M 15 July 42 days
Green 83 / M 4 August 62 days
Red 13 / M 11 July 38 days

Group III - Released 31 July
Name / Sex Date Last Seen Age When Last Seen
Red 93 / M 10 September 81 days
Green H7 / F 8 September 78 days
Green 32 / M 1 August 40 days
Red 24 / M 1 August 40 days
Green 15 / M 1 August 38 days

goings on

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated and edited here.

My non-food Marathon post may have been too soon. Now that the community is overrun with tent caterpillars of some sort, I feel they're missing out on the limelight that the mites got. With last weekend's rain, there are also a few more mosquitoes around, too. Only one snake has been seen in town so far - another Kansas Glossy crossing the road.

Site tidbit: on Sunday (the 15th) we had quite a fascinating visitor at the site, more will be posted about the Mojave Rattlesnake later.

But, on to a falcon update! The falcons are doing well, H7, the female from Group 3 is doing a splendid job of catching her own grasshoppers - she seems to have caught on while watching OK, our only black/red male from the first two groups. OK will sally from a shrub and nab a dragonfly midair, eat it, and grab another... and that will continue for quite a few snacks!

It has been nearly a week since C2, our red/black female - the last female from Group 2 - showed up just to show off that she wasn't hungry. She had skipped 2 days prior to last Friday, and showed up wiping her beak and didn't eat that morning, just in the evening. She must have been pretty full. That said, she has not been seen since. We're pretty confident that she's down the highway scaring the pants off of the little American Kestrels who have just started to show up this month. Ah, migration!

Big news for K8 - when C2 returned, K8 had been MIA for two days. So K8 skipped a total of 7 feedings (3.5 days) before showing up again and has been regular since Sunday. She is looking great, ragged tail and all.

Our most recent Wednesday morning was the first time we did not see a single falcon for the duration of the morning. None even observed in the distance. Everyone who showed up in the evening ate very well, but only five showed up for that. This (Thursday) morning was a bit of a surprise, since we generally put out two quail and have one left over - five birds showed up and only a few stray clumps and "spaghetti" of quail were left. [Ewww.]

So here's the remaining cluster:
H7 (female, group 3)
93 (group 3 - aka 'Peachy Britches')
OK
16
58 (now with his own 'scissor-tailed appearance)
95 (aka 'Leggins' on a good day)
K8 (the female known as 'Kate')
C2 (female, gone for a week now)

Oddly, 16 is a bird who is just plain normal. OK has a slightly pale rump, and is notable for being the black/red male who isn't 'Peachy Britches' ...he's otherwise pretty average, but 16? There's nothing particularly notable about him. He has a regular, striped tail, unlike our solid-tailed 95 and C2, or the ragged tailed K8 and 58. Perhaps H7 is then the next closest bird to 'normal' that we have since she has no distinguishing features beyond being not-K8.

Pronghorn Antelope revisited

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Here's a slightly longer snippet of our guest:



You might notice that he gets passed not one, not two, but three times by our curious little Aplomado friends!

bathtime

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Ever wonder what a falcon taking a bath looks like?

I think the bird in question is 58, who enjoyed nearly three minutes of standing in the water, lowering his chest - feathers ruffled of course - into the water, and splashing into the water with wings and beak (all the better to fling the water!)

site visitor

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Pronghorn Antelope:



...and yes, it IS native!

More to come, just need to get a pile of things uploaded. There will even be some antelope/falcon interaction if it would just upload faster!

helpers

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

In an earlier post, I think I confessed that we try to use band numbers and haven't given nicknames (beyond K8, conveniently "Kate"). Alas, the first day out of the box for young 93, he ended up with "peachy britches" due to his extensive peachy facial markings - but they all have peachy britches if you get technical.



In the video above, taken on Aug 2, you see H7, the young female, just to left of center. There's some down on her head in the video, but there's not much left these days. To her right, perched up high is 93, our peachy friend. The other 3 older birds were diving at them, circling them and perching with them... before going to the towers to eat. That's pretty helpful, if you ask me. The cooperative behaviors have been really fascinating to watch.

We think that hanging out with the older birds might have given us a scare yesterday. Thankfully 93 has been hanging out with the older group and avoiding owls; yesterday he missed both feedings though. Today we were bracing for official disappointment. Having only been out of the box for 8 days, skipping a full day wasn't exactly a good sign. This morning he showed up and ate until about 11:30 (generally everyone is done by 10:30!)

We're happy he finally resurfaced... now if only 83 (who has missed 5 meals) would show up again...

General Update

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

C2 (Red over Black), our remaining full-tailed female from the old groups (K6 has been MIA for a few days now), was spotted 4.3 miles west of the ranch gate Friday morning. Bulls shoved things around at the tarp, but most things were relatively unscathed. Horses came traipsing through and left a trail of fantastic poop for butterflies; Nysa Roadside Skipper, Sleepy Orange, Spotted Roadside Skipper, Common Buckeye, Queen and Variegated Fritillary were present!

Saturday was the release of Group 3.

Group 3 has been rough. They fared better than Group 2 at first; everyone was accounted for on Sunday, the day after release. Alas, only H7 and 93 were seen at all on Monday. This leaves 15, 24 and 32 missing. The day of release and the day after, the older birds were really helping the youngsters. If one was on a shrub too far from the tower, the older group would circle it and push it in the direction of the towers. The older group also seemed to repeat this behavior in the evenings when youngsters wanted to roost on the towers (not safe!)

This update comes pretty late because we've been busy; aside from spending a few extra hours trying to hope for the missing Group 3 birds, we've completed phase two of ridding the porch of mites. Also, we've had to make an extra trip to Alpine for supplies since this week will be a scorcher and our water stockpile was rapidly being depleted. So our energy levels and spare time have been pretty precious. In the midst of all of this, I've noticed that my computer is filling up quickly. It doesn't help that I was about 4 months behind in backing up photos before this job started! Between the videos and whopping 5MB photos (old camera took 3MB photos), I'm watching my available memory get sapped at an alarming rate. This calls for an external drive in the next week, lest I start deleting music that I actually *do* listen to (I've already deleted everything I don't!)

Exciting small things:
We're not seeing any millipedes these days, but wind scorpions have been seen regularly for the last week. There's a lovely Black Widow near Tower 2 who has been efficiently wrapping up beetles and harvester ants.

Heavy Thoughts

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

One need only see my introduction post to know why I feel rather torn over this snippet of video:



That's a train with about 10 turbines worth of tower parts going west. And at the end? That's a falcon tower that I work alongside. May the two never mingle.

Raptors are incredibly susceptible to wind turbine collisions. Aerial hunters, aerial scavengers, aerial migrators, they all have a few things in common. And wind turbines are not part of their evolution. So creatures with low reproductive rates (namely, bats) will take a much greater hit in terms of population... and it will probably come to that at some point. Populations of creatures generally do not exponentially expand to meet human trends, unless french fries are involved. For turbines, they'd need to exponentially expand to sustain their increased mortality rate; not an increased food supply.

Having grown up with the Gulf as my backyard, it is agonizing to catch snippets of the news regarding the oil spill. But I cannot bear to look at continued fragmentation and fast-tracking of poorly researched technologies (who, incidentally, break blades that aren't recyclable... that's 115 FEET of fiberglass and epoxy going to a landfill). Even the idealists who tout solar farms - industrial everything is not good for everything. Desert is fragile, solar farms destroy their footprint. Wind farms fragment land and take an additional toll on living creatures who simply pass through the area. Much like windows. But if we produce the energy where it is used, perhaps we'll understand that the need is not for "more" energy, but for truly green energy. Green in the way that won't smother half of a region and will not push bat numbers to the lowest points in recorded history (white-nose syndrome up north is compounding the impact). If energy efficiency works, wonderful. Until then, we just need to cut back on things we don't desperately need - like air conditioning that requires inhabitants to wear sweaters in the summer.

Edit: it seems, as of 2011, that some broken blades are being repaired. No further details nor references were provided.

I digress. But I cannot with a clear conscience support wind energy as it is done today. Perhaps vertical axis wind turbines (contiguous, single blade, preferably) will catch on and we can do a new round of R&D with fewer impacts... but for now, I'll sheepishly continue to unplug anything I see that isn't in use, and keep plugging-in to an absolute minimum.

For the bats, for the birds.

meet group 3

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

It feels like Group 1 (and what's left of Group 2) just left the box yesterday. Clearly, they've grown up a lot, since they came to us at about the same stage as Group 3:



This group is 4 males and 1 female, all mellow and alert. They're eating quite well, and look ready to go on the 31st!

playing with rocks

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

This is K8 on the evening of the 26th, playing with a rock... or a bit of dried cow pie. Regardless, she was later joined by two other birds, because playing with rocks is the cool thing to do. And developmentally important!

Cassin's Sparrow

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

I present to you, the sound of summer (turn up the volume!)



In the typical male display, the Cassin's Sparrow (Aimophila cassinii)sings while flinging himself upward from the top of a shrub... and then he flutters down to another shrub. It is the ubiquitous sound. And we like it!

Tomorrow we will be getting our next box of Aplomados (six, rumor has it) so things might get a bit quiet on the blog until we get caught up with that. Their release is scheduled for the 31st, and we'll be feeding/monitoring uninterrupted through the middle of September.

tug o' quail

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

I apologize for the poor image stability: my chuckling was shaking the camera.

We see ?BG on the left, minding his own business. We see ?BG on the right, picking at a quail. And in the middle is OK(BR).



Apparently the head of a quail is delicious.

Another thought on power struggles.

How You Can Help

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

TPWD's Aplomado Falcon Species Overview

(or copy/paste http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/aplomfal )

The above link is a great way to get familiar with Aplomado Falcons as they currently exist in Texas.

Here is what they say about How You Can Help

Aplomados can be sensitive to human disturbance, especially during the breeding season. Human activity, including close or prolonged intrusion in a bird's territory, or loud and unusual noises, can cause nest abandonment. Human intrusions can also make Aplomados more susceptible to detection and harm from potential predators. A safe viewing distance is 200 yards or more. Suitable viewing at this or greater distance may require a spotting scope with 10 to 15 X or greater magnification. Birders should always respect private property rights in Texas regardless of the species being pursued.

Birders should keep in mind that Aplomados remain extremely rare in Texas and are federally- and statelisted as endangered. Therefore, all reasonable and suspected sightings of this bird should be reported immediately to an expert birder, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for further verification. Observations should include a detailed description of the bird's location, appearance, activity, and surroundings. Verification of sightings is extremely important in the context of the Aplomado's scarcity and future conservation.

Ultimately, recovery of Aplomados in Texas will depend on the interest and direct involvement of private land owners since lands within the falcon's former range are mostly in private ownership. Texas land holders interested in promoting Aplomado Falcon conservation measures should consult with experts in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or The Peregrine Fund for technical guidance and other assistance. Texans can contribute to nongame wildlife resources conservation by supporting the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's "Special Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Fund" and by purchases of special nongame decals and stamps issued by the department. A set portion of the revenues generated by these programs is used to purchase endangered species habitats and to support the publication of nongamewildlife informational materials and other nongame activities.

(All added emphasis mine.)



...another help is a good headwind.

Aplomado Falcon Hack Site Attendant

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Here's a quick FAQ list for folks new to the recent posts:

What are we?
For July, August and September, we are Aplomado Falcon Hack Site Attendants. Meaning we feed/water/babysit Aplomado Falcons at a "hack" site.
Hack = falconry term for "release"

A what falcon?
Aplomado Falcons are the only Endangered falcon species in North America; Peregrines were de-listed not too long ago. They are roughly the size of a long, slender pigeon, a bit bigger than the American Kestrel ("sparrowhawk"). While they are still found in northern Mexico, due to overgrazing and poor land management they were extirpated* from their former range in New Mexico as well as south and west Texas. Their habitat preference is open, dry grassland interspersed with yucca (a nest site favorite) and low shrubs. Their food preference is small birds.
* extirpated = they no longer occur in a region that they occupied in the past (you could say that bison were completely extirpated from their historical range - they are not extinct)

What is the job?
Aplomado Falcons are raised at The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. As they approach 40 days old, they are sent to release sites where they are kept in boxes on towers until such time as they can be released (around 40 days old). After release, there are morning and afternoon feedings and observations. We take notes on anything significant in terms of behavior and report back to our field supervisor who is the brains behind our site and others in the region. Constant feeding and monitoring is required to ensure that leftover quail parts won't attract raccoons, vultures, ravens, etc.

How many falcons will you release?
Our site is scheduled to have only one more box (5-7) after these first two (14 in the first batch). There is no way we'll still have 21 birds accounted for at the end of the project, sadly the odds are not in favor of that. Indeed, a few birds didn't even return after their release days.

Released on the 10th, last seen on the 11th:
59BR
78BR
Released on the 11th, last seen on the 11th:
OPBR
13BR
Released on the 11th, last seen on the 15th:
42BR
66BG

(All of the above birds are male; they have a black band over a color band on their left leg and one aluminum band on the right leg. So 59BR would be a 5 black over 9 red. Oddly, only one missing bird has a green lower band - this means that the vast majority of our remaining birds are black/green and only two are black/red!)

So as of the 19th, eight birds are "regulars" and seen every day, feed every day, and are otherwise accounted for. Only three birds remain from the release on the 11th, and two of them are females. All but two are still around from that first release, and the two who went missing, did so very early on. Owls are a huge predator threat at this stage so our fingers are crossed.



Helpful links for Aplomado Falcon information:
The Peregrine Fund - Aplomado Falcon Conservation Project
The Peregrine Fund - Aplomado Falcon General Information
Wiki - Aplomado Falcon

cough it up

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Cats have hairballs. Birds do, too. Owls are perhaps the best known family for their pellets - most folks have to dissect an owl pellet in school at some point. Frugivores (fruit eaters) don't consume so much indigestible stuff, so they don't have to cough up pellets. Long-billed Curlews, who eat crustaceans, do hack up pellets. Shrikes, hawks, even kookaburras - if they eat bone, fur, etc, as part of their diet and can't digest it, they have the ability to expel the undigested material.

Meet 58BG, who happened to fling a pellet while I was recording:



In case you missed the pellet being flung:





That gray clump? That's the pellet. Don't see it? Meet my horrible photoshop skills (bear with me, it's a new editing program I'm tampering with!)





The glob of feathers and bone being flung away looks pretty darn huge. So like any bodily-function enthusiast, after 58 left, I went over to investigate. Considering at least two pellets were expelled (one shortly before I started recording), that's an awful lot of Mystery-Quail-Parts to be coughed up. Not wanting to let a good photo chance go to waste, I now present this lovely image:



For those inquisitive minds, I did not handle it with bare hands, that's what sticks are for. Texture, however, was easy to note - slimy! Once it dried, the texture looked a bit more powdery, but that's less exciting to discuss. In a few days it will probably crumble away to nothing, but at least it has been documented in a fairly fresh state. Eeew.

Matt would like to point out that our birds are not dainty eaters. They do not carefully select which nibble of muscle upon which they will snack. They are given whole quail and if they don't fling the feathers away, down the throat! There isn't much waste, either. A very well-picked quail ends up having only wings, legs and maybe a keel... if that! Apparently heads are a delicacy, we'll find parts of the beak, but I suppose the skull is as lightweight as the rest of the other bones, so that's pretty easy to choke down along with other juicy morsels.

A quick note on other bodily functions:



What goes in comes out as an entirely different segment of the environment. After giving energy, it continues to nourish the ground and shelter small creatures. And it's very handy to roll, if you're an excrement enthusiast like dung beetles are. While 58's pellet may never sprout a mushroom or be bundled off with a flourish, it's far less obnoxious to accidentally step in!

Thanks for stopping in, sorry to have ruined your appetite!

elegance

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

Here's a snippet of the agility, grace and elegance that our young Aplomado Falcons now exhibit:



They've only been out of the box

last of the box

Originally posted over at Seetrail; backdated here.

We saw these birds from the transport box:



Into hand:

 


Into the box:

 

Peeking into the box:

 

And now this:

 

Growing so fast, no?