The Gossip Bird

When I was first hired in 2006, to study the Least Bell's Vireo I had never seen or heard one before. They are an endangered subspecies (one of four) of the Bell's Vireo. It is a little non-distinct gray bird that occupies mostly riparian habitats. It does however have a very distinct song. I was given a mnemonic device to recognize its song. A fellow birder told me to think of the vireo as “the gossip bird” as when it sings it quickly says “You tell me what she said about mmmeeeee, I'll tell you what she said about yyyooouuuu”. Play the video below to see if you can hear the gossip for yourself.
I was told they arrive every year around March 15th, after migrating back from Mexico. I went out to my study site on the 15th, but never heard or saw one. I went out on subsequent days...and still nothing! I was a little frustrated, but not too frustrated since no one had heard them in the watershed yet. Finally the days turned into weeks, and still no sign of the bird. They had never been this late before and I started to think they would not show up at all. Just my luck..get a full time permanent position studying a bird that did not exist! Finally, on April 15th, a full month after their proposed arrival date I heard its distinct song. I immediately called my boss to tell her the good news. She questioned me to make sure it was indeed a Least Bell's Vireo I was hearing since it was my first. I told her I was positive as their call can really not be mistaken for anything else. I finally spotted the bird as well, to confirm its species. I was the first to hear one that year and in the days to follow more and more vireos showed up. We never did figure out why the birds were a month late..all we could assume was that they got caught up in some storm and were blown off course, or that many left late due to the storm.
We typically name our birds..usually after something to help us remember their location...so we have birds named after trees, rocks, or other naturally occurring things in nature, but we also name them after man-made items found out on our sites. I named my very first bird “Riker” as a tribute to a Star Trek The Next Generation character. William Riker was Captain Picards' “Number One” officer. Riker was my “Number One” bird!

Tern! Tern! Tern!

Using yet another song as my title. From the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” recorded ironically enough by The Byrds! Found out this song is actually stolen right out of the Bible..almost word for word from the book of Ecclesiastes. Who would have known?
Anyway, just wanted to write a little introduction about one of the bird species I have worked with over the last two years. It is the endangered California Least Tern. They nest in a colony out at Huntington Beach which makes a very nice place to work. Always nice to get out of the sometimes 100+ degrees I usually work in. The colony is fenced in since these birds basically lay their eggs right on the sand. Without the fencing, beach goers would step right on them! They don't really make any sort of a nest at all, but may sometimes make a “scrape”. Occasionally they will lay their eggs on or next to shell fragments or debris or trash on the beach. We found a couple of eggs last year laid ever so neatly next to a little green plastic elephant toy. We didn't dare move it. Sometimes birds will lay their eggs outside the fenced area and more fencing will have to be added to protect it.
There are several volunteers that watch the colony at all times keeping an eye out for predators. We had problems with crows the first year swooping down and eating chicks or eggs, and last year the kestrels really took a toll. They managed to get permits to kill a few crows and scattered their bodies throughout the colony and the crows figured it out pretty quickly..that entering the yard meant death. It solved the problem. The kestrels were not as easily deterred. They tried capturing them, but never could. It was a pair, so I am sure they had a nest of babies that needed to eat too..unfortunately they choose to feed them an endangered species! Once, we watched a male kestrel dive down and grab a chick while we were working in the yard..and could not do anything to stop it. We yelled and screamed and tried to run towards the bird to scare it, but it did no good.
The terns typically lay just 2 eggs, occasionally one, or even more rarely, three. We actually had a 3 egg nest last year and all three hatched which was fairly unusual. We monitor the nests throughout the whole process (laying, incubating, and hatching) checking on them twice weekly. The whole yard is “gridded” with poles that are numbered going down the yard and letters of the alphabet going across the yard so that we could map the nests as we go and be able to locate them the next time we are there. We mark and number the nests with small wooden “craft sticks” or tongue depressors. When we find a “nest” we write the nest number on it with a Sharpie and place one stick facing the ocean (south) and another west of the nest, so that the number can be easily seen when approaching the nest from different directions.
The funniest part of monitoring the nests is that we do it from a “blind”. We created these big rectangular shaped “shells” from PVC pipes and covered them with sheets sewn into a square shape to fit over them. We then cut little “windows” into the sheets so we could see where we are going. We heard lots of funny remarks from the beach goers as they could never quite figure out why we were walking around in these big “squares”. He heard our fair share of “Spongebob Squarepants” jokes! It is VERY hard to navigate in these things as we constantly trip over either the tubing, the sheet, the vegetation, or a combination of the three. When there were fledglings running around, we had to be even more careful of where we were stepping or falling so as not to crush any of them. We also carry a clipboard/paperwork, binoculars, pens, tongue depressors, etc. all in there with us, which makes it all very hard to keep track of since we have to hang things from the tubing just to walk as you need both hands to lift the “blind” to walk from place to place. We lost lots of pens and equipment in the sand that way!
Also, if we had to use “the bathroom”, we would just squat in place since we were basically in our own little port-a-potty! It was too much trouble and took way too long to walk/waddle back to the entrance to get out..then take your blind off, walk to the bathroom, then put your blind back on, and walk all the way back to your designated spot. Much easier to just take care of business out on the beach sand!
I may not get the opportunity to monitor this species again this coming season as I will be starting a new project with a different endangered species and just will not have the time to make it out to the beach anymore. But, it was fun while it lasted!