The nest is yet to come

People often ask what my typical work day is like and what I mostly do (from March until August) is nest search. I find the nests of tiny little grey endangered birds. I monitor these birds religiously keeping track of when they arrive, when they find a mate, when they build their nest, when they lay their eggs, how many they lay, when they hatch, how many hatch, and when their chicks leave the nest, and then I follow up to make sure they survived after they left the nest. I also try and keep track of when they leave the area to migrate back to Mexico. This may all sound like a lot of info to gather..and believe me..it is! I will also add that I have to do this for up to 142 pairs of birds. This is an enormous amount of info and that is why I spend 5-6 months of each year, 8-9 hours a day working outside in the field gathering it. Luckily, nest searching has become one of my favorite things to do!!
I was first introduced to nest searching in the spring of 2000 while working with Henslow’s Sparrows in Tennessee. I had no nest searching skills to speak of and really did not understand how one would go about finding a birds nest. I learned that I would soon be sneaking up on birds and observing them for long periods of time while trying to be as still and quiet as possible. There were certain rules to follow as well such as never making a trail to the nest. You could not walk straight to a nest then go back the way you came as this could lead a predator right to it. You had to sort of walk by the nest and glance in as you passed. Also, we had to keep an eye out for predators (especially other birds) who could and would watch us to find out nest locations. Jays were especially adept at finding nests. I heard stories about one project where all the nests were flagged 5 meters south of the nest. A smart jay came along and figured out the pattern and went to every nest with a flag marking its location and ate them all! If a potential predator might be around we sometimes had to do “fake” nest checks. We would approach several bushes in the area (one holding the real nest) and check them all, peering into each bush to throw off the jays, crows, mockingbirds, or ravens that might be keeping an eye on us. We also did not want to draw cowbirds (a parasitic species) to the nests either.
Different species pose different challenges to finding their nest. Some birds are ground nesters, some scrub or tree nesters, while others will nest in cavities or crevices. The nests can be located at a range of heights depending on species as well. Nests are composed of all sorts of materials: moss, spider webs, sticks, branches, flowers, snake skin, feathers, twigs, mud, leaves, and sometimes even man-made objects. Each time I find a nest, made out of a variety of materials, and containing eggs of different sizes, shapes, colors, with different markings like spots, etc…it is like finding a work of art. To me, they are natures little masterpieces.
When I nest search I get into a sort of “one with nature” mode. I wear only earth tone colors so I blend in with the scenery, and will crawl into a bush or scrub and just sit absolutely still, moving nothing but my eyeballs and just “become” part of nature. After sitting there for a while I just seem to blend in as I have had many close encounters with animals while doing this. I once had a whole family of quail (mom and 15 tiny babies) run by me, completely unaware of me, and so close I could have reached my hand out and touched them. I have also had deer, and coyote walk right up to me as well while in this comatose state. Some of the more curious birds such as wrens and hummingbirds have come literally within an inch of my face or my eyes.
Some nests take a very long time to find, and I feel I am up against a clock somehow on some bizarre game show where the bird is my opponent. I have had to crawl into the territories of some fussy birds that would freak out if they saw me. One little bird would come and find me no matter how quietly I entered it’s territory and no matter how far outside of the territory I would start to crawl. It would end up perching right above my head and would start scolding me. It was like I was playing hide and seek with the bird, with me always losing! I swear the bird enjoyed it. When I have a bird this challenging it is always a huge triumph when I find it’s nest. I feel exhilarated and sometimes a little giddy and like I have really accomplished something that day.
I think one of the reasons I enjoy nest searching so much is because it is a challenge, and you can set goals as to how many nests you want to find that day, or what particulars birds nest you want to find that day, etc. and then you can really focus on the task and get it done. I thrive on setting goals and then meeting them. I am definitely a “to do” lister and finding nests is sort of like completing everything on your “to do” list for that day. It is a test in patience, focus, using observational skills, the ability to be quiet and still, to be sneaky, to outwit nature, and sometimes it involves a lot of luck! No matter how you find the nest, it is always quite satisfying in the end.

Got baby birds?

Since the bird breeding season is almost here, I thought I would share what one should do if they happen to find a baby bird this spring. It seems so many people mistake fledglings as being abandoned that they may inadvertently end up killing a baby bird by "saving" it. This is the advice I usually give:

If the bird is fully feathered, it is most likely a fledgling and has left the nest on it's own and it's parents are caring for it. It is normal for birds to leave the nest before they can fly. You need to replace it where you found it..preferably in a scrub or tree so it is relatively safe from predators, and the parents should come back to feed it. If it is unfeathered...then look for a nest and if you can find it...replace it into the nest. Do not worry about your scent being on the chick..birds have a very poorly developed sense of smell and will NOT reject a baby that has been touched. If you cannot find a nest, get the bird to a local wildlife rehab for it's best chance of survival. Also, keep in mind, it is illegal for you to try and raise this bird on your own. All birds in the U.S. are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Look for a rehab here:
http://www.wildliferehabinfo.org/ContactList_MnPg.htm
http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/rehabilitators/directory-us.html
　
　

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!

Gone Batty

Bats are probably one of the most misunderstood creatures on the planet. I would just like to dispell some of the harmful myths about bats and give people some good websites to become more educated about bats. Bats are actually very important to the ecosystem, they pollinate many of the foods we eat: avocados, mangoes, figs, etc., and are basically the only pollinator of the agave plant (used in the production of tequila). Who would have known that without bats there would be no tequila.
Bats are also important as pest control..they save farmers millions of dollars each year by not having to spray their fields with harmful pesticides. They also eliminate mosquitoes around peoples back yards and in wildlife areas, eliminating the chance of people and animals contracting diseases such as encephalitis, malaria, and west Nile virus. Bats are also important in health care. Scientists have discovered that the saliva from vampire bats has a useful anticoagulant that is being used to make a drug to help people with heart problems and blood clots.
I urge people that have bats in their yards to let them be, and to enjoy the fact that they are there. Try and preserve wildlife habitat on your property as well as in your local communities. If you have bats in your house..please make sure you resolve the problem so as not to harm the bats. There are humane extraction methods that will be included in the websites I post below. Almost every bat species in existence is in decline due to habitat loss, loss of roosts, or to eradication by humans. Bats are very slow reproducers and only give birth to one or two pups a year also contributing to their decline.
I have always been fascinated by bats and recently became involved in being in charge of the bat program where I work. I have attended bat workshops and am working with other bat biologists and experts in my area. I do bat surveys on a regular basis using equipment that records bat calls, and bat frequencies. I use night vision goggles to try and see flight patterns, size, color, and any of clues as to their identification. I survey at roost sites as well and doing open air surveys. I also have a good population of bats where I live, so can often be found testing out my bat equipment literally in my own backyard.
I am now learning to access bridges and freeway overpasses for the possibility of bats using it as a roost. I am also educating myself about bat boxes and their placement as we now have people interested in our organization installing bat boxes for them. I am constantly researching and learning new things about bats and would love if people here would also share their knowledge of bats with me as well. If you come across any articles, news stories, good websites, etc..please feel free to email me.
Helpful bat websites below:
http://www.batcon.org/home/index.asp?idPage=122
http://www.batworld.org/main/main.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~cmsquare/batfacts.html
http://dnr.state.il.us/conservation/naturalheritage/bats/bats.htm
http://www.wbwg.org/

26 Miles Across The Sea...

Santa Catalina is a-waitin for me…or at least this is how the song from The Four Preps written back in the 50’s goes. Catalina Island is one of the Channel islands and is located just about 26 miles off shore of Los Angeles. This is the place I spent three springs in a row working for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center studying the endemic Orange-crowned Warbler. This is a little yellowish-greenish bird with a bright orange flash of feathers on the top of it’s head..hence it’s name. The little orange crown is not always prominently displayed, but can be quite obvious on males either showing off for a female or fighting off a rival male in his territory.
The island consists of the “city” of Avalon, although I lived in the interior of the island in an area called “Middle Ranch” which mostly consists of employees and/or biologists that work for the Catalina Conservancy (whom owns most of the island) or the Institute for Wildlife Studies. There are no cars allowed on the island except by special permit. Only golf carts are allowed in the city of Avalon, but not anywhere outside the city limits. We however had the special permits to drive cars on the island and had access to the city AND the entire rest of the island. This allowed us to drive to our study sites, and make trips into the city at least weekly for groceries and supplies. It also allowed us to visit many beaches that most people could not gain access to except by boat. We would spend time on beautiful beaches that were empty of other visitors.
While I was there, we were not the only researchers on the island. There was also a group of biologists studying the island fox, the Bald Eagle, plants, a woman studying shrews, another studying feral cats, and a biologist studying herptiles, as well as a handful of pig hunters. We all identified each other by what type of animal or thing we studied. It was sort of like being a member of a tribe. We were known as ”the bird people“, while others were “the fox people“, “the eagle people“, and the “shrew girl”.
The little birds we studied were unique in that they nested both on and off the ground. Their mainland counterparts (a separate sub-species) nested strictly on the ground. The study was to see why they nested where they did and to figure out other basic behaviors.
We captured all the birds by mist net and banded each with a unique color code. Each bird was given 3 color bands and one numbered aluminum Fish and Wildlife band (2 on each leg). We always placed the aluminum band on the right leg along with another color, and 2 color bands on the left leg. We would read the colors like so: top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left. We would use letters to represent each color (usually the first letter of the color) so that we could “name” the bird by it’s color band. For example a bird with green band above an aluminum on it’s right leg, and an orange band above a white band on it’s left leg would be called “GAOW” (Green, Aluminum, Orange, White). Many of the combos we used made funny words that became the birds “name”. We had an “AROO” (Aluminum, Red, Orange, Orange), WARY (White Aluminum, Red, Yellow), etc. etc. Some of my other favorite names were “RAYY” or “Ray Y” as I called him, and “WABuBu” (White, Aluminum, Blue, Blue). We cheated a little to make other names more interesting, like “ABuGY” who became known as “A bogey”. Whenever we referred to these birds we would use their given “names” and often thought if anyone overheard us talking they would think we were speaking in code or some secret made up language especially since we talked about the birds as if they were people or friends .
We did different experiments to see if we could influence where the birds built their nests. We placed different decoys in their territory while they were nest building. We placed a stuffed Scrub Jay (an aerial nest predator), a weasel (a terrestrial nest predator), a snake (also terrestrial nest predator), and a Hutton’s Vireo (non-nest predator) as our control. The idea was that the birds should build a nest on the ground if an aerial predator was present, and that they would built off the ground if a terrestrial predator was present. The results showed ALL but one bird doing exactly as predicted. “WARY” built her nest on the ground right NEXT to the snake! Either WARY was a very stupid bird, or a very smart one recognizing that the snake was not real. Maybe she was a genius, thinking that this would be the safest place to built a nest as the fake snake would scare off other predators
They also had different reactions to the predators. They were much more cautious going to the nest when the aerial (Scrub Jay) predator was “watching”. They were not as cautious when the snake or weasel was out. It was also interesting that the Jay was recognized as a predator since Jays do not naturally occur on the island.
By the end of the season we had observed some very interesting behaviors that had not been seen in this species before. We found many of the males were paired up with more than one female and would go from nest to nest feeding all their babies. We also found a young male helping feed chicks in a nest that he did not “father”. Usually a rival male in another males territory is attacked or chased out, but this male was allowed to stay and help raise the territorial males chicks. We thought maybe the male was trying to “woo” the female to mate with him since he had no mate of his own. We also found out that the males were extremely aggressive with each other and would often witness violent attacks and fights between them. Even the females were seen fighting sometimes. When we took blood samples from them, we found that their testosterone levels were extremely high compared to other birds their size. We also found that year after year, the same birds occupied the same territories. Most males paired up with the same female they mated with the previous years. Occasionally a bird would go missing, and a new male or female would replace them. It was always a little depressing when we would get back to the island and not have our favorite bird(s) show up that year, knowing that they had not survived the winter.

Don't Tread on me!

Continued from "I'll pass on the Pass" (6/6/10)

On Wednesday I went out to my site to find a huge section of riparian habitat destroyed. Someone had taken a tractor or bulldozer through it for NO apparent reason. There was tractor tread everywhere. They drove right through habitat located RIGHT next to a wide open sandy trail! The area they destroyed was right smack in the middle of one of my viero territories with the male present with a fledgling. I suspected he was re-nesting right in this vicinity and was not sure if his nest had been destroyed by the tractor or not. First of all this habitat is protected, and so are the birds nesting in it. Destroying the nest of ANY wild native bird will get you a $500 fine, but destroying the nest of the Least Bell's Vireo will get you a $150,000 fine and some possible jail time since it is an endangered species. I immediately took photos of the damage, and followed the tracks to more damaged habitat and then up to the freeway area where I found an RV, tractor, van, and some sort of drill. I knocked on the door of the RV to see who was occupying it to ask about what kind of work they were doing out here and was going to try and get information from them so that I could report them to US Fish and Wildlife. No one answered the dooor, although there were 2 dogs that barked at me from inside. I was so furious at the destruction that had been done, but decided to calm down and check some nests that were also located on this site.
I headed over to a horse stable I use to access the site and immediately noticed a large bulldozer in their parking lot. I thought it was quite a coincidence. I started heading over to where my nest was...the nest should contain 4 nestlings who were 9 days old. They leave their nest at day 11 usually. As I approached I started to realize that the entire area had been bulldozed. My heart dropped as it looked like my nest may have been destroyed. I ran over and found my nest on the edge of the new trail that had been cut. Originally it was further back from the trail and I had to go through some vegetation to get to it, but now..it is seeable from the trail itself. The parents were freaking out since I am sure they had been tramatized when a giant bulldozer had come with a couple feet from their nest. They scolded me when I walked near their nest..but luckily all 4 babies were still in it. Once again, lots of native riparian trees and plants had been flattened and destroyed. I ran over to question the horse stable people. We had an agreement that they would inform me of ANY trimmings, or cutting of vegetation along their trials so that I could flag off any nest areas so that they would know NOT to cut there. This arangement had happened a couple times in the past and worked out fine. The arangement all started because 2 years ago they came literally about 2 feet from chopping one of my nests down and I had to have a discussion with the manager telling him the laws and that I could report him for what he did. He agreed to letting me know their trimming schedule so I agreed not to turn him in if it did not happen again.
I started questioning the stable people and was immediately lied to, they told me the bulldozer did not belong to them but to a construction crew next door. After talking to 4 people I got the truth...and went over to the house to talk to the managers brother who was responsible for bulldozing the habitat. He claimed that he had no clue they were suppossed to inform me first and thought they did nothing wrong. He even went so far as to tell me that the bulldozing he did was NOT for their customers and was not even part of their regular horse trail, but he cut a path (wider than a freeway lane!) so that his wife could walk their dog to the river. I was fuming by this time, and could barely keep my composure after seeing not only this destruction, but the other destruction I had just come from. I almost feel like a mother when it comes to protecting these birds..it is like my maternal instincts kick in here, because if I see anyone messing with my nests..I usually react by wanting to tear someones head off! He claimed he had not done the other damage further out but had done the damage to the area by my nest. Once again I had to document with photos, and I threatened them with fines and prison and told them to expect to be hearing from US Fish and Wildlife. I use their stable to access my site, so now I am sure I will be blacklisted from the place or if I am able to continue to use it, I will be very unpopular there. Towards the end of our conversation he started to deny that he had done any of it. I am not positive they did the other damage as I did follow tractor tracks to the RV, but I know they did the damage near my nest..so now we may have to report two separate incidents to Fish and Wildlife.
I thought the rest of my week would be mellow..but I still had a couple surprises left...