The Veteran Naturalist

My stepdaughter Gwen Keller and I were out at Cowan counting birds for an eSites project yesterday (Tuesday, 29 Dec). We found two Wilson’s Snipe in the shallow eastern end of the lake, visible from the easternmost boat ramp. The lake is down about five feet from normal, apparently in an attempt to control the rampant American lotus, reducing the lake to something like the original Cowan Creek. The birds were busily foraging along the margins.

Peterjohn states that snipe are rare winter residents in the southern and central counties. This is certainly the latest that I have seen it here.

Wilson's Snipe. The striped back and head separate it from the dowitchers.

Larry Gara and I were taking a census of Cowan Lake for our eSites project when we came across a large flock of geese at the beach. They were mostly Canadas, which have been absent in recent weeks. Immediately apparent were two Snow Geese, but while trying to count the Canadas, I came across a Greater White-Fronted Goose. Larry manned the scope while I tried to get close enough for a couple of pictures. Larry confirmed all the field marks of a greater white-front. I had less success with the photos.

It was late afternoon and the GWFG was in deep shadow and feeding actively. As a result, the pictures are not sharp, owing mainly to the movement of the bird. Close enough for government work, I guess, but not likely to make the pages of Audubon magazine.

The bird is in left center foreground. Good comparison with the Canada Geese. Note also the two Snow Geese.

The Breater White-fronted Goose in profile. The bird's motion blurred the photo, but the white front is clearly evident.

Antoher profile shot of the GWFG with better view of white front.

The Greater White-fronted Goose feeding. The white front is obscured, but all of the other field marks are shown. Absence of black stocking and white chin strap, brown breast with ragged transverse black streaks, lack of bright white lower belly, bright orange legs.

On Thursday, 9 Apr 09, Larry Gara and I spent about an hour with the Lesser Black-backed Gull Larry discovered the day before (8 Apr 09).  The bird was seen on and just off the beach in good light, standing, wading, swimming and flying.  The bird was reasonably approachable so that we were able to get good views and passable photos (see below).

The picture below was taken at Cowan Lake State Park, Ohio, on 2 Jan 09.  The bird is clearly a male Northern Shoveler, but the plumage shows some aspects I have never seen in shovelers.  Note the distinctive vermiculations just above the large chestnut flank patch.  I believe these to be the greater coverts, but I am at a loss to place a plumage of this sort in the life cycle of the Northern Shoveler.

The only reference I can find that has a similar plumage is in Waterfowl by Madge and Burn (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1988).  There is a plate that might be a crude representation of this state and a mention in the text of a “subeclipse” plumage.  Pyle’s new Volume 2 to his monumental Identification Guide to North American Birds does not mention eclipse plumages, much less subeclipse plumages.  As I understand it, the eclipse plumage is actually the alternate plumage in ducks.  In any case, I cannot find a reference in Pyle to secondary covs with vermiculations.

I personally have never had the opportunity to handle waterfowl and would appreciate the input of my elders and betters.  How would you age this bird?

Weird shoveler photographed at Cowan Lake State Park, Ohio, 2 Jan 09. How would you age this bird?

A Black-legged Kittiwake was reported on New Year’s Day at Hoover Dam north of Columbus.  On Saturday, 3 Jan, my son Hugh, a science writer at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, went up to see if we could find it, which eventually we did.  Ned Keller intercepted us in the parking lot and vectored us to the right area.  After checking through three groups of gulls, a nice lad came along and pointed us to it.  In our defense, the bird was sitting on the ice facing away from us, so we didn’t feel too stupid.  Also, we were able to pass along the favor by pointing out the bird to four or five others who arrived later.

After a while, the whole group of gulls got up and flew over to the south side of the dam.  We shifted up to the dam in hopes of getting a closer view.  We failed to find it until someone yelled, “There it goes!” as it saile back over to the north side of the dam and settled again on the ice.  However, it was closer this time and at a better angle to the sun.  I unlimbered my camera, the 400 mm zoom lens and my brand-new-for-Christmas doubler.  Even at 800 mm, though, it was too far away to make a decent picture.  In desperation, I got out my Panasonic point-and-shoot and tried digiscoping, a technique I had given up on a year ago.  But surprisingly, I got a couple of good shots.  I guess the law of averages does indeed work both ways:  you can’t lose ’em all.

Kittiwake in comparison with Ring-billed Gulls

Detail from previous picture. The black post-ocular mark, the black "scarf" and the "carpal bar" indicate that this is a first-winter bird.

A somewhat more common posture. Thankfully, the bird moved around a fair amount, giving good looks at all the field marks to those with a bit of patience.

While banding birds at Bob Thobaben’s farm west of Wilmington, OH, we caught a series of Field Sparrows with curious growths on their feet.  The first one we caught, we merely noted the presence of the growth.  An hour later, we caught another Field Sparrow with a similar growth.  Sensitized to the problem, we took some pictures of this bird.  Fortunately, it was a retrap.  Bob’s records showed that the bird had been banded only three weeks before.  No unusual growths were noted at that time.

Left:  Growth on  right foot of second Field Sparrow, ventral side.   Right:  Same growth as seen from left side.

On the next round of the nets, we found still a third Field Sparrow.  This one had four growths of the same sort, two on each foot.

Left:  Third bird showing two growths on each on foot.  Right:  The whole bird.  The growths are barely discernible  at this scale

The growths are about a half a centimeter in diameter and look rather like oak galls.  Bob says he has not see anything like this in thirty years of banding.  Anybody out there know what this is?  How do we account for such a concentration in time, space, and species?  Also, these growths appear to be fast-growing.  What is the cause of that?

Science is all about questions.

Juvenile robins battle for a turn at the water

For the past two years, my wife has run this jury-rigged bird bath.  She hangs the hose over a convenient limb and lets the water drip into a horse feed pan.  The assemblage is completed with a couple of bricks that allow the birds to stand ankle deep in the water for drinking and bathing.

All of the birds in this picture are robins and all retain some spots on the breast indicating that they have not yet completed the molt into their first set of adult feathers.  The second photo shows a close-up of the juvenile plumage.  During the month of September, most birds molt into the familiar red breast.

Young robin with speckled breast. The breast will turn red by the end of September

In the late summer both this year and last, we have noticed absurdly large collections of juvenile robins using the bird bath in September, virtually to the exclusion of adult birds.  The second most numerous users are juvenile starlings, followed by juvenile cardinals.  It is not as if the adults are absent—we still have plenty of them at our feeders.

Our question is why the juveniles love this birdbath so much and why the adults are absent.  Might it be as simple as the adults being more cat-savvy than the kids?    Anybody got any ideas?