White and Dwarf Trout-lilies

One of the thrills of living in Minnesota is the blooming of the spring ephemerals. These April wildflowers bloom before the tree leaves shade the forest floor. On Sunday Erika and I found the Big Woods State Park awash in trout-lilies. We found both the abundant White Trout-lily (lower right) and the rare Dwarf Trout-lily (lower left). As its name implies, the Dwarf Trout-lily's flower, hardly larger than a dime, is far smaller than the normal species. The Dwarf Trout-lily is restricted to several east-central Minnesota counties. I have previously blogged on these two species and speculated on how the dwarf species evolved.

Princeton University Press recently published a new book, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast. I recommend it for those interested in wildflowers. Many of the species of that region are also found in Minnesota. From the book, I learned that Trout-lilies contain an antibiotic called tulipalin A, which can cause allergic skin reactions. Native uses of the plant, however, include, after lengthy preparation, consuming trout-lily bulbs (both as a winter staple, but also as an emeitc). Perhaps due to the antibiotic, crushed leaves were also used as a poultice for skin sores.

Bushtit

Like the Wrentit, Bushtits enjoy a confusing taxonomy. At first these common, non-migratory western birds were thought to be in chickadee and titmouse family, Paridae. Furthermore, Bushtits with black or plain ear auriculars (ear coverts) were thought to be distinct species (named Black-eared and Plain bushtits, depending on the color). Ornithologists discovered that ear color was polymorphic, some birds out of the same nests had black ears and others plain-colored ones. The farther south you travel, the more you encounter black-eared birds. Males are more often black-eared than are females. Almost all northern birds, like the one in my photo from the Kate Sessions Park in San Diego, are plain-eared.

DNA research makes the surprising conclusion that Bushtits are the sole representative in the New World of an Old World family, Long-tailed Tits, Aegithalidae. Long-tailed Tits have only recently been moved from the Paridae (titmice, etc.) into Aegithalidae.

Whatever their evolutionary history might be, Bushtits are easy to find in the west. They can form large flocks and often move about with other species.  We found this Bushtit in the company of the Wrentits of the previous post.They prefer oak, pine, and coastal shrub-lands. Their feeding behavior is often similar to chickadees. Bushtits are also interesting because they will often help other pairs raise young--these helpers can be male, female, juvenile, or adult. The helpers are not necessarily related to the nesting pair they assist. But, to complicate matters, Bushtits of both sexes may take on multiple mates (Sloane 2001).

Wrentit

I was delighted to find Wrentits when we recently visited the Kate Sessions Park near San Diego, California. Note the blur of the Wrentit's long tail in my photograph.

Just what is a Wrentit? When I first listed this species many years ago in northern California, ornithologists considered Wrentits to be in their own family, Chamaeidae. Now confusion reigns. Look in The Sibley Guide to Birds, and you find Wrentits to be the only North American member of a large (and diverse) family of Old World birds called Babblers, Timaliidae. Look in the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition, and Wrentits are placed in another Old World family, the Sylviidae. My usual ultimate source for such taxonomic questions, the Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees, has Wrentits both ways!  They reside with the Babblers, but the authors write that recent DNA studies indicate that many Babblers, including Wrentits, are actually Sylviidae, while other Babblers need to be reclassified. If this discussion sounds confusing, that is because it is.

In any case, Wrentits are common residents along the Pacific Coast of North America, from Oregon south to northern Baja California. The species is usually found in dense brushland. Wrentits form life-long, monogamous pairs and remain in their territories, for up to 12 years. Males and females incubate their eggs, remain in vocal contact with each other, and mutually preen (Geupel and Ballard 2002).

White-fronted Goose

The Greater White-fronted Goose is an opportunistic vegetarian, consuming both terrestrial and aquatic plants. This individual appeared to be feeding on green algae in a pond just east of the Northfield, Minnesota, golf course. Although this goose appears early in the spring in Minnesota, they linger through most of May. Thus a mid-April occurrence is not noteworthy. Thanks to Gerry H. for alerting me to the location of this bird.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Back in Northfield after our month-long road-trip, we are slowly getting our routines reestablished. We cleaned and turned on the water feature. Banding nets are reopened. Today we banded this lovely male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The woodpecker flew to a tree near the water feature and then we caught it low in the net as the bird came in for water. This behavior is somewhat surprising. Walters et al. (2002) surmise that sapsuckers usually get all their water from their sap wells. Our bird, however, was clearly intending to drink from the water feature.

eBirding California Thrashers

As many of you know, one of the delights of eBird is that this website allows viewers to discover where birds are seen across the country and the world. When we were in San Diego, I typed into eBird California Thrasher and California Gnatcatcher, two species I have never seen. To my surprise, both these species, along with Wrentits, which I only listed once before, (plus Bushtits, which have previously avoided my camera lens), were all recently seen at a park only a few miles from our hotel!

The next day we visited the Kate Sessions Park, a relatively small, dry brushland between La Jolla and San Diego. We never would have stopped at this park were it not for eBird. We quickly found all our target species and photographed all but the shy gnatcatcher. The photo above is of the California Thrasher. Perhaps our largest thrasher, this species is found only in the chaparral of coastal California and adjacent northern Baja California. Commercial development and house cats are both contributing to the decline in this species' populations. Although they do sing from bushtops, as in my photo, California Thrashers often prefer heavy cover.

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Erika and I are just back from a month-long road-trip to Seattle to meet a new Granddaughter.  Somehow I convinced Erika that southern Texas and California were along our route. In a normal, snowy winter this itinerary may have made some sense. We had a good time, nevertheless, and did a lot of birding. In the process, I put the new Birdseye Bird Log phone app through its paces. We often found that we missed birds if we were too busy entering records into our phone. Thus we often found ourselves using the app to establish our exact location. Later we entered empty lists to eBird and filled them in with our computer later the same evening.

One of our first stops was to visit our neighbor, Sim, who, for the past two years, has been working with Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-headed Vireos at Fort Hood, Texas. We arrived on 11 April, a week too early for the vireo, but, as you can see, we did find the warbler.

The Golden-cheeked Warbler is the only Texas breeding bird that nests nowhere else. Although rare and endangered, it is locally common in juniper-oak woodlands of central Texas. By early summer, it leaves for its wintering grounds in southern Mexico and Central America. The species is threatened by its restricted range and the ever-growing human population and consequent clearing of its Texas habitat (Ladd and Glass 1999).

Wilson's Plover

The Wilson's Plover is restricted to southeastern coastal areas of the United States, Mexico, and Central America. We found several on Sanibel Island in late February 2010. This date was early for this species, a migrant from the south. Wilson's Plovers suffer from beach development and disturbance. This species is recognized by its short, thick, black bill.

Sandwich Tern

In North America, the Sandwich Tern is a "common but local" resident of the Gulf and southeastern Atlantic coasts. The species also occurs in Eurasia, and was first described in 1787 from the village of Sandwich in Kent, England. Sandwich Terns always breed in colonies with other species of gulls or terns. These other species are invariably more aggressive than the Sandwich Terns. Apparently Sandwich Terns "parasitize" the more aggressive species for protection against predators. An open question is why the aggressive species allow such parasitism (Shealer 1999). In any event, this photograph was taken of a Sandwich Tern along the Florida coast of Sanibel Island.

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstones are another common coastal shorebird that migrate over Minnesota to the High Arctic. Like the Sanderling in the last post, these photos were taken in Florida a couple of years ago. Even in their relatively dull basic plumage, turnstones are striking when they fly. Note the turnstone's slightly upturned bill--evident in the lower photo. Turnstones flip pebbles and other beach detritus in search of just about anything edible--invertebrates, small fish, human garbage, and even other birds' eggs (Nettleship 2000).