Marsh Wren

I have already written about Marsh Wren songs and possible cryptic species. Generally I find Minnesota Marsh Wrens more wary than South Dakota birds. Nevertheless, about a half-dozen Marsh Wrens approached John Holden and me while we visited the 180th Street Marsh in nearby Dakota County on 30 July 2014. They were difficult to photograph, as they bounced about, calling all the while, and the camera’s autofocus confused by all the cattail leaves.

Male Marsh Wrens often mate with two or more females. The males build multiple nests, often at least six dummy nests for every nest used by a female. This nest building, and their plethora of song types, apparently advertise an individual male’s potential as a successful breeder (Kroodsma and Verner 2014).

Brown Thrasher

On Monday we banded a young Brown Thrasher at our Dundas station. This event was somewhat surprising, since this year we had no visual evidence of thrashers. The black background of this photo is due to using a flash in the very early morning.

These thrashers usually nests in low trees of shrubs, and occasionally on the ground.  Both sexes tend to the eggs and young.  The hatchlings leave the nest quickly, sometimes within nine days. Brown Thrashers are the most common host for Brown-headed Cowbirds, despite often rejecting cowbird eggs (Cavit and Hass 2000).

Cooper’s Hawk Bathing

On Thursday, 7 August 2014, Erika ran in from the garden and announced, “Quick get your camera, there’s a Cooper’s Hawk in the water feature!” This tame, young hawk allowed me to get quite close as it bathed in the middle pool of the stream. In the second photo, the bird has its head completely submerged as it shook its wings and tail. While belly-deep in the water, the Cooper’s Hawk looked up in the third photo. The hawk seemed completely unconcerned about us. Finally the hawk flew off, chased by Blue Jays.

I have seen Cooper’s Hawks bathing in bird baths, like one several years ago in Aberdeen, South Dakota. According to Curtis et al. (2006), this species "enjoys bathing" in pools of water and in the rain. These authors also write that birds “will often fly to  a sunny perch to dry."

Review: Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World, Handbook of the Birds of the World—Alive

Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World, Vol 1. Non-passerines. Josep del Hoyo and Nigel J. Collar. 903 pp. Hardbound. $194.65. Handbook of the Birds of the World—Alive. Subscription website. Approximately $40 or $60 annually, depending on subscription level.

Almost any birder will greatly enjoy the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World, Volume 1—but it is a large, heavy, expensive book. The book contains 357 plates containing 8290 small, thumb-sized illustrations of the non-passerines of the world. These drawings are generally very good, but tend to be in a cookie-cutter style, with birds often in identical poses.

The book is not meant to be an identification guide, but rather is a review of avian diversity. The color plates each contain about two-dozen birds and show species and many subspecies. Small range maps are included on each plate. Opposite each plate is a page giving alternative names, taxonomic notes, and subspecies and distribution. There is also a note on population status and a reference to where the bird appears in the 17-volume, Handbook of the Birds of the World, thus serving as an index to that monumental work.

The 30-page introduction is an interesting discussion about how species evolve and how they are defined. Also covered are definitions of terminology and the general layout of the species accounts. The book ends with at least 30 large atlas-sized maps of the regions of the world, including topographical landmarks and often political boundaries within countries (states and provinces). Finally, the book ends with a list of 2126 bibliographic references.

If you don’t have the $400 required for this volume and the upcoming checklist for all the passerines, or the $3760 (a 20% discount) for the whole 17-volume, Handbook of the Birds of the World, then consider the Handbook of Birds of the World—Alive (HBW—Alive).

HBW—Alive is the web version of the Handbook. You can buy a yearly subscription for approximately $40 annually. The website is massive, covering all 13,367 pages written by 277 authors, 10200 maps, and containing some 15 million words. All the family texts have internet links--some 17000 of them. You can search for bird families and species accounts for any of the birds of the world. But what is awesome is that HBW—Alive is being continually updated with new ornithological information, making the website truly alive and a vision into our technological future.

HBW—Alive lacks the sumptuous photographs of the Handbook. In their place are links to a wide array of still and video sequences of the birds. At this time, this includes over 67,500 links to pictures, videos, and sounds. Links also exist to the original literature cited in the text—although this ability is available only to Supporting Members for about $60 per year.

HBW—Alive also allows you to keep personal notes and to create printable country checklists, complete with color illustrations of every species. Keeping life-lists is also possible for Supporting Members. Updates from the ornithological journals of the world are also available. I have barely scratched the surface of what a stupendous resource this website offers. Anyone seriously interested in birds should check out this link: Overview of HBW—Alive.

Eight-spotted Forester

We had to wait for our room to be ready on our first day at Big Bend National Park on 25 February 2014. So we drove down to Panther Junction along the Rio Grande. Among the cattails in a small pond near a campground, we discovered an Eight-spotted Forester. This day-flying moth is often mistaken for a butterfly. The species ranges across much of eastern North America, west to South Dakota and Texas. The caterpillars can be a pest.

Canyon Towhee

Last February, after we left south Texas, Erika and I spent two days at Big Bend National Park. February is probably not the best month for birding there, so I went with limited expectations. My target species was this Canyon Towhee, a common bird for which I lacked photographs. The reason was that only recently have Canyon and California towhees been split into separate species. (Both used to be called Brown Towhees.)

I asked a park ranger where I might best find Canyon Towhees, and he replied, “Oh, we call them Parking Lot Birds, because that is where you see them.” The ranger was correct. These towhees, inhabitants of our Southwest and northern Mexico, are found in a wide variety of habitats and display a range of behaviors—from shy and hard to find, to tame and confiding.

Anna’s Hummingbird

On 25 February 2014, Erika and I arrived at Terlingua at the edge of Big Bend National Park.  We hoped for rare hummingbirds at local feeders. The only hummers we saw were two Anna’s Hummingbirds. I thought that they might be Black-chinned Hummingbirds. Mary Gustafson, an eBird checker and friend, assures me that the primaries are wide,  not narrow, even on the inner feathers, and the green flanks all point to Anna’s Hummingbird.

The Anna’s Hummingbird’s range has greatly expanded since the 1930s. Then it was only found from Baja California to San Francisco. Now it breeds north to British Columbia and east to western Texas. Apparently this species has taken advantage of the proliferation of hummingbird feeders and exotic plants (Clark and Russell 2012).

Ruby Meadowhawk

On 29 July 2014, the Carleton College arboretum swarmed with meadowhawks. This is a photo of a Ruby Meadowhawk, only my second encounter with the species. Last year I posted a note on this species  and mentioned that Ruby Meadowhawks are difficult to identify, except in Minnesota and Iowa. Our populations can be identified by their amber wings.

Yellow-headed Blackbird Fledgling

Taking a break from my Texas birds, about which I have been posting for the past week, life has not come to a complete stand-still here in Minnesota.  On 9 July 2014, John Holden and I visited the 180th Street Marsh in nearby Dakota County. To our delight, we found several very young Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Perhaps the presence of these blackbirds is why I have found but few dragonflies at this marsh. Readers of my June blog on the species may recall that Yellow-headed Blackbirds only thrive in wetlands replete with dragonfly larvae.

Purple Ground-Cherry

On our last day in south Texas last February, Erika and I took a long walk in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We did not see many birds or dragonflies. We did happen upon Purple Ground-Cherry, Phyalis lobata. It blooms throughout the summer, but the roots continue to expand during the winter. The fruit is edible, but similar to deadly nightshade, so caution is advised. Both plants are in the potato family, Solanaceae. The species grows in well-drained sandy soils across much of the Southwest.