Birding Cape May

After the frantic activity of late September and most of October, a day of birding and photography in Cape May was a day of refreshment. I found no need to rush after this and that. Rather I just enjoyed what came.

There's always a highlight to a day of birding, though the highlight may often be a butterfly, a dragonfly, a blossom, or an encounter with a friend. On this day, the highlight was a bird - Eurasian Widgeon - 2 drakes in fact, though only one provided a reasonable photo op.

Eurasian Widgeon

Predominant among the songbirds was the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Common everywhere. Other which allowed their photos to be taken were Savannah Sparrow and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Savannah Sparrow

One of my favorite winter birds is the Carolina Wren. This tiny bundle of energy will sing on almost any day of the year.

Carolina Wren

And finally ... an exotic. In the pond in front of the Hawk Watch platform, a Black Swan has been present for a couple of months. A native of Australia (and virtually a non-migrant) this bird is certainly an escapee from some zoo or private collection. Regardless, it was interesting to see, and a beautiful bird. The swan even has its own Facebook page: Black Swan of Cape May.

Black Swan of Cape May

Good Birding!!

Sparrows

Birding along the Connecticut River in Brattleboro and Vernon this morning yielded six sparrow species.

Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Song Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Good Birding!

Road Salt

White-winged Crossbills often become
"intoxicated" on road salt

Not long ago a friend arrived late for a community supper. The reason she gave for being late was received by some in the group as far-fetched, but they acknowledged that it was a creative and original excuse. She said, “I was coming down Newfane Hill and there were a couple of White-winged Crossbills in the middle of the road. They must have been intoxicated with salt because they wouldn’t move, so I had to get out of the car and make them move.” When I came soberly to her defense, it was then suggested that perhaps I had the same problem as the birds.

Intoxicated is not precisely correct, but it is close enough. Crossbills have a fondness for salt, and (according to Forbush) they will eat almost anything that is well-salted. Along our winter roadways, they can get their salt along with a dietary essential - dirt and grit. But too much salt can produce listlessness leading to mortality. That is, the birds don’t feel like moving and get run over, unless the approaching driver has a greater concern for the birds than getting somewhere on time - and there don’t seem to be too many drivers like that on our roads.

This opens a couple of doors on bird biology. Birds lack teeth and have little sense of taste, and so tend to swallow their food whole. Their stomachs have two parts, one with digestive juices which act similar to the human stomach and a second, large stomach known as the gizzard. The tough hard muscular walls of the gizzard, aided by swallowed sand and dirt, serve the function performed by human teeth, grinding and pulverizing solid substances such as seeds. Those flocks of finches and juncos which we see along our roadways in the winter are eating dirt - they are ingesting the grit necessary to enable the gizzard to “chew” the seeds which they swallow whole.

Coincidentally, they are also getting a good bit of salt as well, and this can present a problem for the birds. Human kidneys are not very effective at flushing salt from our system; it requires lots of fresh water. Those old mariners set adrift on oceans of salt water died of thirst: “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” If they drank the salt water, their kidneys would dehydrate the rest of the body to flush the salt.

The "tubenose" of pelagic birds, like Cory's Shearwater,
is visible evidence of the salt gland
which secrets salt from species which live on salt water

Bird kidneys are even less effective in dealing with excess salt than are human kidneys. However, sea birds will often spend months far removed from any fresh water and must drink sea water. How do they manage? They manage through a special gland located in the skull over and/or in front of the eyeholes and connected to the nasal opening by a duct. It is called the salt gland. The salt gland removes salt from the bloodstream and then secretes it in a highly concentrated form through the nostrils. The head shaking seen in some oceanic birds is done to expel this saline solution. Salt glands are larger and more developed among seabirds than land birds. Birds we are most likely to see with developed salt glands include gulls, terns, sea-going ducks (eiders), geese, coots, and rails.

Savannah Sparrow in a NJ salt marsh

The salt glands is present in songbirds (passerines) but is not functional unless the birds are regularly exposed to salt. The subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow which lives in salt marshes is able to secrete 2-3 times as much salt as other subspecies which live in salt-free habitats.

So why are the crossbills so fond of salt? I have no idea! The Birder’s Handbook simply notes under “Diet” that White-winged Crossbills are fond of salt, and then adds cyrptically: “Fondness for road salt produces occasional heavy mortality as listless birds are run over.” Too much salt is toxic, and so the birds are “intoxicated,” just as my friend said when explaining her tardiness. I guess we might say that salt is to crossbills what alcohol is to some humans; some individuals don’t know when they’ve had enough.

Good Birding!!


Link to additional information on "Birds and Salt"

LBJs - IDs for Exercises 9 & 10

If you are following these LBJ posts, I hope they are getting easier for you. Exercise 9 was posted last Thursday. Exercise 10 was posted Sunday.

#41 - American Tree Sparrow - similar to juvenile White-crowned and juvenile Chipping. Note warm wash on sides, sometimes a breast spot. Study the bird guides for differences in size and shape

#42 - Chipping Sparrow

#43 - Indigo Bunting, female - Note traces of blue on the wings, finch-like beak

#44 - House Finch, female

#45 - Swamp Sparrow

#46 - Rose-breasted Grosbeak, female

#47 - Savannah Sparrow

#48 - Song Sparrow

#49 - Song Sparrow - See! You don't need to see the breast spot to ID this sparrow.

#50 - Pine Siskin







Good Birding!!

LBJs - IDs for 1 & 2

These exercises on Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) is more for my benefit than as a quiz or test for readers (though I hope a few people will be bold and do the IDs). As I come to the ID posts and give some field marks and GISS (general impression size shape) for the IDs, I am trying to write what I “know” or sense. I am already finding it a difficult task.

My apologies for the northeastern North American bias, but that is where I live and these are the LBJs I see most often. For readers in other parts of the world, I hope you find some amusement of some sort.

From Monday, Dec 6

#1 - Song Sparrow - the default sparrow - in the east, this is a dull brown and gray sparrow with a heavily streaked breast which merges to a breast spot or stick pin. But it is not necessary to see the spot. The lateral throat stripes, the brown and gray stripes and pattern on the head, and the behavior - a poor, jumpy and usually short flight - betray its identity. Not much of a looker, but I have to like a bird that will hang around all year and will sing as soon as the winter sun appears and the temperature ticks up a degree or two.

#2 - Field Sparrow - light, warm coloring; patterned on the head something like the Song Sparrow, but more gentle; pink bill and legs; a spring and summer resident in grassy fields, and rather scarce in Vermont as forest reclaims the open space.

#3 - White-throated Sparrow - I should have held this photo until later. You can just see the white throat under the bowed head, but the yellow lores are absent in the photo. However, the tannish head stripes, dark bill and chunkiness give it away. Juvenile White-crowned Sparrow has warmer head coloring, while adult is white.

#4 - Song Sparrow - no breast spot is visible, but the gray and brown pattern on the head, throat stripe, and evidence of heavy streaking on breast give away the identiy.

#5 - Savannah Sparrow - something of a slim and lighter Song Sparrow. Sometimes this sparrow shows hints of yellow lores (never as prominent as the White-throated) and yellow along the eye line. Usually less streaking than Song; sometimes there are hints of a breast spot. The adult Ipswich is most common in the east which is good for me; when I look at field guides, some of the other subspecies look much more like the Song Sparrow.

From Wednesday, Dec 8

#6 - Chipping Sparrow - adult breeding - when this little sparrow shows up at the feeders, I know Winter is definitely on the run. The strong black eye line, white stripe, rusty red cap, and clean, unstreaked breast make this almost unmistakable. Nonbreeding and juveniles can be another matter.

#7 - Fox Sparrow - probably my favorite sparrow, this large junky sparrow is patterned like a Song Sparrow on steroids. In the east, the red (Taiga) is the brightest of the sparrows. A few visit my feeders most years during early Spring and late Fall. When I miss them, I feel a void in the season.

#8 - Pine Siskin - Pete Dunne calls this bird a goldfinch in disguise. About the same size as an American Goldfinch, it often travels with them, and if it is a small minority in a finch flock, it can be overlooked. The beak is thin and pointed, unlike the finch beak of the goldfinch. The siskin is heavily streaked, unlike the goldfinch, and the hints of yellow in the wing and tail give it away.

# 9 - Song Sparrow - default sparrow - head pattern and heavy streaking, compact shape, strong lateral throat stripe.

#10 - White-throated Sparrow - white striped adult showing prominent white throat and yellow lores.






I hope to post additional photos on Monday and Wednesday, with ID on Friday, unless other birding intrudes along the way.

Good birding.

Jake's Landing

Last week I made my Spring trip to Cape May and southern New Jersey. I managed all or part of 5 days birding, plus attending grandchildren's school programs in Philadelphia. I had good birding, and lots of fun with the camera. I will dribble out a few photographic highlights over several posts.

Jake's Landing is on the Delaware Bay north of Cape May about 20 miles. The boat landing is at the end of a dirt road about a half mile from the forest's end in a sea of salt marsh grass. A peaceful and quiet spot, I spent a late afternoon and evening just being there - and trying to get a few birds to hold still.

Seaside Sparrows were all over the marsh and singing their buzzy excuse for a song - but doing so with great enthusiasm. One even chose to sing where he was not just a brown spot on a grass stem somewhere in the marsh.

Where song birds proclaim the quality of their genes in song, the Forester's Tern has to demonstrate that he can be a good provider. This gentleman (on the right) has just delivered food to his lady love. She was not always patient with how long it took him to return to her, often vocalizing about his delay from her perch. But now she seems momentarily content (or else she's telling him to go out and get more), but for the moment he is proud of his feat.

Marsh Wrens lined the brush along the road and around the boat launch. Their courtship routine is multifaceted. He does fluttering flight displays, sings without ceasing, and builds nests. Sometimes he tries to do all three at once, plus defend his territory against other wrens and snoopy photographers. This busy bundle of energy had two nests within about ten feet of each other.

Here is an uncharacteristic moment when he was neither singing nor carrying nest material ...

Savannah Sparrows sometimes sit in the open in grassy fields and give you a good look, as did this handsome specimen.

Good birding!

Birding at Brigantine

This past Monday was delightfully sunny and mild, making for a pleasant stop at the Brigantine Unit of Forsyth NWR just north of Atlantic City. Started the morning with a Clapper Rail venturing out (sort of) from the grasses. Wish I had the time to hang around for hours like the photographer we met, but this photo is at least recognizable.


Another highlight was this Peregrine Falcon on the Osprey perch. Digiscoping the falcon was hampered by the wind, but again, at least passable.


Savananah Sparrows were moving everywhere, and this one gave me a great view. More often, they pop up from the grasses, fly low, then drop and disappear.


Snowy Egret