Inside Birding

The Sapsucker Woods team from the Cornell Lab have created a FREE 5-video YouTube series on bird identification skills. It's called Inside Birding and it's GREAT! It covers the 4 key elements of bird identification: Shape & Size, Behaviour, Colour Pattern, and Habitat. There's also a final video specifically about warblers.

Walkway sign at Sapsucker Woods
(taken during our trip there in 2008)

I'm sure all but the most experienced birders (and ornithologists) will learn something. If not, you'll at least get to see a lot of different birds up close & personal!

Enjoy! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ridajl8uic0&feature=BFa&list=PL89FAA014C9EF59BC

It's an Olive-sided Flycatcher!

Earlier tonight I was pulling weeds when I first heard the song - an unfamiliar but very distinctive three-note tune coming from high up in the trees behind our house. Needless to say, all weeding stopped. I scanned the trees with my binoculars - no luck. The song kept playing intermittently, fuelling my curiosity - which was quickly becoming a minor obsession. At one point I thought I saw a bird WAY UP in a distant tree but it was too far away to even know for sure that it was a bird, so I went in and got my scope. With that I could see the outline of the bird but it was too far away to make out the colouring or shape. But I noticed that it behaved like the flycatchers I had watched in Mexico, sallying out from the top of a tree to catch flying insects and returning to the same perch. Could it be a flycatcher? Here, on Gabriola?

Olive-sided Flycatcher
Photo by Dominic Sherony - CC License

I went in, got out my BC Bird Songs CD, and played all the tracks of flycatcher songs until - yes, that's it!! - an olive sided flycatcher! (It was kind of like finally being able to scratch a serious itch!) The song is described as sounding like "quick three beers" - with the emphasis on the 'three'.  You can listen to the song at http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Olive-sided_Flycatcher/sounds

At Cornell's All About Birds site I discovered that the olive-sided flycatcher, which comes to BC from South America to breed in the summer, is rated Near-Threatened by the IUCN.

If you live on the north end of the island, I hope that this post will save you the angst of trying to identify the unusual birdsong coming from the forest. Of course, it's possible there are olive-sided flycatchers on the south end too - has anyone heard or seen one??

The Birds and The Bear

There have been several reports of bear sightings in the Berry Point area over the last couple of days. The Conservation Officer (CO) has confirmed that the scat does indeed look like that of a bear.

Picture of bear scat provided by GROWLS

If you see the bear, please call the RAPP line at 1-877 -952-7277. The CO would like to keep track of the bear just to make sure no problems arise.

Note that bears like birdseed! So if you are concerned about having him in your yard it might be a good idea to take down any bird feeders.

Baby Bird Tips

Thank you to GROWLS for providing the following suggestions
about what to do if you find a baby bird.   

GROWLS Pager: 250-714-7101

If a nestling is out of its nest

If the bird is cold to the touch, warm it by gently holding in hands. When warm, replace in nest. DO NOT FEED!

If both the nestling and nest are ‘down’

Tie nest back in tree in about the same place, if possible. Use heavy twine because bird can get entangled in thin string. If the nest is torn apart, make a new one out of a margarine tub lined with dryer ling, DRY leaves, or shredded paper towel. Do not use grass, mud, or cotton. Place drainage holes in the bottom of the tub. Tie nest back in tree using heavy twine. Watch from a distance. If parent birds have not returned in two hours, call GROWLS.

If you see a fledgling (feathered but cannot yet fly) on the ground without its parent

Birds often fledge, or jump from the nest, a few days before they can fly. The parents will continue to care for them on the ground until the babies can fly. Leave the fledgling alone unless it appears to be injured or sick. Keep children and animals away. If someone has already picked up the fledgling, put it in a bush or low branch of a tree near where it was found. If the parents are not back in 4-6 hours, call GROWLS.

Fledged white-crowned Sparrow at Folklife Village last summer.
Not to worry, mother was close by - see next photo.  

Mother keeping close watch

If you see an orphaned or precocial baby with no parent nearby

If the bird is running around the yard, leave it alone. Keep children and animals away. The parent is likely nearby. If the baby has wandered into a building and is separated from its parents, put it outside and watch from a distance for the parents to come. If the baby appears weak or sick, call GROWLS.

GROWLS Pager: 250-714-7101

Eagle & Owl Released Today!

This afternoon more than twenty islanders gathered to watch as a Barn Owl and a Bald Eagle came home to Gabriola to be released close to where they were initially rescued. Both birds had been injured in the wild, rescued by GROWLS, and taken off-island for treatment and rehabilitation.

The Barn Owl, a species of special concern, is a rare resident in the southeastern Vancouver Island region. This one was released at the end of Dorby Road off Peterson.

Barn Owl ready for release back into the forest



Bye-bye cage! (Photo thanks to Tawny Capon)




I'm outa' here! (Photo by Tawny Capon)

As soon as the owl flew into the woods (after relieving himself after the long car ride!) crows and ravens began makng themselves known. Perhaps they were letting everyone know an old neighbour had returned home?


FIRST EAGLE RELEASE ON ISLAND
This Bald Eagle, released today at Brickyard Beach, is the FIRST one ever to be rescued on Gabriola, taken off-island for treatment and rehabilitation, then successfully returned to the island for release. So today was very special ...




A good crowd gathered at Brickyard Beach to honour and quietly cheer on the eagle.
(Photo thanks to Tawny Capon)



A wet feet beginning. (Photo by Tawny Capon)



Off he goes! (Photo by Tawny Capon)

A Few Bald Eagle facts:

• This most majestic of birds is a common resident of the southern coast of BC
• Eagles don't mate until they have their characteristic white head and tail feathers, at about four or five years old
• When they do mate, it's for life
• Many reuse their nests year after year, adding sticks each season until the nest is massive!
• Their chicks are hatching now - or very very soon!

For more about the Bald Eagle check out the GROWLS website: http://www.growls.ca/

Welcome Rufous hummingbird!

Yesterday, March 21, the first Rufous hummer this year showed up at our feeder. Today he was zipping by my head while I was in the garden. I love spring!!

I don't have a record for last year but two years ago the first Rufous arrived at our feeders on March 19. Since 2012 is a leap year, the one I saw yesterday arrived just one day later.

Colin at the Backyard Bird and Nature Store in Nanaimo reports that they have had reports of Rufous from as far north as Qualicum Beach so far.

Is your hummer feeder up?

The Rufous hummingbirds have completed most of their 6000 kilometre migratory journey from Mexico, were seen early this week in southern Vancouver Island, and should be here on Gabriola very soon - or might be NOW! I read in Monday's Sounder that someone reported Rufous hummers already flitting around the island, and I must admit I thought I saw one in our Japanese cherry tree last Saturday BUT I didn't have my binos with me and didn't get a good enough look to know FOR SURE that it wasn't an Anna's - which are here year round. So I contacted the 'senior' birders ar Birding in BC for info. Those who responded said there have been no confirmed reports of Rufous in the mid-island-Nanaimo area yet. If you think you've seen a RUFOUS hummer on the island already (look for the rufous-coloured sides on both male and female) please leave a note in the Comments section below. 

Rufous hummingbird at our feeder last year

In any case, it's definitely time to put out your feeders. One part white sugar (not honey or organic sugar or any other 'healthier' alternative) to 3 1/2 to 4 parts water should do it. Please do not colour the water! The red dye isn't good for the hummingbirds and is unnecessary, since they are attracted by the red of the feeder itself. And please be sure to refill and clean your feeders every week or so - and more often once it warms up.

Feeders help hummers
Once in a while someone asks me if it isn't 'better' to just let hummingbirds get their food naturally, from native plants. (This same question applies, of course, to all birds, and is a philosophical/ecological question I will set aside for today but may take up at another time.)

For me, the answer is "No, it isn't better for them." In an undeveloped, pristine, edenic world, the hummers would, I'm sure, not need artificial feeders to help them refuel after their 6ooo kilometre trip from Central America, but that's not the world we/they live in. Providing nectar is the LEAST we can do, given all the plundering and deforestation and pollution and other acts of violence against the earth we, as a species, have already committed - and continue to commit. This just makes their migratory journeys more and more challenging. 

The value of human-supplied nectar lies not only in its ready availability but also in its 'efficiency' for the hummers. In a 2011 study (Dartmouth University) researchers confirmed that hummingbirds (unlike humans!) feed according to "Optimal Foraging Theory". Basically, this means that their intent is to balance the energy spent finding food with its caloric benefit in order to maximize their chances of survival. (In human terms, they wouldn't bother eating donuts because the nutritive value isn't worth the time and energy spent to ingest then digest them.) Since the flowers that hummers eat from produce just enough nectar to allow them to be pollinated, hummers need to expend energy flying from flower to flower in order to find sufficient nectar. Given their high metabolism and energy requirements, there is a point at which a cost-benefit analysis says 'this just ain't worth it'. That's why, according to the Dartmouth study, hummingbirds aim to choose the largest flower patches with the 'sweetest' nectar concentrations. (To read the summary of the study from the Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, go to  http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/11s_final-34-36.pdf) This is why I continue to advocate for feeders.

Just make sure you don't wear red in the vicinity!

Fun coming up!
Soon we'll be sitting on the deck watching the territorial squabbling of the hummers as they stake out their places at the feeders. Luckily, they are rarely damaged in their 'battles' since their instincts tell them to protect those long life-giving bills. And once they settle in, we might get to watch those amazing courtship displays. I hope ...

Enjoy!