Southern Oregon bird fun

I forgot how many cool birds live here in Southern Oregon. Today I saw about 20 common mergansers. There were four males and about 16 females. The dogs and I startled them and you can imagine how loud it is when 20 common mergansers take off, primarily because of how long they "run" on the water before leaving it (sometimes they never quite take off). There was a great blue heron on the remains of what I believe to be an old water gauge, though I've heard rumors that a different bridge spanned the river before I was born. Either way the sky was grey, the cement covered in dark moss and the great blue heron sitting there so regally in its greyish blue plumage. It was lovely. I also saw two black phoebes. We were celebrating the solstice by the river and they were putting up quite a racket. One landed close enough that I could see it had an insect (shocking at this time of year!) in its beak. It then flew off while the other one scolded from nearby. I love it here.

Bird feeder madness

Our bird feeders are experiencing a high level of use right now. Birds that normally don't visit us are here in decent numbers. There are roughly 10 juncos; our typical winter flock of red-breasted nuthatches, black-capped chickadees and chestnut-backed chickadees; the white-breasted nuthatch and at least six golden-crowned sparrows! The golden-crowned sparrows made my day. I've been watching a flock of them for a couple of weeks now. They're usually hanging out in the blackberry bushes at the dog park, I hear them when the dogs and I walk by in the mornings.

On a completely different note . . . I took the dogs to the cemetery to run in the snow this morning. They had a blast! I almost ate it several times as I chased them around in the snow though. I forgot how fun the snow can be.

Finals week and such

Last weekend we went to help a friend in need in Grants Pass. This week is finals week. I am thus quite swamped and will not be posting much, aside from this, until after Thursday (my last final). I hope to get better about scheduling time for the ethno-ornithology part of this blog next term but we'll see how that goes!

Three not-so-blind mice

A mouse has been visiting our patio every morning for the last few days. The dogs watch it as if it might do something interesting, or they might be magically transported outside. It is a cute mouse. This morning I was watching it adoringly, telling it how cute it is. Then there were three mice. One in the bucket of gardening supplies, one rummaging in the leaves the third looking for seeds dropped by the birds. Now we have a problem. The management sent out a newsletter telling people to keep their garbage picked up to prevent a mouse/rat problem. We have no garbage on our patio, just gardening supplies, a fire pit and bird feeders. I don't want to chase the mice away but I don't want to get in to trouble either. Perhaps if we stop filling the feeders the mice will go away. Or maybe they'll stage a revolt and begin eating our garden. Meh, we'll figure something out.

After looking at various pictures of mice it seems like they are house mice. I don't know if that is good or bad. Maybe its neither.

Statistics

Ugh, I have come to the conclusion that I am one of the biggest geeks I know! Why? I'll tell you. I LOVE statistics, no joke. The on-line class is long and has taken an incredible amount of work this term but actually doing statistical analysis is awesome. Over the holiday weekend I started a study comparing the species and number of birds that come to the feeders at my parents' house in Grants Pass, Oregon (rural) to the birds that come to my feeder here in Corvallis ("urban"). Normally our feeders here are swarming with birds between 9:00 am and noon but today I have sat at my sliding glass door, doing statistics homework in between 10 min feeder watches. There has been activity, not nearly as much as I had expected. Preliminary analysis indicates that mom has a larger number of birds, including an obvious pair of white-breasted nuthatches, but we have a larger variety of birds. We were also required to find an article to analyze for this week's discussion. I found one on Kirtland's warblers. Warblers are one of my favorite groups of birds and this article further peaked my interest.

Kirtland's are an endangered species, primarily because of the habitat loss that was occurring in the ONLY place this species breeds. The entire population of Kirtland's warblers breeds in the northern area of the lower Michigan peninsula. They winter in the Bahamas. Thus, I am constantly torn between grad school for my PhD so I can do more research and my Master's in Education so that I can dedicate all of my free time studying birds and trying to get youth involved. I keep coming back to that. I was given so many opportunities when I was young, it seems appropriate that I try to give others the same opportunities. If I get my PhD I worry that I'll become too constrained to one area, I wish that I lived in a time where I could be a naturalist and just travel studying birds, learning from them and educating about them. Why doesn't anybody have an actual ornithology degree? Why can't I just go somewhere to dedicate myself to learning systematics, behavior, "all" about birds?