First House Wrens!

Today, I recorded seven Bewick's Wrens and my first two House Wrens! Pretty exciting stuff. I also saw Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, Pacific-slope Flycatchers and many, many other birds. I was in the field for about five hours and after driving and putting in a little time at work...I'm ready for my day to end! Hope you all are enjoying some sunshine and getting to see some amazing birds!

Thesis Proposal

I'm sitting at my computer, pretending to be productive, supposed to be working on the methods for my thesis. Instead, I think I will post my proposal here. That's kind of productive. Creating a study and methodology that will allow for strong statistical analysis BEFORE doing the study has created a great deal of work over the last two weeks (work I thought was finished). One of my committee members has been a great deal of help.

Changes in Singing Behavior in Response to Playback in House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) and Bewick’s Wrens (Thryomanes bewickii)

By Teresa O. Wicks

Introduction

Birds, Bird Song and Current Research

Bird song, often in conjunction with other factors, provides birds with a way to communicate their reproductive status, territorial boundaries and fitness. In some species, bird song also demonstrates a male’s position as either a dominant or submissive male. In several species bird song also indicates suitable breeding habitat, with males making decisions about where to nest based on conspecific (same species) singing and nesting. Ward and Schlossberg (2004) found that playback effectively attracted black-capped vireos (Vireo atricapilla) to ideal woodland habitat in Texas where one or no pairs of vireos nested in previous years. The study also found that male vireos drawn to the area initially countersang with the playback but eventually habituated. Vireo nests in the study areas were also more successful than nests in similar control areas.

Male singing can encourage breeding behavior in females of the same species. Mota and Depraz (2004) found that female Serins (Serinus serinus) exposed to playback of male Serin songs, during the nest-building stage of the breeding season, spend more time nest building than females not exposed to additional songs. Females of many species prefer males that have a large song repertoire, win male-male singing “contests” or that sing aggressively. For example, Reid et al. (2004) found a strong correlation between song repertoire size and nesting success in Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Mennill et al. (2002) found that playback at the start of the breeding season caused females mated to high ranking male Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) to engage in extra-pair mating with increased frequency. Females mated to low-ranking male Black-capped Chickadees did not engage in increased extra-pair mating. This is the result of females eavesdropping on male-male singing competitions and making judgments about fitness based on males “winning” or “losing” singing competitions. Female Great Tits (Parus major) also make decisions about extra-pair matings by eavesdropping on male-male singing competitions (Otter et al. 1999).

Males that sing aggressively typically do so in defense of their territory and aggressive/defensive singing is a sign of a male’s fitness. In European Robins (Erithacus rubecula), males sing aggressively in response to conspecific singing overlap (Dabelsteen et al. 1997) while male Corn Buntings (Miliaria calandra) sing aggressively in response to alternating conspecific singing (Osiejuk, Ratynska and Cygan 2007). Hyman (2007) found that Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) countersing as a sign of aggression, but only in response to the songs of foreign male Carolina Wrens. Stoddard et al. (1991) found that song sparrows respond more to stranger song and neighbor song at the opposite boundary from where they were normally found than to their neighbors. Molles and Vehrencamp (2001) found that banded wrens (Thryothorus pleurostictus) were able to recognize neighbor songs from stranger songs, even if the strangers were singing a shared song. Contrary to these findings, Wiley (2005) found that Acadian Flycatchers (Empidonax virescens) showed only marginal recognition of neighbors compared to strangers songs, and only after 30 minutes of song playback. This is likely because there is very little song variation from individual to individual in Acadian Flycatchers.

There are a number of factors involved in how behavior changes in response to playback. First, is the geographic location songs being tested came from. As mentioned above, males respond less to songs from their neighbors than they do from strangers. Second, location songs are played from. A male will respond more aggressively to a neighbor’s song played within their territory or along the opposite boundary. Third, is the duration of the playback. In Wiley’s (2005) study of Acadian Flycatchers, a slight recognition response was recorded after 30 min of playback but not after only two minutes. Finally, the time of day and season of playback can influence behavioral changes in response to playback. Erne and Amrhein (2008) found that Winter Wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes) increased the number of songs sung during the pre-dawn chorus following simulated territory intrusion at sunset the previous day. Little research has been done into response as a factor of migratory status (residential vs. migratory).

Purpose/Background

The purpose of this study is to investigate changes in singing behavior, in response to playback of non-neighbor conspecific song, in Bewicks’ Wrens (Thryomanes bewickii) and House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon). Bewick’s Wrens are a non-migratory species of wren, which maintain territories year-round. Territory size is an average of 4.9 acres in dense riparian woodlands and an average of 9.4 acres in open woodlands (Kroodsma 1973). These birds know their neighbors and will sing (at a greatly reduced level) even in the winter, to defend their territory. House Wrens are a migratory species of wren and do not maintain a territory year-round. House Wrens will return to their breeding territory from previous years, or if that territory is occupied, find one adjacent to their previous territory. House Wren territories are an average of 2.3 acres (Kroodsma 1973). Given their migratory life history, males do not know their conspecific neighbors as well as the residential Bewick’s Wren.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis A is that Bewick’s Wrens will display a greater change in singing behavior, in response to playback, than House Wrens. Bewick’s wrens will sing more songs per minute, sing earlier in response to playback and will approach the speakers closer and for longer than House Wrens. These behaviors are associated with aggressive territorial defense, which Bewick’s Wrens will exhibit more strongly because of their year-round territory defense. Alternatively, hypothesis B is that House Wrens will display a greater change in singing behavior, in response to playback, than Bewick’s Wrens. As a migratory species, House Wrens have a much shorter time on their breeding grounds than Bewick’s Wrens. Because of this, House Wrens will display the changes in singing behavior associated with territory defense mentioned above. The null hypothesis is that changes in singing behavior in response to playback will be the same in both House Wrens and Bewick’s Wrens.

Implications

Changes in singing behavior can have serious implications for nesting success for individual males within a population. Birds that sing to defend their territory could lose territory if neighboring males see them as weak (in response to “loosing” to the playback). In species where females make extra-pair mating decisions based on a males rank or ability to out sing other males in competitions, males can lose paternity in their nests. Finally, a male that is viewed as weak by its neighbors and/or female conspecifics may not find a mate for that year, missing out on the opportunity to pass on his genetics.

Birders and Playback

The territorial and hierarchical behaviors displayed by most songbirds are what make playback a successful tool for birdwatchers wanting to attract rare or hard to find birds. According to Cordell and Herbert (2002), birding is the fastest growing recreational activity, growing 232% from 1983 to 2001. Birdwatching, though less damaging than many forms of recreation, can have a negative impact on breeding, nesting success, abundance and diversity. Though very little research has been done on the effects of birders using playback, anecdotal accounts abound. Birding organizations, such as the Americans Birders Association (2011), recommend limiting the use of recordings and other methods of attracting birds. Using playback to attract birds listed as threatened or endangered is interpreted as harassment and is therefore a violation of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The use of playback is also illegal in many parks and refuges.

Cutright (1999) recounts the story of a Fan-tailed Warbler (Euthlypis lachrymose) and Elegant Trogons (Trogon elegans) in Arizona. The Fan-tailed Warbler is a rare bird and within only a few days, enthusiastic birders, armed with playback and the desire to add another bird to their life lists, had apparently pressured the bird into moving out of the area. Elegant Trogon sightings are declining every year in southeastern Arizona, potentially due to disturbances of their nest sites by birders and photographers.

While many birders, birding organizations and researchers recommend using playback sparingly, there are some studies and anecdotal evidence that playback can be positive for birds. Some arguments in support of playback claims birds that use song to delineate territory are unaffected by playback and that playback can help stimulate breeding behavior in these species. Anecdotal evidence shows that playback may give a territorial male a feeling of satisfaction at having “scared off” a competitor when the playback ends and birders have moved on.

David Sibley (2011) gives an in-depth discussion of the arguments for and against using playback and provides guidelines for birders to help reduce the negative impacts of playback. Ultimately, well-designed, long-term studies on the impacts of playback on birds need to be conducted to properly inform birders of how and when to use playback (Sekercioglu, 2002).

Methods

Study area and subjects

In this study, I will look at changes in singing behavior in response to playback House Wrens and Bewick’s Wrens. Bewick’s Wrens are year-round residents throughout their western range (British Columbia to Mexico), found in scrub or thickets in open areas, open riparian forests and chaparral (Kennedy and White 1997). Similar to other wrens, Bewick’s Wrens learn their song in the winter before their first breeding season, from the males in neighboring territories, rather than from their fathers (Kroodsma 2005). House Wrens are migratory wrens, found in open forests, along forest edges and in meadows with sparse grass, trees or thickets (Kroodsma 1973).

I will locate thirty Bewick’s Wren and thirty House Wren territories, in sites in both Josephine and Jackson Counties. Josephine County sites include Whitehorse Park and Fish Hatchery Park. Jackson County sites include Whetstone Savannah, Emmigrant Lake, Upper and Lower Table Rocks, Valley of the Rogue State Park and sites along the Bear Creek Greenway.

Test Songs

As territories are discovered, songs of the males in each territory will be recorded. Songs will be mixed to create playback tapes. To avoid pseudoreplication and to avoid testing a specific tape or song, each tape will be used only once. Each male will be played the songs of strangers, to avoid neighbor recognition (and resulting habitation/reduced response). Additionally, to avoid testing differential response to dialect, songs of birds from geographically similar locations will be played to other non-neighbor males. Songs recorded in southern Jackson County will be played to birds in southern Jackson County, northern Jackson County to northern Jackson County and Josephine County to Josephine County.

Playback Procedure

Playback testing will start an hour after sunrise and continue for 4-5 hours. Males will all receive the test treatment, consisting of a 3-min pre-playback baseline period, a 5-min playback period and a 3-min post-playback recording period. Playback in territories less than 150 m apart will not be tested in the same day to avoid double-testing.

Measures of response

I will record the following response variables: singing rate (songs/min) pre-, during and post-playback; time to first song during (from the first song of playback) and post-playback; distance of closest approach to the speaker and time spent within 10 m of the speaker.

Possible Outcomes

There are several possible outcomes for this study. These outcomes can be grouped by singing or physical response. In regards to singing rate, birds will sing more songs per minute after playback; fewer songs per minute after playback or singing rate will be unaffected. Time to first song will either be less, greater or unchanged during and post-playback. Either birds will move close to the speakers and remain, will move close to the speakers but not remain or will not move close to the speakers.

References

American Birding Association. 2011. Birding Code of Ethics. Available from: www.aba.org/about/ethics.html. Accessed February 1, 2012.

Arcese, P., M.K. Sogge, A.B. Marr, M.A. Patten. 2002. Song Sparrow. The Birds of North America, No 704. (A. Poole and F. Gill Ed). Ithaca: The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Byers, B.E and D.E. Kroodsma. 2009. Female mate choice and songbird song repertoires. Animal Behavior 77:13-22.

Cordell, H.K. and N.G. Herbert. 2002. The Popularity of Birding is Still Growing. Birding 34:54-61.

Cutright, N.J. 1999. Attracting Birds Using Tapes or Compact Discs. The Passenger Pigeon 61(1):3-5.

Dabelsteen, T., P.K. McGregor, J. Holland, J.A. Tobias and S.B. Pederson. 1997. The signal function of overlapping singing in male robins. Animal Behavior 53:249-256.

Erne, N. and V. Amrhein. 2008. Long-term influence of simulated territorial intrusions on dawn and dusk singing in the Winter Wren: spring versus autumn. Journal of Ornithology 149:479-486.

Hyman, J. 2003. Countersinging as a signal of aggression in a territorial songbird. Animal Behavior 65:1179-1185.

Kennedy, E.D and D.W. White. 1997. Bewick’s Wren. The Birds of North America, No 315 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Ed). Ithaca: The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Kroodsma, D.E. 1973. Coexistence of Bewick’s Wrens and House Wrens in Oregon. The Auk 90: 345-352.

Kroodsma, D.E. 1990. Using appropriate experimental designs for intended hypotheses in “song” playbacks, with examples for testing effects of song repertoire sizes. Animal Behavior 40(6):1138-1150.

Kroodsma, D.E. 2005. The singing life of birds: the art and science of listening to birdsong, pp10-22. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Mennill, D.J., L.M. Ratcliffe and P.T. Boag. 2002. Female Eavesdropping on Male Song Contests in Songbirds. Science. 296:873.

Molles, L.E. and S.L. Vehrencamp. 2001. Neighbour recognition by resident males in the banded wren Thryothorus pleurostictus, a tropical songbird with high song type sharing. Animal Behaviour 61:119-127.

Mota, P.G. and V. Depraz. 2004. A Test of Male Song on Female Nesting Behaviour in the Serin (Serinus serinus): a Field Playback Experiment. Ethology 110:841-850.

Osiejuk, T.S, K. Ratyńska and J.P. Cygan. 2007. Corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) males respond differently to alternating and overlapping playback of song. Journal of Ethology 25:159-168.

Otter, K., P.K. McGregor, A.M.R. Terry, F.R.L. Burford, T.M. Peake and T. Dobelsteen. 1999. Do female great tits (Parus major) assess males by eavesdropping? A field study using interactive song playback. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science 266:1305-1309.

Reid, J.M., P. Arcese, A.L.E.V. Cassidy, S.M. Heibert, J.N.M. Smith, P.K. Stoddard, A.B. Marr and L.F. Keller. 2004. Song repertoire size predicts initial mating success in male song sparrows, Melospiza melodia. Animal Behavior. 68:1055-1063.

Şekercioğlu, C.H. 2002. Impacts of birdwatching on human and avian communities. Environmental Conservation 29(3):282-289

Stoddard, P.K., M.D. Beecher, C.L. Horning and S.E. Campbell. 1991. Recognition of individual neighbors by song in the song sparrow, a species with song repertoires. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 29:211-215.

Ward, M.P and S. Schlossberg. 2004. Conspecific Attraction and the Conservation of Territorial Songbirds. Conservation Biology 18:519-525.

Wiley, R.H. 2005. Individuality in songs of Acadian flycatchers and recognition of neighbours. Animal Behaviour 70:237-247.

Birding Break

Delightfully, I decided to take a break from the hussle, bussle and stress of the week to go birding. I've never wandered North Mtn. Park before and there have been white-throated sparrows reported there. Unfortunately I did not see any white-throated sparrows, I DID see many birds that I haven't seen in quite awhile (Fox Sparrow, Pine Siskin and a large flock of female/juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds to name a few). It was nice to be out and about. I then went to see my horse and on the way spotted an adult Golden Eagle on a telephone pole. Lovely!

I've decided on a thesis topic. I had narrowed the project down to three possible focal points (residential vs migratory bird response to playback, response to neighbor vs stranger songs, and response to overlap vs alternating song). Feeling completely unable to make a decision I made several slips of paper for each topic and drew one from a hat. Residential vs Migratory it is! Now to get this thesis proposal finalized!

Finally, my "big project" for one of my classes is about Birds (shocking, I know). This project will include notes about the birds I see in my daily life, thesis related papers and whatnot, anything I find in the media about birds, quotes from other people about birds in their lives and things of this nature. Kind of following a "Birds in our Daily Live" kind of theme. I'm calling it "Growing Up Bird." Which reminds me that I will probably write about the similarities between juvenile birds and humans (I see many of them!). Anyone out there interested in contributing your thoughts and experiences, whether daily or growing up, please leave a comment with your quote, story, etc. Thanks!

I've come to realize that my life is quite literally all about birds right now. The majority of my projects are about them, I'm birding regularly and my spare time is filled with thesis research/proposal writing. I'm certain I've never been happier!

Klamath Basin/Shasta weekend

Man, oh man! I took a break from the homework deluge (already) this weekend and headed to the Klamath Basin. The lakes were all predominantly ice and therefore the waterfowl birding was not quite what I'd hoped for. Still saw large flocks of snow and canada geese, some ross's geese, tundra swans and various ducks just not the size or variety I'm used to in the Klamath Basin. There were also many bald eagles, a juvenile golden eagle (hurray), rough-legged hawks, several loggerhead and northern shrikes (the first time I've seen a northern shrike!), a townsend's solitaire (also a first), cassin's finches, a great-horned owl and red crossbills (a first that I have been waiting most of my life for!). This is not a complete list, but an exciting list nevertheless. We hiked Captain Jack's Stronghold at sunset. We drove from Klamath Falls to Weed, a side of Shasta I've never seen. I find the Klamath Basin/Mt Shasta/Lava Beds part of this region to be so amazing. Breathtaking. A wonderful way to start the year/term. Here's to a year of great birding!

Snowy Owl Adventure

What a wonderful birding adventure I embarked upon yesterday. People have been seeing a snowy owl in Albany and a mountain plover near Corvallis, for several days now. I am generally not a "seeker" of birds. I see what I see wherever I am and am happy with that. But...I have always wanted to see a snowy. Over the summer I decided that I would go to their "normal" Oregon winter hangouts. Then, it turns out it is an irruption year for snowies, with larger numbers of them coming further south than in a typical year. Albany is about four hours from Ashland, but I didn't care. My post Fall Term of Graduate School celebration would be going to find the Albany Snowy Owl. A friend from the cohort came along and we met my birding compatriot in Eugene. After some delicious baked goods at Sweet Life we headed west/northwest on hwy 99W, toward Corvallis. The mountain plover was off of a road near one of my favorite wildlife refuges, Finley Wildlife Refuge, in a large field. Once we selected the right field it took mere minutes to spot the plover, but it was not alone. A winter plumed black-bellied plover was hanging out with it. Not my first black-bellied, but a wonderful surprise either way! We then headed to find the snowy in Albany. It was amazing how easy the snowy was to spot, in the large green field it was hanging out in. Particularly compared to finding the mountain plover (brown in a brown field). I know that snowies are big, but nothing I've read, no photos that I've seen, prepared me for how big and how wonderful snowies are in person. The bird was clearly a female, based on the amount of black barring on its chest. We watched him for quite a while, moving slowly away from us in short bouts of gliding. After a bit we drove to a road that took us closer to the snowy. The highlight of watching the snowy was having it fly toward us, land, look to the north, glide up, gracefully drop to the ground and bounce back up into the air with a large rodent in its talons. Of course, watching the owl swallow the rodent whole was even more delightful! Pizza Research Institute pizza after birding rounded out the delightful adventure. Happy birding.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sadly, this picture is not mine. Click here for more information about this picture.

Man, life has become quite busy these past few weeks! Today I took my mother and grandmother birdwatching on Bolt Mountain (home to Fish Hatchery Park only on the BLM portion of the mountain). It was an excellent day for birding! It started out great with an ash-throated flycatcher sighting almost immediately into the trip. Then the wind started picking up making birding-by-ear virtually impossible. Finally, it started raining. Then, as spring rains will do in Southern Oregon, as suddenly as the rain started it stopped. We hiked for about 1.5 miles before grandma needed to turn around (the trail is at about a 12% grade). Before she turned around we heard many orange-crowned, black-throated grey and yellow warblers, black-capped chickadees and American robins. Needless to say we talked a bit too much to hear (or see) much else.

After she and my mother turned around I headed off trail toward a long abandoned osprey nest. Well, not so much abandoned as partially destroyed by a wind storm and finally so broken down the osprey moved on. To the north of the phenomenal snag that this nest sits in, directly uphill, is an old "fort" that my grandfather built to sit in while deer hunting. My senior year in high school I climbed up to the fort almost everyday to watch the osprey courting, nesting and then raising their young. I recorded my observations as part of a senior project. Alas, I digress...as I neared the nest I heard a bird to the northeast that I was not familiar with. I have been casually birding in Fish Hatchery Park for almost half my life now and so hearing a bird that I was unfamiliar with up there was rather shocking. After a good fifteen minutes of "stalking" the bird, following its call through the brush trying to pinpoint the source, I caught a flash of white in a Ceanothus cuneatus, or buckbrush. I quickly brought my binoculars to my eyes but was too late, the bird had disappeared to another bush. At least I knew I was in the right area! Then the bird darted out of its hiding place and was joined by a second of the same bird. When I got my binoculars on them I knew instantly that I was seeing a pair of blue-grey gnatcatchers! The last time I saw blue-grey gnatcatchers was in early summer of 2000, in Orange County, CA where I was working on a bird banding internship for the Institute for Bird Populations. I know that they are uncommonly seen on the Table Rocks in Jackson County but I've never heard of them being in Josephine County. After watching the birds for a good fifteen minutes I headed up to the fort where I sat, enjoying the sun and looking out over the Applegate River. Finally, realizing that I still needed to get some things for making Mother's Day dinner I headed home. On the way down I spotted two male western tanagers, one immature and one quite a bit older; two male lazuli buntings and ended the hike with the first male Wilson's warbler of the year!

When I got back to the house I tried convincing my birding compatriot from Eugene to enter the blue-grey gnatcatchers into eBird for me but she, wisely, refused as she had not been the one to ID them. I have been reluctant to create an account on eBird because, well I'm not sure why. I suppose because I am often so busy as it is that I worry I will some how create skewed data by only recording birding adventures when I return excited and motivated. In the end I was motivated to do my part as a citizen scientist (and hopefully one day I will be a paid scientist) by a bar chart for Josephine County showing a very thin line for blue-grey gnatcatchers and only in May. My compatriot was able to dig up some more specific information (I'm not familiar with eBird yet) and informed me that the last recorded sighting was in 2004 in Merlin, OR! This makes two rare birds in two weeks!

All of this has me thinking about citizen science (which will certainly lead to an ethno-ornithology blog) and really how important it is. Citizen scientists have been assisting with tracking bird populations via the Christmas Bird Count and Project Feederwatch for years and eBird is another, more consistent, way for those of us that are regularly in an area to help create a better picture of what birds are where and when they are there. So, if you are reading this blog, you birdwatching regularly and have not yet signed up for eBird, please do so today. Your observations are important!

And, thanks to all you mothers out there for the life you help create!

Meadowlark Prairie Take Two

I went to Eugene again on April 29th. On May 1st I had a most amazing bird adv

enture! It has been a while since I've had a new bird sighting to add to my list, almost a year exactly. I also had a sighting of a bird that I surveyed in Boardman, that I have never seen anywhere other than Boardman and didn't think I'd ever see again outside of Boardman! Even better, just the other day I was thinking about this bird, sad that I couldn't just go see/hear them. What were these birds? Well, I'll start with the new sighting...

Sadly, not my picture my digital camera has been dead and gone for six plus months. Click here to find out more.

The new sighting was a flock of about 14 dunlins! They are superbly cute little sandpipers. I had no idea what they were at first, besides being a species of sandpiper, and had left my bird book in the car (overconfidence). Thankfully, their black bellies makes their markings pretty easy to remember! Other distinctive features of the dunlin include moderately long legs, a longish bill that curves down a bit (describe by All About Birds as being droopy), a rather short neck and a reddish back. According to All About Birds Life History page about dunlins, dunlins that nest along northern Alaska migrate west along Siberia and Asia to Japan and China. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists them as a species of Least Concern with their populations abundant but possibly declining. It occurs to me that maybe I have seen them before but because I only sta

rted watching for and identifying shorebirds within the last few years I didn't realize it. Their black bellies are pretty distinct though.

As with the dunlin this photo is not mine. Find it here if you are interested in seeing more.

Anyway, the second fantastic find of the day was a sage sparrow! Yes, you heard correctly, a sage sparrow. This is very exciting for a number of reasons. First, I was just lamenting the fact that I may never see another sage sparrow again, unless I visit Boardman, about a week before this trip. The sage sparrow was basically the last bird of the day and when I first heard it I had a sense of familiarity but couldn't remember where I knew the song from. Then I realized it was one I had listened to frequently in Boardman. From there I made the connection and excitedly followed the song until I was able to spot him (the sage sparrow). After my birding compatriot recorded the sighting on eBird we received correspondence seeking a specific location at Meadowlark Prairie and confirmation that we did indeed see a sage sparrow. Once affirmation was given I was informed that this was only the sixth sage sparrow recorded in Lane County! The last one being a few years ago and in a different location. Needless to say this made the sighting even more exciting!

Warblers!

Black-throated gray warbler borrowed from this website.

I woke up early last Thursday (April 21, 2011) and went bird watching in Fish Hatchery Park before work. I have been anxiously awaiting the return of the black-throated gray warbler for most of the winter. These little black and white birds are stunning and they have a pretty fun song. All told I saw four species of warbler; black-throated grey, yellow, orange-crowned and yellow-rumped. I also saw a Hutton's vireo. These little guys resemble ruby-crowned kinglets both in behavior and appearance and they can be found here year-round. Birds that can't be found here year-round that I am hoping will return soon are western wood pewees and Pacific-slope flycatchers (various other flycatchers too). Finally, I haven't encountered any yellow-breasted chat yet this year. I think they returned in May last year so I am hoping they will be gracing my life soon.

Ethno-ornithology: Double-crested cormorants

Adult double-crested cormorant in non-breeding plumage. Photo information available here.

My good friend Flicker Boi has written several blogs about using lethal measures to reduce or remove populations of non-native birds from areas where they are in direct breeding, foraging or nesting competition with closely related species of threatened or endangered birds. Lethal methods of population control seems to be the most common form of control, likely because we are more familiar with this form of control. Eminant Domain says we should conquer, control and subdue nature (and the people that live close to it). Hunters relish the chance to kill coyotes, cougars, wolves and other "pests." This leads me to my current train of thought. Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) are the most common species of North American cormorant (and darn cute). Their numbers are on the incline and thus they are the focus of blame for declines in sports fishing and for "devastating fish farms" (All About Birds, 2011). In 2003, true to our "lethal control" nature, a management plan was proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to use depredation to decrease the North American population of double-crested cormorants by <160,000 birds (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2003). Before I go any further let me just say that I'm not sure why managers are not allowed to use lethal measure to control populations of FERAL horses, cats, etc (not that I am advocating for the slaughter of these animals...though I do advocate RESPONSIBLE management) but it is encouraged in regards to NATIVE species (cougars, coyotes, cormorants, wolves, etc). My assumption is that horses and cats are charismatic/domestic species so we feel a stronger connection to them. Or maybe it's just Eminant Domain in another form.

The reasons listed in the approximately 140 page Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the creation of the management plan are: negative impacts on other bird species, declines in native fish populations (including threatened and endangered species of fish), destruction of vegetation at nesting sites, increasing economic losses to aquaculture producers and commercial fishers and fish-related businesses, a loss of private resources and loss of water quality. As internationally migrating, birds double-crested cormorants are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The MBTA does allow for migratory bird "take" permits so long as they follow regulations set forth by the MBTA. In fact, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "permits to take DCCOs have been issued by the Service since 1986 and may allow the take of eggs, adults and young, or active nests.". Though apparently commercial interests don't always have to have a permit for depredation, if so deemed by the United States Government. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

"In 1998, the Service issued a depredation order (USFWS 1998b; 50 CFR 21.47 ) authorizing commercial freshwater aquaculture producers in 13 States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) to take DCCOs, without a Federal permit, when found committing or about to commit depredations to aquaculture stocks. The depredation order states that DCCOs may be taken by shooting only during daylight hours, and only when necessary to protect freshwater commercial aquaculture and State-operated hatchery stocks and that such actions must be carried out in conjunction with a non-lethal harassment program certified by APHIS/WS officials."

This seems odd to me as permits keep track of the number of individuals being killed and would thus allow international governments to understand what we are doing here in the United States (and would help to ensure that there is international cooperation and agreement on managing population levels). As I read this EIS I am struck at how certain the individuals writing the EIS are that "taking" <160,000 cormorants won't hurt regional or continental populations. How do they know that wiping out entire winter roosts (as is permitted under this management plan) won't create genetic bottleneck? How can they be certain that the birds that are left won't be subjected to some disease that the birds that were killed wouldn't have been susceptible to? With what certainty can they say that Mexico, who according to the EIS has no management plan on record, and Canada, who has a status of no protection for the double-crested cormorant, aren't killing >160,000 and that at some point we will have to create a restoration plan (like they did in 1972 when DDT and lethal control lead to federal protection of double-crested cormorants)?

One of the more interesting parts of this EIS comes about in Chapter 3. Throughout the EIS Federally-recognized Tribes and Tribal hatcheries are listed as individuals that can practice lethal measure with double-crested cormorants (at hatcheries or aquaculture facilities). In chapter three tribes also fall under a section about Environmental Justice. That is all well and good but here we find a bit of a contradiction. Earlier in Chapter 3 the EIS mentions that in Oregon populations of double-creseted cormorants are on the decline (about 2.6% annually), other than at the Columbia River Estuary. Under the Environmental Justice section the writers mention the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Responsibility to tribes to provide them with fish stock. In the next paragraph they mention "in Oregon, approximately 80 percent of all trout harvested come from Oregon fish hatcheries," implying that by not increasing the numbers of double-crested cormorants killed would create a system of environmental injustice to Oregon tribes (though I feel certain most tribes raise salmon here). This is despite the fact that double-crested cormorant populations are declining in Oregon. In yet another ironic, and contradictory, twist in the "Issues Raised, but Eliminated from Detailed Study" section the writers mention the fact that double-crested cormorants are considered sacred by some tribes and therefore this plan could directly conflict with their spiritual beliefs. The mention of their sacredness follows a mention of yet another issue rejected for study, "Affected Human Communities." In this section the writers mention the three letters they received from tribes or members of tribes. These letters were:

"(1) a member of the Kiowa Tribe of the State of Oklahoma felt that since waterbirds are sacred, they should be given to Tribal people for use in their native ceremonies; (2) the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona recommended that we use a hunting season to manage DCCOs; and (3) a Conservation Officer from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (of southeastern Massachusetts) said that they have experienced some trouble with DCCOs roosting on the Tribal Shellfish Aquaculture Program’s spawning/rearing cages and recommended limited hunting."

There is also mention several times to double-crested cormorants adding to the "Spirit of Place" but this too falls under the issues not studies. If you'd like to read the quite lengthy EIS click here. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a double-crested cormorant faq sheet you can peruse and an informational page too. I found this USGS map from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and this USGS map from the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) to be quite interesting. The entire USGS double-crested cormorant information page is accessible from either of those links, but just in case you can click here for the double-crested cormorant ID page.

While researching double-crested cormorant management plans I came across a blog written on March 29, 2011 about Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's (ODFW) application for a depredation permit. According to Jim Yuskavitch, ODFW intends to identify the areas where double-crested cormorants will be killed, likely areas where they are considered to be most likely to harm wild juvenile steelhead and salmon populations. Yuskavitch mentions the debate over lethal control of sea lions at Bonneville Dam and whether or not allowing the "take" of native predators of salmonids makes more sense than cultural controls that improve habitat quality and abundance and decreasing commercial fishing, among other things. I find it interesting that cormorants are protected by the MBTA and sea lions are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the wild (not hatchery) salmon (some of them) are listed as threatened or endangered by the Endangered Species Act. The common thread between all of these species? At some point in time we decimated, or nearly decimated, their populations, for one reason or another, and now they are all federally protected species. While reading the ODFW publication "Avian Predation Management on the Oregon Coast, " published March 25, 2010 I learned that Caspian tern's are also considered a threat to juvenile salmonids on out-migration (their journey to the sea). It is interesting to note that they don't seem to be considering lethal control at this time. Additionally both Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants seem to be considered a problem (with increasing population sizes) in one major area, the East Sand Island on the Lower Columbia River, an island created by the deposition of dredge spoils. So...WE are the cause of these population inclines of these species, just as we are the reason that sea lions find such fishing success at the Bonneville Dam fish ladder.

Our decisions or proposals or plans to kill native wildlife for taking advantage of the habitat that we have created and for acting as they should in the situation they are in is preposterous. Everything I have read tonight has pointed to humans as the main culprit (which I already knew/thought) and has me thinking (as many things do) about the fact that we live in a highly managed world. No matter where we are, no matter what we are doing we are in a managed area. What we see and what we experience, these things are all allowed to be, or altered, or removed from existence based upon their economic value, on our perception of aesthetic, or on our concept of worth. Tonight, for me, the battle that we face ahead as stewards of the land and of nature looms not in the distance, not on the horizon, but in my backyard. At my favorite birding places. At the places where I find the most solace. The fate of every species of this place (Earth) balances on the ability of someone, somewhere to give it value. We are seriously disrupting the balance of the systems that we live in, with. That we are part of. The continual separation of humans from nature. Intrinsic value versus extrinsic value. Economic value from natural/ecosystem value. These separations destroy the very things we claim to be trying to protect.

More Eugene birdwatching

This picture of a ruby-crowned kinglet with his crown showing is available at: http://buildyourownbirdhouseplans.com/images/rubycrownedkinglet1.jpg

I have been searching for inspiration for my next "big" blog post but I seem to be out of ideas...or something. What I do have is a plethora of random thoughts about subjects varying from how to make jean potholders for my niece's play kitchen to salmon. Birds are always in there too and work has started in the garden at work so my brain is pretty full of garden "stuff." My garden, despite all of my efforts, is mostly in my head. I write down the lists of things to do and places to ask for donations from and still they float around in my head. Well, some version of them does.

So, I sit at my computer and think about what I want to write about. I went birdwatching in Eugene, Oregon again last weekend. The adventure leading up to the birdwatching "event" was almost as great as actually getting to birdwatch. While trying to find the first stop on our list my companion and I were quite lost in conversation and ended up passing the turn by several miles, at which point we were enticed forward by state park and Fall Creek Dam (reservoirs can be great birding sites) signs. Alas, the Fall Creek Reservoir is nothing like the reservoirs from Southern Oregon and anything other than boat-type recreation would have been futile. Thus, we turned around and eventually found the site that we had planned on visiting first. This site is part of the Willamette Valley Birding Trail Guide but I am not sure why. Jasper Meadow is, for all intents and purposes, a playground with a small wetlands (which I do appreciate them preserving), surrounded by a new cookie cutter subdivision and a lovely carved sign of a chickadee that says something to the effect of "birding spot." There were many children there and not many birds. The best thing about this location was the playground (I am a sucker for a good playground). It was the most bizarre and wonderful playground I've been to in quite some time. I played for a bit and then we moved on to the next location on our list, the Walterville Pond. This 70-acre pond is a reservoir maintained by Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB). The number of ruby-crowned kinglets making their territories and breeding intention known was phenomenal. I literally don't think I've ever seen so many ruby-crowns being territorial in one place! There were also many, many violet-green swallows and my first barn swallows of the season (hurray!). Probably the birds that I enjoyed the most on this day were the double-crested cormorants. The majority of the double-crested cormorants at this site were first-year juveniles and they were being incredibly amusing. Jostling for space on a stump, swimming around and "yelling" at each other.

And so...by way of randomly typing about whatever thread of thought I was able to capture I have an idea for my next "big" blog. Stay tuned.

ethno-ornithology Sunday: family tradition

So, I did an incredible amount of birdwatching, well compared to normal, in the last week. I headed to the Willamette Valley, a la Eugene, Oregon, for a four day bird adventure. Saturday I bird watched for several hours at a place called Delta Ponds, a wetlands restoration area not far off of Delta Hwy. The birding was fabulous, including a great-blue heron rookery. This only surprised me because I've never seen such an urban rookery location. Quite exciting (if not a tad disturbing because on a scientific level this can have so many reasons). There were a good 30 species of songbirds and waterfowl at this location (maybe not the most impressive number but I was quite happy with it). One of my two serious interests in regards to birds and research are urbanization and birds and recreation and birds. I am always delighted to see birds in areas as urban as Delta Ponds, but in the back of my mind I have to remember that these birds often represent the bottlenecking of species diversity. These birds could some day be the reminder of what once was.

March 20th was a bit less urban birding at Meadowlark Prairie, one of my favorite places to run/bike/etc when I lived in Eugene as the bike path from the apartment I lived in lead(s) right to/through the prairie. True to its name there were many western meadowlarks singing. There were several more species of birds than at Delta Ponds and hundreds more individuals (of course the migrating flocks of cacklers helped boost that number!). The flock of long-billed dowitchers made that expedition for me, along with the diversity of waterfowl. Here in the Rogue Basin we have waterfowl, but NOTHING as spectacular as the Klamath Basin or the Willamette Valley.

March 21st was a split day of birding at Alton Baker Park and Lane Community College. Alton Baker was the site of a most unusual sighting. A greater-white fronted snow goose hanging out with a snow goose-ish bird of some kind. It was a snow goose but with grayish primaries and a dark beak. It looked like a juvenile snow goose (which apparently keep their darkish feathers until January) but it is the wrong time of year to see a snow goose. My birding compatriot and I decided to call it a snow goose, with the understanding that it could be a mutt of some sort, I mean it was hanging out with a greater-white front. Maybe its parents were a snow goose/greater-white front coupling. Lane Community College is listed by ebird as a birding hotspot so it was a natural choice for an outing. While it didn't host the greatest number of species it did host a great number of individuals. It was also raining and as we all know rain can greatly alter the diversity of species encountered.

Speaking of ebird...I learned that Winter Wrens in the west have been split into a separate species, now known as the Pacific Wren. I guess I'm a bit out of the loop as this happened in August and I had no idea. Now is a good time to be getting back into graduate school and, hopefully, the bird world.

I also hiked Lower Table Rock on March 25th. It rained off and on so birding was not great, but I did see a random mixed flock of yellow-rumped warblers and golden-crowned kinglets. I also saw a flock of pine siskins. While the birding wasn't that great I did get plenty of time to ponder humans and our habit of loving things to the point of destroying them. I can't count the number of times I've seen people with their dogs on the Table Rocks, despite the numerous signs telling them dogs are not allowed. I saw teenagers tossing a football in the meadow atop Lower Table Rock once. On this trip I saw mountain bike tracks. I try so very hard to not dislike groups of people based on the behavior of a few, but my experience with mountain bikers actually extends to a variety of places and experiences. I understand that people feel they should be allowed anywhere they want. I also understand that they feel their sport is low impact. But, I have never seen a place that mountain bikers frequent (other than on-trail biking) that isn't being impacted, and often seriously. In Orange County they trespassed on property managed by The Nature Conservancy, despite the dangers it posed to the birds caught in our nets (and our prolific protests) and despite TNC personnel trying to educate the bikers about a sensitive species of lichen that grew on the rocks that they often biked on. So, I was surprised (but not really) to find tracks on the trail leading up Lower Table Rock. When I got to the top and saw the tracks riding off-trail randomly across the plateau I was once again struck by how selfish people are. Upper and Lower Table Rock vernal pools are the northern most range for the vernal pool fairy shrimp (the only place in Oregon they are found), a rare species of fairy shrimp also found in California. They are also home to an endemic (meaning found only in this place) species of flower, the dwarf woolly meadowfoam. These flowers are endangered, in big part to individuals going off trail and trampling them. I'm not sure how we can educate people about the importance of respecting nature. How can we teach them that just because people hiked off trail around the plateaus fifty years ago doesn't mean we can do it today. There are many, many more people using a space that can't grow to accommodate them. In order to not completely destroy these amazing places we have to use them carefully.

All of this brings me to my final bit. On March 26th I took my almost-three-year-old niece birdwatching. She and I first discussed it around the time of my trip to the Klamath Basin. We didn't see much, the rain and her storytelling (which I was happy for) likely had something to do with that, but the trip is one I am not likely to forget. I adore my nieces and nephews. I try to not force my interests on them but birds are an integral part of me, so...it filters into our interactions too. Anyway, I took my niece birdwatching. She told me all about these amazing flowers that bloom in the park and about the many species of purple birds that she saw and all about the species that I tried to see but they flew away too fast. She chattered on and on about her favorite bird (currently the American robin) and I sat, or piggy-backed, adoringly. She even brought her own binoculars (which she talked about for quite some time too). We sat in the rain, looked for birds and talked for well over an hour. My eight-month-old nephew also loves birds and I am quite certain that he and I will make a birdwatching excursion when he is old enough. So...to fit with the title theme...THIS is a family tradition that I can handle handing down. Loving and appreciating nature, life and things greater than ourselves witnessed through these amazing feathered beings.

Ethno-ornithology Sunday: birdwatchers

I started this last Friday to have it posted Sunday. Then we had a HUGE storm (wind gusts at one hilltop weather station recorded at 70mph) come through and I was without power for a good 50+ hours.

Frog-o-rama

Image from the Northern Pacific Treefrog USGS fact sheet

I have never been much of a frog person. I mean, I like them, like what they do in the ecosystems they are found in, but they've never topped my "favorite animals"

chart. Being that it is almost spring and their circadian clocks are telling them it's time to make themselves known I've been giving them more notice than usual. Tonight, as I have for the last several nights, I listened to the chorus of frogs "singing" all around my home. Tonight they seem to have reached a more frantic, urgent rhythm. Their little croaks giving the night a different kind of pulse than it usually has. I drink in the sound, allow it to seep into my skin, my bones, my veins, until I can feel the rhythm playing out in my own being. If I were a frog I'm sure I'd be aroused by all of these boisterous males proclaiming their sexual prowess and genetic superiority. Sometimes, like the undulation of the ocean, their volume decreases until it is almost silent. Then their voices raise, in volume and in number until they are virtually shouting for attention and by force of sheer numbers their cacophony crashes around me, wave after wave of glorious little frogs "songs."

This, of course, makes me think of birds. Even males that procure a territory before they procure a mate sing of their own sexiness in order to attract a mate. In all honesty there are many, many ways that birds actually attract their mates but right now, be

cause of the frog song I'm thinking of male birds and their boisterous, glorious singing. One lonely marsh wren has the same affect on me as the scads of Northern Pacific treefrogs that are out singing right now. The wrens get to really singing and I feel like their song is all that matters, because in that moment it is all that matters. These little birds that sing, and sing, and sing, at risk of being discovered and consumed desperate to attract a mate. Marsh wrens, among many other species, create new songs in a constant effort to "one up" their neighbors. I rather enjoy walking along areas that have several wren territories in a row and listening to the increasing complexity of their songs. And that is just at the frequencies and decibles that I can hear, I'm sure that if I could hear like their intended audience I'd be even more exhilarated. Or I'd think they were unexciting and move on to find a more suitable male.

Bird songs, of course, make me think of birdwatchers. What self-respecting birder doesn't know at least a handful of songs with which to identify the birds they can hear but not see. More specifically, I am thinking about the waste we create in our continuing efforts to learn to identify birds or to add one (or 100) new birds to our life lists (which I don't keep and don't quite understand keeping). Books, cds, computer programs, binoculars, scopes, bird feeders and an ever expanding array of technological gadgets. I recently learned about applications, BirdJam being one of them that seems fairly popular (at least when I did my online search), for ipods and iphones that help identify birds. Mark at "Birds in Your Backyard" talks about tech-savvy birders and the inroads that technology is making into the birding world. While I understand the appeal of technology in birding (how many times would I have really appreciated a recording of a bird call when out birding) I just can't support increasing the amount of disposable, breakable and toxic material goods being produced, used and disposed of in this country every day. Now, that isn't to say that there aren't advantages to having technology in the field, home or office. And it isn't to say that there aren't ways of making technology less harmful (borrowing cds from the library or buying bird guides as mp3's to forgo shipping and packaging for example). I just think that it is our responsibility, as consumers of nature, as "collectors" of birds, to protect them and the land that they (and we) depend on. If the ultimate goal is to know more birds, by sight and by ear, than anyone else. If the goal of finding birds is to outcompete, out ID, out do every other birder/birding competitor how much better are we than the people that raced against each other and time to kill ivory-billed woodpeckers for their collections/collectors. We may not be directly killing them, but maybe slowly killing them through habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, nesting disturbance and by polluting their homes is worse. Maybe we too are loving birds to death. To extinction. To finality. Maybe it is time to get back to basics. To live, and bird, simply. To realize that if our presence in an area is threatening a species…maybe we don't need to add them to our life lists. I know for me, birding is best done with (at most) a pair of binoculars, a bird book and my own curiosity. Oh, and sometimes a little help from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology All About Birds guide when I have a bird song stuck in my head that I can't seem to identify.

*When you click on the All About Birds link you will be directed to their page about brown creepers. This is because these little guys have a delightfully melodious song that "plagued" me about two springs ago. I'd walk around singing the song in my head trying to pair it with the birds that I knew would be here. Then, one day when the song was filling the air around me, I saw a brown creeper in one of the ponderosa pines near my house. I immediately ran up to the house, logged onto All About Birds, looked up the brown creeper and discovered that this often shy and seemingly quiet nuthatch-like (the reason I had skimmed over them originally) birds, are really quite wonderful singers.

Klamath Basin

This weekend I went to the Klamath Basin. It was a birthday celebration that happened to coincide with the Winter Wings Festival. I attended the festival last year but came to the conclusion that I am not really a bird festival kind of person. Now, maybe it was the setting, the timing or the place I'm at in my life. Maybe it is because bird festivals seem so serious and the word festival makes me think of playing, celebrating and festivities. You know, carnivals, face painting and the like. Who knows. Anyway, this year I didn't have the money to take any classes or go on any field trips. My intention was just to bird.

The Klamath Basin is an area of Oregon with an interesting and often tumultuous history. So, I may have gone just to bird but I didn't just pay attention to the birds. I contemplated the people that lived there thousands of years ago, when Petroglyph Point was just an island in Tule Lake. I contemplated the people that came into the Basin and drained the lakes, the farmers that live there and lastly the large numbers of people that come to the basin for Winter Wings every year. Birding festivals are part of ethno-ornithology that I find particularly fascinating. Bird watching in general is a really interesting aspect of people and birds.

My first day in the basin I hung out at the Veteran's Memorial Park. While there I encountered throngs of Northern coots, domestic duck variations, gray-lag geese and a Chinese goose (both are domestic varieties of geese). As usual there were a plethora of gulls and so I was able to practice my gull identification. There were ring-billed gulls, California gulls and two glaucous-winged juveniles (I overheard some birders with scopes say there were adults out in the middle of the lake). Additionally there were several buffleheads, common goldeneyes, common mergansers and lesser scaup. I also saw my first winter flock of bushtits, which was happy and odd as I encountered them commonly in the Willamette Valley and always expect to here. There were the usual suspects too, European starlings, American robins, mountain chickadees and gold-crowned kinglets. There were only four or five other birders at the park that day, I'm sure the cold had driven most everyone inside.

The following morning (February 20, 2011), I headed toward the Tule Lake Auto Tour Route and Visitor Center and the northern/north-eastern area of the Lava Beds National Monument. It was snowing and overcast and I felt a terrible sadness as it seemed likely I would not have ideal birding conditions. At the visitor's center they have a feeding station. At the feeding station I saw house sparrows, European starlings, house finches, gold-crowned sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, California towhee, spotted towhee, dark-eyed junco of the Oregon and slate-colored (the slate-colored was a first for me!) varieties, California quail and a nesting great-horned owl! At the reclamation wetlands (a discovery marsh of sorts) there were most of the afore mentioned birds plus bufflehead, northern pintail, western meadowlark, red-breasted sapsuckers, American kestrel, red-tailed hawk, song sparrow, American robin, common goldeneye, coot ring-neck pheasant, greater white-front geese, cacklers and a juvenile bald eagle (three or four years old based on plumage). Along the auto tour route is where the REAL fun began. I saw my first ever rough-legged hawk (and then another six on top of that one)! Additionally, I saw tundra swan, northern shoveler, lesser scaup, ring-neck duck, greater white-fronts, cacklers, red-winged blackbird, common goldeneye, ruddy duck, heard black-billed magpie (delightful) and a canyon wren, saw house finch, brewer's blackbird, northern ravens, white-crowned sparrow, mourning and rock doves, pine siskin, lesser goldfinch, say's phoebe, a flock of at least 30 horned lark, ring-billed gull, Clark's grebe, common merganser, coot, canvasback, northern harrier, western meadowlark, prairie falcon, norther flicker, gadwall, snow geese by the hundreds, blue-winged teal, many bald eagles of varying ages, great-horned owls and a rock wren. Finally, I feel quite certain I saw some band-tailed pigeons. The sighting was brief and they have not been sighted often in the Klamath Basin (1-3 times in the last 25 years). Now, that doesn't mean they couldn't have been band-tails, but it does mean that it is unlikely. I'd like to believe they snuck in there topping off the awesomeness!

There were many more birders out on Sunday, all on the auto tour route and at the visitors center. The interesting thing about birders in situations like this is that they all flock to the areas where birds have been seen, particularly people that keep life lists. I understand life lists and wanting to see what there is to see, but I'd rather do it on my own (and my list is in my head, nothing formal, as the goal for me is just to see birds, any birds, and enjoy them). There is something amazing about watching scads of waterfowl with other people that are just as excited as I am. But...in the long run, I'd rather be there alone watching the birds. Silently paying homage to these feathered extra-ordinary beings. I find myself wondering if the other people birding there think about the folks that came before. If when they are at Captain Jack's Stronghold, looking for prairie falcons, they think about the Modoc and the events that unfolded there. How amazing that band of Modoc were, how well they knew their homeland, how tragic the outcome of that stand-off. When they are looking for nesting owls and golden eagles at Petroglyph Point do they stop to look at the petroglyphs? Do they wonder, like I do, what the symbols mean? Do they marvel at the tenacity of individuals to canoe all the way to the island and stand, in a canoe to carve these symbols into the rock? Can they appreciate the struggles of the salmon and sucker fish, sacred to the First Nations tribes of the area, to survive in an overly irrigated area (meaning in a river that is often too low, slow, polluted or warm)? We come together at these festivals to celebrate the wild awesomeness that birds are. These bits of nature that find us in even the most urban areas. That call to our souls, to our subconscious. That sing songs we recognize in the deep recesses of our brains. But do we think of how we are destroying their world? Do we think, as we celebrate, that this could be the last year we see them? That as we clear, fill, burn and develop we homogenize the beings that we pursue for their heterogeneity? I know I do, constantly. Even when I am shouting with glee about my first ever rough-legged hawk sighting.