Appledore Island Gulls

Today I spent my day on Appledore Island to get a feel for the island as I will be TA'ing a class there this August.

Fortunately, I had lots of time to bird and check out the island. There were many highlights including helping to attempt to catch and band the female Herring Gull which has mated with the male Lesser Black-backed Gull on the island. Unfortunately, she never made it into the cage so I was not able to witness this happening.

Female Herring Gull inspecting the nest and the cage trap

This is the 4th year that this Lesser Black-backed has come to Appledore to breed. He was banded along with his mate in 2008 and they both returned in 2009. They raised two chicks one of which has been seen both in Provincetown, MA and in Brevard County, Florida. This year he is with a new mate - hence the need to band her. Dr. Julie Ellis heads up the gull research on the island and has been banding birds on the island since 2004 (with the help of students and volunteers). She also keeps a blog where you can follow the Lesser Black-backed Gull and other gulls: http://gullsofappledore.wordpress.com/

Male Lesser Black-backed Gull: first documented bird to breed in the US

For those of you who don't know... Gull babies are extraordinarily cute. The island is currently overflowing with them. This means their parents are in a very vicious stage! Here's a photo of Great Black-backed Gull Chicks:

Finally, here's a slide show of pictures from the day... all photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lkras/sets/72157624211302151/

More Than Sightings

Birding to many is about getting outside and seeing what you can find. It's about the challenge of an identification, the pursuit of a new species (for your life, state, year, month, or day list), and about having fun. What many people fail to realize or investigate are bigger picture questions dealing with migration patterns, seasonal distribution, distribution on breeding grounds, distribution in migration, overwintering challenges, habitat use, etc.

Lately these sorts of topics have been dominating and directing my birding (along with the desire to find out if this is ACTUALLY an early spring or if it just seems that way... more on this later though).

While there are some species which we know a lot about, it is safe to say that for almost every single species, even the most common (such as your local species of Chickadee) there are many more things that are unknown about its life, behavior, and distribution. There are many examples of ways that people can investigate these species more without much effort and fill in the gaps of our knowledge. One of my favorite examples is counting migrating goldfinches. I'm sure NH birders are laughing and already know what I'm talking about here, but for the rest of you here's a bit more information. During migration, two of NH's best birders (Steve and Jane M.) hit the coast and park at a spot they like to call "cutsie dootsie" and count migrating goldfinches overhead. Since American Goldfinch is common year-round in NH most people aren't invested in detailed observations of this species. Something as simple as counting the number of goldfinches migrating past forms a unique data pool for a species in which most people are familiar with.

While we information like this is helpful for all species, there are a few groups of species which deserve specific attention as there is extremely little known about them on their breeding grounds. These include: grassland(including salt marsh), bog/boreal, and early-successional species. Right now there is great need for information on species within these habitats as so little is known and without good information conservation efforts will not be informed.

(Vesper Sparow - one of many grassland species which is under threat due to destruction of habitat)

I'm sure the citizen-scientist part of birding isn't for everyone. I'm also sure that many people think that understanding distribution isn't a necessary part of birding. Perhaps it's not. However, I would argue that understanding distribution, investigating questions related to distribution, understanding vagrancy patterns, etc. all make one a better birder.

So the next time you see a bird - ask yourself, how much do you really know about it? Do you know much more than field marks? Do you know if it nests on the ground, in trees, or in sphagnum bog mats? What does it eat? Does it migrate, and if so when? Is it habitat specific? Does it prefer certain plants? If its a rare bird, is this a typical time for it to show up as a vagrant? Is its likelihood for vagrancy dependent on weather conditions; what sorts of weather conditions?

If I described a bird as glossy black with red and yellow shoulder badges with a slender conical bill you would probably immediately know I was talking about a Red-winged Blackbird. If you saw the following photo you'd probably know it was a Red-winged Blackbird.

But did you know that Red-winged Blackbirds build their nest low within marsh vegetation or in low shrubs? Did you know that the females choose the nest site yet males have some input? Did you know that sedges, phragmites, cattail, alder, willow and other plants are suitable vegetation for nests? Did you know that the oldest recorded lifespan is 15 years and 9 months? Did you know that Red-winged Blackbirds are highly polygynous?

In some states Red-winged Blackbirds overwinter, in others they don't. Sometimes they form HUGE concentrations (hundreds of thousands) to roost. Here's a video of a mixed blackbird flock headed to roost in NH. On this particular day we estimated 200,000 blackbirds going to roost. Others estimated 500,000 on a later date...

So the next time you see a bird... think... do you know more than just field marks? Do you know anything about its life? How does your sighting fit into the picture of distribution on a local, regional, and national level?

New Hampshire's Common Gull

There's been quite the huzz-buzz lately in New Hampshire over a bird which we nerds refer to as a Common Gull which is not that "common". Rather, this bird, if accepted by the NH Records Committee will be the first accepted state record.

There are other records for the state but none which follow the state rules for documentation of a first state record. That is, in order for a bird to be accepted for the first time there either must be adequate photo documentation or 3+ observers.

The bird which has been hanging out in Exeter fulfills both of these requirements.

So why do so many people care about a little sea-gull? What makes this Common Gull so special? Well, here's my attempt to answer that in just 3 short points:

1. Its a vagrant from far away - the Common Gull is really a subspecies of Mew Gull from "Europe" which is pretty interesting and pretty cool.

2. Its a first documented state record - anytime something is a first it's exciting - just think of being there for Jon Lester's first game, or for your child's first word, etc.

3. When a bird looks pretty generic superficially the challenge can be exciting. Just think - do you prefer the puzzle with 4 pieces or with 400 pieces? Which is more exciting and fun to complete? This gull is much the same way - it's not a straightforward identification, rather its an interesting puzzle where multiple field marks have to be assessed and analyzed - and when you do your homework and get all of the pieces in order - you realize the puzzle design is pretty neat.

OK that's all for now - if you're interested in more about Common Gull identification perhaps I'll post some more some other time. Otherwise I'll continue on with the random spring posting.

Weekend on the coasts of MA & ME

Despite the fact that the coast is slow this time of year, I spent my weekend touring the coast. What may shock you all more than anything is that I didn't go to the NH coast at all! Instead I birded the southern Maine and northern Massachusetts coasts! Needless to say it was not really by choice but a matter that I agreed to tag along with UVM's Ornithology class that Ben is the TA for. We started on Saturday in Massachusetts on Plum Island:

Unfortunately there really weren't that many birds out and most things were pretty distant, but the scenery was still nice and the students had a good time.

While the students scoped some Black Scoters, Red-throated Loons, and Red-necked Grebes, I spent some time photographing the scenery as the birds were really too close to shoot most of the time. Here's a neat little effect of the sun in the sky:

The clouds were really neat during the day and created all sorts of fun effects as well. Throughout the day I tried to capture some of them - here's one of my favorite shots of the clouds over the dunes at Plum Island.

Sunday we switched gears and birded Maine a bit. On our way up to meet up with the class a Rough-legged Hawk flew over the car. We spent time at Scarborough Marsh and along the beach looking at Common Eider, Long-tailed Ducks, etc. Then we headed down to Marginal Way to look for Harlequin Ducks on the cliffs.

The trip had to end there as the students needed to get back. After they left I took some time to crawl along the rocks and try to snap a few shots of the Harlequin Ducks. Unfortunately the lighting was a bit tough but still fun to see them and the photos are better than anything I had previously.

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lkras/

I had to kill a bird today

(Warning: this post may contain images that may gross you out, disturb young children, or just make you really sad)

Sad but true; I had to kill a bird today. Well, I didn't kill it, my neighbor did because I couldn't stop tearing up when I tried.

To shorten the story - last night he found a fledgling Blue Jay that fell out of a nest. He tried to put it somewhere safe in the yard near a pile of sticks so that the parents could still tend to it etc. because he could not find the nest.

This morning while I was walking Olive he came over to me to tell me about it. I grabbed some gloves and camera to see what the deal was. When I found the bird it was in a very unfortunate position on its back, clearly injured, and being swarmed by flies. My heart sank. I called Steve M. and Ben G. to see if they had any suggestions. While I waited to hear back from one of them I attempted to help the bird perch to see if there was any chance it could make it.

Although it was not happy when I originally picked it up, it did not want to leave my hand once it realized I was not going to hurt it (a major reason why I couldn't bring myself to killing it in the end myself).

Finally I succeeded in getting the bird to an area where it was up and the parents could try to feed it. Before long things got bad though and the bird drowsed off and fell again. It quickly lost strength and I knew there really was no chance and that the right thing to do was to put it out of its misery (as my mother reminded me).

We dug a hole for it, humanly took care of the bird, and buried it in the garden so that it's body can provide nutrients for other forms of life; perhaps some pretty flowers that a Hummingbird will be attracted to.

It really broke my heart to have to do the right thing. I wanted so much for the bird to miraculously make a come back. I hate when the right thing sucks so much.