Twin Cities Naturalist

Is your house radioactive?

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 14:36:00 +0000

The definition of nature is elusive. We often think of nature as those naturally occurring things outside like trees and lakes and birds but there is so much more. There are rocks, enzymes, stars and gravity. All of these things are more are part of nature.

The natural world encompasses more than we can see with our eyes or touch with our hands. The parts of nature that we can't see are particularly fascinating.

This winter I've launched a new web series on my Secret Nature YouTube channel to explore one of these hidden secrets of nature. That secret is radioactivity.

Growing up during the cold war, radioactivity was closely associated with nuclear war and I learned to fear the sound of a Geiger counter. Those clicks always meant contamination in movies. They always meant something had gone wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong about the process of radioactive decay though. It is completely natural, the result of the underlying physics of particles. Sure, too much is bad for you but humans are bathed in radiation daily from both terrestrial and cosmic sources and our bodies have evolved to tolerate the daily small doses. If they hadn't life would have perished millions of years ago on our radioactive planet.

My online web series is called "Your Radioactive House" because I explore the everyday common objects around your house that are radioactive. You might be surprised what things you can find when you start to look.

Armed with a Geiger counter I go exploring and reveal what I find. Come along on the journey. You might just learn some physics and history along the way!

~Kirk

Click the video to watch the teaser trailer for Your Radioactive House

Nature Videos from Twin Cities Naturalist

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Hello Twin Cities Naturalist readers,

I haven't written here in a while as I've been focusing my efforts on my new project, Secret Nature.

Secret Nature is a video based format that allows me to show as well as tell. I haven't been good about sharing those videos here with you so I'll be presenting some of those videos here over the next week. I hope you enjoy them!

Up first is a playlist of the Secret Nature Vlog. These short impromptu videos are a glimpse into the daily life of a professional naturalist.

Click image above to watch the Secret Nature Vlog Playlist

Facebook doesn't want you to see my videos...

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 17:06:00 +0000

It has been a while since I have posted to the website. I've been focusing more on Social Media as of late. It seems easier to reach people where they already are and while there are lots of things I really dislike about Facebook there certainly are a lot of people that follow Twin Cities Naturalist there rather than coming here to the website. Of course, there are those who get these posts via email as well.

I've been experimenting with YouTube more lately as I think it is a fantastic platform. I have always loved video as a medium and I re-branded my channel as "Secret Nature" as I have a lot of videos sharing the secrets of nature coming up. The challenge there is that I tend to have big ideas and a simple seed of an idea for a video soon balloons and spirals out of control as I think up all of the amazing information I want to share and the creative ways I want to share it.

I have a dozen videos mostly scripted out but they keep growing and I keep wanting to refine them, find better locations, wait for the right weather or season, etc. I fear I am letting perfect be the enemy of good. For that reason, I have started to put out short Naturalist Vlogs. If you are not familiar with vlogs, the are video-logs or the video version of a blog (which is short for web-log.)

These are not polished. They are simply a glimpse into my current thinking and observations as a naturalist.

If you follow the Twin Cities Naturalist page on Facebook you MIGHT have seen one of these videos. I stress MIGHT because Facebook really hates YouTube. The two platforms have completely different ideas concerning video and content creators.

YouTube views me as a content creator, in other words, I produce their product. You can think of me as an employee in one sense. If I choose to put advertising alongside or before my videos they will even give me a cut of the profits. This is a great model that encourages content creators to create more content. The better the content, the more view and the more views the greater potential profit sharing. This encourages people to create high quality content.

If you have a google account then you also have a YouTube account. If you have not already logged into YouTube while visiting you are missing out on a great experience. YouTube learns what kinds of things you like to watch and serves up fantastic recommended videos. You can learn about creators doing work of interest to you. If you don't log in, it just suggests trending videos of celebrities or cats whatever other random topic. You can subscribe to a channel, like Secret Nature, and it then automatically alerts you when a new video comes out so you don't miss it.

This contrasts vastly with Facebook. If you manage a page on Facebook they don't consider you an asset, partner or creator, they consider you a customer. They routinely ask me to pay money so they will show my content to people that have already asked to see it. If I post a video they will show it to, say, 20% of the people that have subscribed to my page. If I want more people to see it I have to PAY Facebook to show it to you. I don't get any benefit for you seeing it. I am creating content for Facebook so they can get you to come to their site and make money off you and I have to pay for the priveledge of helping them make money. This might make sense if I was a corporation selling a product, for example a soft drink, and my video is essentially an ad for that product. It makes sense for a company to have to pay to have Facebook show their ads to people. It does not make sense for purely educational videos.

YouTube will pay ME for bringing you to YouTube. Facebook wants me to pay THEM to bring them revenue.

The solution would seem to be to post my videos on YouTube and then share them on Facebook but Facebook doesn't want that either. They want me to only upload videos directly to Facebook. I did an experiment last week. I posted one video directly to Facebook and another to YouTube and then shared on Facebook. For the video I posted directly to Facebook they amazingly put it into the feed of all but one of my followers. That's pretty good. 48% of those people actually watched the video. What happened to the YouTube video? Facebook put it into the feeds of just SEVEN people who had said they wanted to see my content by following my page. Of those seven it looks like ONE person might have watched it. Facebook severely punishes creators for sharing YouTube content on their platform. They want all the money for themselves and they want me to pay to essentially work for them.

I have no control over this. I refuse to create content for Facebook for free and then have them make me pay to show it to people who have already asked to see it. I'm not doing this because I am selling a product and I am not doing it for the vanity of having views. I make videos simply because it is yet another way to educate people and share my love and knowledge of the natural world.

If you would like to actually see the content I am creating on YouTube come on over and subscribe while you are there. There are lots of other amazing channels from science communicators there and you will enjoy them as well. Stop watching what Facebook tells you to watch and choose for yourself. You'll start enjoying your time online a whole lot more.

~Kirk

A Summer of Secrets

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:30:00 +0000

Summer is here and it is time to launch the Secrets of Summer video series. If you are reading via email. Check out this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKJ5GfyvXA

I'll be bringing you a series of videos all summer long debunking the top nature myths I encounter in my job as a professional naturalist. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube to see them all.

~Kirk

Watch out for White-crowned Sparrows

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 19:00:00 +0000

As the white-throated sparrows move through in the spring keep your eyes open. All may not be as it seems.

Here in the Twin Cities and in countless other areas, we get thousands upon thousands of white-throated sparrows migrating through in the spring as they head north. They don't stick around long but their distinctive white throat and "Oh Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada" call are a much welcome sign of spring.

Seeing the first one each year is a treat but keep looking, you might be missing out if you start to ignore them. Mixed into flocks of white-throated sparrows will often be a white-crowned sparrow.

White-crowned sparrows belong to the genus Zonotrichia along with the White-throated, Golden-crowned, Fox and Harris's sparrows.

At a quick glance it is easy to dismiss these beautiful birds for yet another white-throated sparrow so keep your eyes open. They often hang out in flocks with white-throats sparrows so you need to look carefully.

White-crowned sparrows are found in the from mid-Iowa south in the winter and in some places out west year-round but are only in Minnesota during migration. They will soon leave for the very northernmost parts of Canada to breed. Get out there and enjoy them while you can.

~Kirk

Warm Weather is a Disaster for Maple Syrup Season

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 13:21:00 +0000

There's no denying this unseasonably warm weather feels great but not all is sunshine and gumdrops. The rapid switch to all warm all the time means it is not dipping below freezing at night. This spells disaster for the maple sap run.

Maple trees will not run if the temperature does not dip below freezing at night. Last year at work we collected 700 gallons of sap by the end of the season. Right now we have maybe 30 and unless it rest cold again fast the season may be over. WCCO news came out the the nature center to do a report about the poor season. Their embedded player doesn't actually work so I'm afraid I have to go old school and offer you this link to their site.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/11227151-spring-like-temps-cutting-maple-syrup-season-short/

Official 2015 Twin Cities Groundhog's Day Report

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:37:00 +0000

The 2015 Report:

What a difference a year makes!

On Groundhog's Day 2014 we'd just pulled though yet another "Polar Vortex" and there were high snowdrifts everywhere. Here we are today and solid snow cover is hard to find anywhere in the Twin Cities.

Last year I took a new job at Lowry Nature Center in the west metro after a 12 year stint at Warner Nature Center in the east metro. This means that last year I missed out on seeing my old pal "Stuff Stanley" the groundhog of record for many of the Official Twin Cities Groundhog reports over the years. I decided this year to pay an early morning visit to Stanley to see if he saw his shadow. Did he? You'll have to watch the video to find out!

The official Twin Cities Groundhog Prediction:
Just like last year, the groundhog DID see his shadow in the Twin Cities so we have six more weeks of winter to look forward to. That's the story anyhow. Last year we had a huge warm-up right after Groundhog's day that saw us flirting with 50 degrees before plunging down again at the end of the month. This year could be a bit of the same. While the forecast calls for a few days near zero this week the longer range forecasts are looking at us going up near 40 degrees again.

Personally I'm going to have to predict against the groundhog this year. We have very little snowfall and a warm spell in the 40s could melt what we do have away. Once the ground is exposed, the longer days and more direct sunlight we're getting are going to help warm up the ground and create more warm days than cold days all things being the same.

That's my personal prediction, we'll see who's right, me or a stuffed groundhog.

Background:

What's the connection between Groundhogs, shadows and the seasons?

The connection is tenuous at best. Further south than Minnesota, male groundhogs do come out of hibernation early to scope out and check on their breeding territory. In Minnesota, February 2nd is usually too early for this to happen. Seeing the first groundhogs checking out their territory is surely a sign of spring though. Okay, but what does seeing a shadow have to do with it? The connection to shadows has to do with prevailing weather patterns. We often associate sunny days with warmth and the coming spring but sunny days in the winter aren't always warm. Clear winter days are often the result of cold Canadian air that has settled over the state. A shadow in the winter often means we're in a pattern of cold air flowing south. It can take many weeks to break that pattern and warm the area. All of the snow we have will also keep us cold longer.

Celestially, February 2nd is an important day. According to the solar calendar, it should mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Forty-two days ago was the winter solstice, the day of the year when we have the least sunlight. From that day on, the amount of daylight increases until the day when there are equal amounts of night and day. We call this day the equinox and it falls around March 21st. February 2nd falls half way between the solstice and the equinox so in theory it should mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Has anyone seen any crocus flowers blooming?

Obviously the winter solstice is not really mid-winter. Why do we call the solstice mid-winter if it is really more like the day winter begins? This has long been a puzzle and even caused a few arguments between astronomers and meteorologists. The answer is something we call the lag of the seasons and it affects Groundhog’s day as well. Yes, it is true that Groundhog’s day technically marks the beginning of spring from a celestial point of view but our experience tells us otherwise. Our seasons lag behind what the sun tells us in the sky.

Saying spring starts on Groundhog’s day is a little like saying a frozen dinner is ready to eat as soon as it is pulled out of the freezer. The northern hemisphere has been cooling down for months by the time the solstice arrives. Forty-two days with just less than a minute more sunlight each day is not enough to thaw out the frozen landscape into a lush vernal garden.

The established pattern of cold weather continues for many weeks after the beginning of the increase in daylight. This lag makes it seem like mid-winter actually falls on Groundhog’s day rather than the solstice. Rest assured though that on Groundhog’s day, even if it feels like the middle of winter, we are getting an hour and seven minutes more daylight today than we did just forty-two days earlier.

Groundhog’s Day may marks the beginning of spring according to the sun but it will be about forty-two more days until we feel the change enough to call it spring. It may seem like winter has a grip on the land but the sun has been working hard to reverse the trend for over a month and we’ll soon start to see those effects.

Incidentally, the legend tells us that if the groundhog sees its shadow it will be scared back into the den and we’ll have six more weeks of winter. Why six weeks? How many days are there in six weeks? Forty-two. Six weeks takes us exactly to the spring equinox.

Can you guess what this is?

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 19:56:00 +0000

Image: Erbe, Pooley: USDA, ARS, EMU

This image showed up in my news feed this week. Can you guess what it is? My initial thought is that it appears to be rather crudely made of plaster. A bad sculpt of a tie fighter perhaps? The truth is far stranger.

Keen eyed observers may note the white scale bar and label in the lower left hand corner. This object is only about 600 µm across. That's 600 micrometers or about half a millimeter. The image was taken with an electron microscope and is magnified 50,000 times.

This is an object every reader has seen, most have touched and many have eaten though you should take care to avoid colored versions.

This is a snowflake.

Perhaps "flake" is a bit of a misnomer. Falling snow comes in several varieties. As we often teach school kids in my job, snow comes in stellar dendrites (those are the ones you usually think of) as well as needles, columns and more.

The odd snowflake in the photo is a peculiar variety of capped column. I recognized it right away as we have a cardboard capped column on display at work right now.

The bumps on the side are rime ice that formed on the surface. I find it fascinating that the columnar snow structure the rime ice is growing on is so imperfect. I think we get this impression that snowflakes, essentially just crystals of water should be more perfect. Of course, almost no crystals in nature are ever perfect. I blame Snowflake Bentley.

Wilson Bentley is in part responsible for our distorted image that all snowflakes are perfect and beautiful. He was one of the first to capture snowflakes on film and they showed for the first time via amazing detail that snowflakes were highly complex and beautiful. Let's be clear though, Mr. Bentley knew that many if not most of the snowflakes that fall are not perfect. He had to sift though many poorly formed snowflakes to find the truly spectacular ones. He looked at so many he knew they were not all perfect. The public only saw the most beautiful ones and since they were the only ones we had seen it distorted our perception of them.

The close up photo of the capped column snowflake at the top of the page is beautiful as well but not because of the perfection it displays. It is beautiful because it is imperfect, strange and fills us with wonder.

Petrichor explained

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 02:39:00 +0000

If you're a doctor who fan like I am you know the word Petrichor. Author Neil Gaiman snuck the word into the episode The Doctor's Wife. The word was part of a telepathic passcode to open the hidden backup control room in the TARDIS. "Oh course," you say. "We are nerds, we know this!" You may also remember that Idris defined it as "the smell of dust after rain."

The word wasn't a fabrication of Gaiman, it was coined in 1964 by Australian researchers Bear and Thomas in the journal Nature. The posited that an oil extruded by plants in dry periods is somehow put into the air by the rain. The oil actually helps prevent other plants from germinating and thus helps the plants avoid competition. I would think this would also prevent their own seeds from germinating but perhaps that is discussed deeper in the research. To be fair to rain smells, Geosmin is also responsible for the smell of the earth after rain but until Gaiman works that into a Doctor Who episode I'm afraid that word will also remain obscure.

Deeply nerdy and linguistically savvy Doctor Who fans and biologists alike were excited when researchers from MIT recently presented evidence on how the compounds that comprise petrichor get into the air. They dropped raindrops on 28 different soil types hundreds of times and filmed the results with high speed cameras. You can see tiny particles become aerosolized and swept up in air currents as the result of the drops. The high speed footage has been released online and it is fascinating to see the particles launched into the air. It is fun to think of hundreds of trillions of raindrops hitting the earth in a storm, each releasing tiny particles into the air that we smell as fresh petrichor.

(If you are viewing this via email you will not be able to see the embedded video. Click here to view online.

Snowy Owls Across the Northland

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 16:27:00 +0000

Once again snowy owls are being seen across the north land. 2014–2015 is turning out to be a pretty good season if you want to see a snowy owl. There probably have not been as many owls seen as were last winter, however, there still good opportunities to get out and see one of these magnificent birds if you're interested.

Mike Hendrickson has complied a map showing all reported locations of Snowy Owls here in the capital of the North.

You can also get up to the minute information by running a species report in eBird.

Snowy owls seem to end up in some interesting places. Many of them do not seem particularly concerned about humans. One of the more popular and easily seen snowy owls around the Twin Cities has been hanging out at the Shoppes of Arbor Lakes shopping area in Maple Grove. The owl alternates sitting on top of the potbelly Sandwich shop, the AMC movie theater, and a beauty supply store. It may not be the most glamorous place to see if they snowy owl but it is certainly an easy place to see one. The photo at the top of this post is likely an immature female snowy owl and this is the one currently being seen at Arbor Lakes.

Good luck, be safe, be respectful and enjoy the birds.

Rio Grande Valley Day 7: Go West

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 20:11:00 +0000

This is part seven of a series of posts on the 2013 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

It has officially been one year since I was in the Rio Grande Valley. I better hurry up and post this. All my social media feeds are full of amazing photos of amazing birds and wonderful friends who were lucky enough to be able to go back this year. I will return some day until then...Day Seven.

We woke up up before the sun on our last full day of birding with the intention of heading West. We'd seen pretty much all the birds there were to see in the Rio Grande Valley near our home base in San Benito. Short of something insane like an Amazon Kingfisher showing up, we needed new territory. Our host Claire told us she had actually seen an Amazon Kingfisher once in a resaca near her house. She was a new birder at the time and even though she had photos and other people saw it, the records committee had never approved her sighting. "Prove me right boys!" She'd say as we headed out birding each day. We weren't about to spend our day searching resacas for a bird that had only officially been reported in Texas once in recorded history. Our plan was to head to Salineno and then on to Falcon State Park to pick up birds in a dryer, more western habitat.

We grabbed some breakfast tacos at the gas station and drove about two hours west in hopes to be in Salineno by daybreak. A few wrong turns and some construction meant we got there a hair later than we had hoped. We failed to see any Red-billed Pigeons or Muscovy ducks flying on the river and so we were starting the day off with two misses. We did see a flock of Pyrrhuloxia on the road down to the river and ran into some other birders so at least that seemed like a good start.

Things got even better the more we settled in and searched. There is a little nature preserve there right on the river where a wife and husband keep feeders well stocked. We chatted with them as they put out seed, peanut butter and oranges. They told us the best place to wait so I sat down and didn't move. In just a few minutes, a Hooded Oriole showed up. What a beautiful bird. It was the first time I had ever seen one so I was pretty excited. They are beautiful.

The woman who maintains the feeding station pointed out that she could hear a single note from an Audubon's Oriole as well so we patiently waited. Soon I could hear it too as it got closer and closer. Before too long a male announced his arrival at the fence just 10 feet in front of me and started to chow down on peanut butter. This is an incredible bird. Gorgeous! Who knew orioles like peanut better so much? We usually stick to grape jelly and oranges up in Minnesota.

While waiting for these two to show up, my first Plain Chachalaca's showed up as well. Three lifers in a matter of minutes! I was thinking we had made a good choice on coming west. We then went back to the river and soon got wonderful full scope views of a Ringed Kingfisher, also a lifer and of course new for the trip.

It wasn't until months later that I got around to reading the book, A Supremely Bad Idea by Luke Dempsey in which he tells the tale of being confronted and threatened by drug runners at the exact spot where we were scoping the kingfisher. I'm grateful our visit didn't involve drug runners or someone trying to take my camera. We felt like we'd seen everything we could see in Salineno, including a roosting Screech Owl so it was time to leave.

We had plans to head to Falcon State Park as well for other species. I'd turned off my mobile phone when we got to Salineno because we were so close to Mexico that I could not get a US carrier, only a Mexican one, and didn't want to incur any roaming fees.

When we got back up to the highway I turned my phone back on and suddenly received a flurry of text messages from pretty much everyone I had met at the festival.

They all looked something like this (albeit with much more colorful language)

At this point I recall a lot of swearing in the car. Here we were 2+ hours west of Harlingen tracking down western species and one of the rarest birds possible shows up back where we had left from. We still had species to pick up out west and it was only lunch time. Given the intel we had on the bird we hedged our bets and went to Falcon State Park for an hour. We were gambling the kingfisher would still be there in the afternoon. At the park we fairly quickly saw Roadrunner and Couch's Kingbirds, both lifers for me. We didn't see any Scaled quail or Ash-throated flycatcher and decided we needed to leave, we just couldn't risk missing the kingfisher. All the while we were getting texts every 15 minutes from people at the conference..."Kingfisher still here."

Before we could get to the kingfisher spot though, we needed lunch and that brings us of course to demons. Bear with me.

We've all heard stories of Jesus appearing in food. I haven't found any historical records to show when this phenomenon first occurred but I'd sure like to believe it was at the last supper. Wouldn't that be a classy move? Judas is slicing the bread and hey, check it out every one. Jesus gives a wry smile as his face appears in a nice slice of challah. People are constantly seeing this guy in food. There's holy grilled cheese, a crucified jesus in a orange and even a nasty gooey looking christ at the bottom of a marmite jar. (I'll let you google those on your own.)
These are all cases of pareidolia. The animal brain is a constantly running pattern recognition machine. It is an incredible evolutionary tool that has allowed us to survive. It errs on the side of caution and often sees patterns where they do not exist. When it comes to recognizing a tiger in the jungle it is better to err on the side of caution more often than not. We are the descendants of the paranoid survivors.
When we see seemingly familiar patterns in food or clouds or wood grain you have a choice. You either believe in the wonderful, awe-inspiring millions of years long evolutionary story of the human brain or, perhaps the grandeur of that isn't enough for you and you choose to invoke paranormal explanations that these random patterns are the handiwork of God. Though, I have to warn you, if you believe the latter than we have to assume God really is flipping us the bird in this deep space photo taken by NASA.

Photo courtesy of NASA. A small cloud in the Carina Nebula.

Our final full day of birding we were present at a truly awe inspiring sign from the birding gods (or, you know, pareidolia). First though, we have to address gas station tacos. Two days previous we'd been out birding with Kelly and she'd suggested we go looking for hawks at Anzulduas Park.

It was a crappy cold day and the hawks knew it. We didn't see hardly anything. Cold and hungry, we loaded back into the car and made lunch plans. We wanted Mexican food and so it was our smart phones to the rescue. Curt pulled out his phone and informed us there was a highly rated restaurant just 5.3 miles away. Perfect.

We followed the directions only to discover the restaurant kept getting further and further away. Next time we asked it was 6.8 miles, soon, it was 15 miles. We checked and we were headed the right way but this mysterious restaurant defied the laws of physics and kept getting further. We eventually made it to the 5.3 mile away restaurant after about 25 minutes. Curt's phone was new and I suspect the miles he kept reading were the miles to the next turn instead of the miles to the final destination.

We got there and after the meal Kelly told us that it was okay but that we'd paid too much. "Oh really?"

"Yes," she told us. "The best tacos you can get are way cheaper."

Kelly then went on to tell us that the best tacos are the ones at the gas station. You have got to be freaking kidding me. Minnesota gas stations pretty much have one hot food item and that is shriveled up hotdogs on a roller grill. This is Texas though, what do I know? Maybe the cheap tacos at the gas station really are great. The price is right, you get your food fast and if they taste great then so be it.

We'd learned that if you doctored them up with enough fixings then they did, indeed, taste pretty good.

So, we ate a lot of gas station tacos and we figured we'd stop on the way to the Amazon Kingfisher. We needed food so we pressed our luck and stopped to grab some quick chow. As one of the workers was heating up the tortilla shells she let out an exclaim of surprise. Wow, just wow. Check out this tortilla.

That's a human skull wearing a top hat right?

Filled with tasty demon-approved tacos and armed with directions to the spot with the kingfisher we tore back east and made it there by 4:30 pm. There was still a large crowd though not as many as earlier in the day. Still, the police were out directing traffic to make sure no one got killed as they ran around on the side of the road. Apparently the sheriff had told the officers, "Keep everyone safe and make sure they have a good time." How's THAT for hospitality? It doesn't hurt that everyone here knows birders do a lot for the economy.

As soon as I got out of the car people eagerly had us look through their scopes. The bird was very far away and at that distance you kind of had to take their word that you were looking at the right bird. Here's what the view looked like zoomed as far as possible though my 400mm camera lens.

Can you see the bird?

If I crop it in you can make it out...kind of.

It wasn't that great a look. We waited, and luckily the bird eventually flew closer and I got the shot below. If it had hung around longer I could have played with the camera setting to get a better shot but, wow, what a cool bird. Look at that honkin' huge beak!

It was our last day of birding in Texas and I was happy to have added 8 more lifers. I never thought I would cap it off with an Amazon Kingfisher.

In the final tally I saw 155 species of birds in 7 days of birding. Forty-eight of them were lifer species I'd never seen before. It was a fabulous trip and I can't wait to go back.

Rio Grande Valley Day Six: Sabal Palm Sanctuary

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:40:00 +0000

This is part six of a series of posts on the 2013 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

I haven't posted much lately but realizing I am coming up on the one year anniversary of my trip to Texas made me get on here to finish this series up. Let's pick up where we left off.

Day Six:

I had a goal for Day Six. As we chatted about the day and wondered where to go I was sure we should hit up Sable Palm Sanctuary.

People had recommended we hit up Sabal Palm Sanctuary and the descriptions of habitat and species looked good. Sabal Palms Sanctuary is home to a large stand of old growth Sabal Palms. Locals had warned us that the birding here just wasn't as good as it used to be after the building of "The Wall." In our xenophobia we've been busy building a giant wall between parts of Mexico and Texas. It doesn't actually keep anyone out since it isn't a complete wall that covers the whole border. All it does is makes people cross somewhere else, or, you know, buy a ladder. We visited plenty of other sites along the Rio Grande where crossing the border would take nothing more than a quick short swim.

The Wall

We were greeted by a pair of Chichuanan ravens as soon as we drove in. This was a good sign and we were happy to see them since they are no longer hanging out at the Brownsville dump.

Excited about ravens before we even hit the parking lot, we hit up the feeding station at the small visitor's center. The birds were plentiful. I also realized as I sat there watching the emending parade of birds that I had seen this feeder set-up before. The Sabal Palm Sanctuary has a web-cam set up on the feeders and I had watched this webcam months earlier. Seeing all these amazing birds on the webcam on a cold boring day in Minnesota was one of the things that had encouraged me to visit the Rio Grande Valley. Here's the live feed right now:

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
While we did see new birds, one of the great things was to get better looks at birds we had already seen.

Clay-colored Thrush (a.k.a. Clay-colored Robin)

We had previously gotten a not very good look at a Clay-colored Thrush while chasing another bird earlier in the week. It was wonderful to get such a better look. We also got a better look at the Black-crested Titmouse and White-tipped Dove.

Black-crested Titmouse

White-tipped Dove

We also got a good look at a bathing Olive Sparrow. We had tried to find one earlier in the week at Estero with no luck.

Olive Sparrow taking a bath

The highlight for me was this Yellow-throated Warbler. I was a lifer and beautiful!

Breathtaking Yellow-throated Warbler.

At some point, all of the birds disappeared from the feeders when this Red-shouldered Hawk showed up.

Red-whouldered Hawk

We yet again failed to see a chachalaca though I had seen one at Sabal Palm on the webcam back in Minnesota. Oh we'll. Sabal Palm wasn't just a feeder stake out. We also explored and hiked around the site. I even happened upon a beautiful and endangered Texas Indigo Snake.

There are a number of blinds set up at Sabal Palm. We didn't see a lot of species from them but I imagine at times they are great spots for seeing birds. Here, Erik is checking out the Resaca Blind. Erik was so taken with Texas that he moved down there to take a job with Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center.

Erik in his native habitat

We were able to see these incredibly adorable grebe chicks from the blind.

We also got good views of this Green Kingfisher from the Resaca blind.

Here are the new birds for the trip I added at Sabal Palms Sanctuary.

Red-Shouldered Hawk
Sandhill Crane
White-eyed Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Carolina Wren
Yellow-throated Warbler
Olive Sparrow

All told, we saw 35 species at Sabal Palms including the White-eyed Vireo. Everyone else on the trip had seen several of them and it was starting to be a bit of a nemesis bird for me. I kept missing them, including at a gas station while I was loading up on treats inside.

There were lots of other birders at Sabal Palms on official field trips for the festival. I'm not a birding by bus kind of guy and while I'm sure the tour leaders were great and I'm sure they saw tons of birds, I much prefer to bird in a small quiet group at my own pace.

We finished off Sabal Palms Sanctuary by noon and I was feeling pretty good.

At this point in the week, seven new species for the trip by noon was a great accomplishment. Four of them had been lifers for me so I was even more elated.

We hit up our first gas station tacos for lunch informing Kelly that her reputation was on the line since she had raved about them. They were not bad though without adding on loads of extras they were completely devoid of flavor or spice. We should not have taken advice from the one and only Texan who cannot stand spicy food. Still, you cannot argue with the speed and price. We were in, out, fed, and back on the road with a half day of birding ahead of us.

Where to next? There were rumors of a Prairie Falcon hanging out north of Harlingen. Another new species anyone? It would be our sixth species of falcon for the trip and a lifer. We'd already seen Crested Caracara, American Kestrel, Merlin, Aplomado and Peregrine. What were we waiting for?

We hit the roads and headed north following directions on the BirdsEye app. We saw lots of birds on the wires but no Prairie falcon. Kelly had caught wind that we were headed for the falcon so she drove out to intercept us and try to see it too.

After a little driving around we decided to try a side road and sure enough, there was a raptor perched on the power lines.

We slowly crept up and then scoped it from a safe distance. Sure enough, Prairie Falcon.

Prairie Falcon

What a cool bird to see. Kelly ended up pulling up behind us right as we found it and she got a look too. We found 13 other species while looking for the falcon but none of them were new for the trip. The prairie Falcon was our 145 species of bird for the trip.

It had been a great day of birding but there was a problem. I'd been birding with a pair of Vortex binoculars and the hinge had developed a crack while down in Texas. It wasn't from being treated rough, it had to be a manufacturing defect. I knew of one other pair from the same batch that had developed the same crack. Since I was at the festival and knew that Vortex/Eagle Optics had a booth there I decided to swing by to see what they could do. I showed them to the rep on hand and he looked at them with interest. He had heard of this happening to a few pairs before. He flexed them back and forth a few times and then proceeded to snap them in half. He said something like, "Well, can't be using these can you?" He then reached under the table and pulled out a box with the brand new version of my binoculars and handed them over no questions asked. This is what a lifetime warranty looks like folks. I'm very happy with my binoculars and I know they will be backed up for years to come.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of the series. We ended with one of the greatest days of the trip.

Amazing Heron Video

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:45:00 +0000

Those of you who follow the Twin Cities Naturalist page on Facebook may have already seen the video below I shared it there yesterday. If you are not already following on Facebook you can follow this link and click on "like."

This video was taken by Jessie Garza out in Washington state. It has been shared over 1,000 times so far as it is truly amazing. Great Blue Herons are opportunistic feeders and will take food where they can get it. Be sure to watch the whole video!

Post by Jessie Garza.

Backswimmers Bite

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 14:52:00 +0000

I took my first job as a naturalist about 17 years ago. I was a summer seasonal at Tamarack Nature Center in White Bear Township, Minnesota. I learned many valuable things that summer but one of the first was a staple of the naturalist trade; Dip netting.

Take a group of kids down to a lake or pond, scoop around with nets from the shore or dock and empty the contents into kitchen tubs, cool whip containers or whatever you can find.

The exact mechanics might vary a bit from program-to-program or nature center to nature center. Sometimes we were just looking see what was there. Sometimes we would sort all the macro invertebrates we would find, putting predators in one, tub scavengers in another and decomposers in yet another. In one of my favorite versions, we would sort the animals into small tubs by species, with the kids doing all the identifying, and then tally up the results and look at population dynamics. There are many variations but in the 17 summers, springs and falls I've done dip netting there's always been backswimmers.

I learned what backswimmers are the very first time I went dip netting. They are one of the more common critters we find. They are a little less than a centimeter long, swim on their back and use long oar like legs to propel themselves through the water.

I've seen more than a few backswimmers in my life. I conservatively estimate I've done somewhere around 510 dip netting programs in the last 17 years. That works out to somewhere around 15,300 students.

I've scooped backswimmers into buckets, I move them around with spoons and screens, I've had hundreds of kids doing the same.

This weekend though, I learned. something new about backswimmers, they can bite!

Why didn't anyone ever tell me this? Does everyone else know that backswimmers can bite and I somehow missed this bit of information? How did no backswimmer ever bite one of those 15,000 school kids?

I was doing a dip netting program this weekend and wanted to show the public a little backswimmer scurrying around inside a kitchen tub placed on the dock. Some folks had arrived late at the drop-in program and I wanted to catch them up on what we'd been seeing. I used my hand to try the scoop up the little innocent looking backswimmer or maybe just make a little pool in my palm so it could swim around and people could get a good look. The backswimmer did not appreciate my hands-on pedagogical technique.

I felt a pinch on my pinky finger and quickly pulled my hand out of the water. "Ouch," I said, "I think he just bit me!"

I was quite surprised as I had absolutely no idea they could bite. I was also not ready for what happened next. Instead of the pain going away as I would expect from a tiny pinch from a tiny bug, it got worse and worse. A strong burning sensation spread through my finger as though I had been stung by a paper wasp.

I saw this as a great personal learning opportunity so here is what I have learned.

Backswimmers are in the insect order Hemiptera making them "true bugs." True bugs are those insects with piercing mouth parts. Yup, sounds right. They are in the family Notonectidae.

I'd love to tell you the genus and species of the one that bit me but there are 400 species worldwide and many can only be identified by experts examining differences in the male's genitalia under a microscope. I'll pass on that endevour.

The reason the bite hurts so much has to do with the hunting technique of the backswimmer. They catch prey with their legs and quickly pierce their skin or exoskeleton with their sharp beak. The backswimmer injects digestive enzymes and other chemicals into the animal which paralyze it and begin to dissolve the insides into goo. Once nice and juicy inside, the backswimmer can suck the prey dry. The enzymes are irritating and burn like the sting of a wasp.

So, there you go. Backswimmers have a very nasty bite. If 15,000 kids over 17 years managed to not get bitten though you must need to really tick them off to get bitten.

Must be my lucky day. So far my insides have not liquified.

Lily-leaved Twayblade Orchid

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 23:00:00 +0000

While training a volunteer in on plant survey techniques in the prairie at Lowry Nature Center, natural resources staff found a rare orchid. I headed out to look myself and was able to snap this photo.

This is the lily-leaved Twayblade orchid. I was trying to find more info on it online but was initially stumped as I only knew the common name "Twayblade orchid". There are quite a number of plants that go by the name Twayblade orchid and most of them are in the genus Neottia. I searched around the read up on the genus but nothing seemed to match what you see in the photo.

It turns out this is what is commonly called the Lily-leaved Twayblade and it is in a completely different genus. The scientific name of this orchid is Liparis liliifolia. Note that "lilifolia" literally means "lily-leaved." I prefer this common name over some others for that reason. It is less confusing. That's the problem with common makes though, they hold no sway and you can make up your own if you really want to. Some other common names of this plant are Brown Widelip Orchid, Large Twayblade, Purple Twayblade, and Mauve Sleekwort. How's that for confusing? Want to make it more confusing? The reason I had trouble finding the exact species is that the Neottia genus are in deed the "twayblades" while the Liparis genus comprise the "false twayblades".

Okay, so do we call this False Lily-leaved Twayblade? No, that would imply that there is a true Lily-leaved twayblade in the Neottia genus. How about Lily-leaved False Twayblade? That's probably better and more accurate but a mouth full. You can see why scientists and botanists simply stick to Liparis liliifolia.

This particular plant or patch of plants is particularly interesting when you consider this map from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This map shows which counties have recorded occurrences of Liparis liliifolia.

Liparis liliifolia has never been recorded in Carver County before making this discovery a county record.

Why is it called a Red-Bellied Woodpecker?

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:10:00 +0000

As I show birds to kids I often get a question about red-bellied woodpeckers. It's not so much a question has a statement, they usually say, "Hey look, a red-headed woodpecker!"

While it is technically possible for a Red-headed woodpecker to show up where I work, this isn't what they are seeing. Invariably, they have pointed out a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

It is an easy mistake to make. The birds are large, conspicuous, and sport a very red stripe down the back of the head. Red-headed woodpecker would be a great name for this bird if it wasn't already taken by this beauty.

The bird above is the red-headed woodpecker. As you can see, the whole of the head is a deep red and the belly is clean white. The bird below is a red-bellied woodpecker. I took this photo toward the end of the winter. As you can see, the red is only on the back of the head. It isn't an award winning photo by any means but I wanted to share it as you can clearly see the "red belly" as the bird is feeding off a tray feeder.

This seems like a terrible name for a bird. They mostly feed while keeping their belly pushed up against a tree which hides the field mark they are named after. Keep in mind though, that while we study birds today with binoculars, they were primarily studied with guns in the past. Ornithologists would go out in the field, shoot birds, and then study them later in hand. It seems awfully strange to us today but especially before high quality binoculars and spotting scopes existed, shooting the birds really was the best way to identify and learn more about them. The red-bellied woodpecker, and others like the ring-necked duck, have names that are hold-overs from a time when birds were best studied post-mortem and in the hand. Remember, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

What bird names have you always thought were puzzling?

~Kirk

Partial Leucistic Rose-brested Grosbeak

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 09 May 2014 18:57:00 +0000

Spring migration is one of my favorite times of the year. On Wednesday, I added 10 new birds to my year list of birds. Thursday I added six more and then today, Friday, I added an additional 11 birds. They just keep coming and it makes it a fun time of year.

One of the birds I look forward to seeing every year is the Rose-brested Grosbeak. People sometimes ask about the name, Grosbeak is derived from the french grosbec. Gros is simply old French for large. The moniker sure fits these beautiful birds.

While at the Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center this morning I checked out the feeders to see what was there. There were numerous Rose-brested Grosbeaks but one caught my eye.

This is a female, though her coloration is aberrant. She is exhibiting partial leucism which I have written about before in other species. Leucism is distinct from Albinism.

Albinism is the total lack of pigment in the body. An albino bird would have all white feathers, pink legs and pink eyes. A leucistic bird has regular colored eyes and legs and the feathers are either paler or they have white patches. The cells of a leucistic bird are damaged and cannot make the pigment necessary for the coloration of some of their feathers. Only the affected cells are white and leucism only affects feathers, which is why the legs and eyes remain the correct color. In contrast, albino birds lack the pigment melanin in all of their cells so their eyes and legs are also not the normal color. Albinism is systemic, affecting the whole body so you cannot have a partial albino.

The partial leucistic grosbeak is interesting. You can see the breast still retains some of the yellowish-orange wash of a female but there is extra white, especially on the head and back.

How much for that book?

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:51:00 +0000

Have you heard the joke that asks what the difference is between a large pizza and a naturalist?

A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Basically you have to do this job for the love of it. That means when collecting books I have to be, shall we say, price selective. That leather bound Francis Bacon natural history book from 1631 I saw on eBay for $2500 is not in the cards. (No one bid on it by the way so apparently it wasn't in anyone's price range.)

I have a fairly low dollar amount I never go above for books and while it means that I miss out on many books it also means the ones I do get are a great deal.

I'll go a little higher on something really spectacular but having a firm budget in mind when you go looking for books is a good idea.

With that in mind, here are a couple if books I came across that were simply well out of my price range (but wonderful!)

First up is this 1917 gilded edition of Birds of Britain by J. Lewis Bonhote. Look at that cover! I've been known to buy a book just for an exquisite cover. The bird motif is great and the use og gilding got shading on the wings is fantastic. The orange-red cloth boards makes the whole thing pop.

The asking price? Why just $350. Ouch. No thanks.

Of course, you can get the same book in the 1927 edition without gilding and on boring tan cloth boards for just $23. Kinda boring though once you've seen the one above right?

Sometimes a cover is boring and what's inside is the real treat. That's the case with all of the Naturalist's Library series of book by William Jardine. Published in the early 1800s the drawings are real eye candy.

Unfortunately, each volume goes into the hundreds of dollars. They are probably a good value but not likely to grace my shelves any time soon. The owl is from a multi-volume set on birds of the UK and the hummingbird from a two volume set on just hummingbirds.

What are your favorite nature books? Let me know!

Bloodthirsty Beavers?

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 22:00:00 +0000

Photo Credit: Steve (CC license)

A while back a friend forwarded me an Associated Press story about a man in Belarus who was killed by a beaver. The article was full of references to beavers becoming more aggressive in the region.

Here's a line from the second paragraph of the story, "It was the most serious in a string of beaver attacks on humans in Belarus, as the rodents have turned increasingly aggressive when confronted by humans after wandering near homes, shops and schools."

Really? Are we to believe that beavers are somehow increasing their aggressiveness? Was this what they talked about at the last secret trans-national beaver convention?

Let's take just a second to strip away the sensationalist writing style and practice some actual journalism here. The facts in the story speak for themselves once you ignore the reporter's "when beavers attack" angle to the story.

A fisherman was driving down the road and saw a beaver. He got out of the car and grabbed the beaver so his friends could get a picture of him with it. Naturally, the freaked-out beaver thinking it was under attack fought back by biting the guy. Tragically, the beaver bit into an artery in the man's leg and he bled to death.

I say TRAGICALLY because a tragedy is defined as something horrible that happens that is completely avoidable. The beaver did not aggressively demand to be picked up and then bit the man. If you pick up a wild animal it will usually bite you. People should know better than to try to pick up a wild animal for a photo op.

The beaver didn't flag down the car, open the door and attack the man. Beavers are not becoming more aggressive, people are becoming more disconnected with nature and fail to see that there are consequences for their actions. Let's go back to the second paragraph of the article with some emphasis added my be in bold.

"It was the most serious in a string of beaver attacks on humans in Belarus, as the rodents have turned increasingly aggressive when confronted by humans after wandering near homes, shops and schools."

A more accurate version of this sentence would read, "It was the most serious in a string of beaver injuries to humans in Belarus, as humans have turned increasingly aggressive when confronting beavers wandering near homes, shops and schools."

Beavers have not suddenly snapped and decided to start attacking humans. They have not mysteriously increased their aggression. It is humans that are becoming increasingly aggressive in their confrontations with beavers and as a result the beavers are reacting by defending themselves like they always have.

If you purposeful hit your head against a wall and it hurts should you blame the wall? If the man had failed to wear a life jacket and drown while fishing would there be articles about how the lakes in Belarus are becoming more aggressive and killing people?

Let's all be safe out there. Wild animals are wild, treat them with respect. They are not teddy bears, puppies or kittens. If you don't want to be attacked by wildlife, don't try to grab it, harass it, feed it or get too close. A little common sense goes a long way.

~Kirk

Rio Grande Valley Day Five: A Cold Day

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:42:00 +0000

This is part five of a series of posts on the 2013 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

One of the great things about going down to Texas in November is that you get a much welcome change in temperature. Just as Minnesota is metaphorically opening the bathrobe and letting in the cold arctic air (not sure I'm comfortable with that metaphor) the good folks down in Texas are still wrapped up in the warm embrace of a tropical floral bathrobe (yes, now I'm sure the metaphor is terrible.)

It's such a nice change in November to step off the plane and into the humid (albeit musty smelling) Harlingen airport. As my friend Birdchick likes to say, "Smells like birds."

With this in mind, I awoke Thursday and dressed according to my expectations.

This is, of course, a horrible idea. One should never dress for their expectations, they should dress according to the weather report.

Apparently I was the only person to listen to the weather report as I nearly froze in my t-shirt and shorts. We met up first thing in the morning with Paula, Annette and Robert at Estero to try for a Black Rail. This was a nearly pointless exercise as by the time we got there it was already light out and our only hope was to be there before dawn. This was not turning out to be the kind of trip where anything was accomplished before dawn. We fruitlessly looked for the rail and failed. It was probably frozen anyhow. Most of the other birders were dressed like they were going birding in the boreal forest. I was doing a very convincing impression of someone in danger of getting gradual hypothermia.

Curt found this tarantula hanging out on the cattails where we were hoping we would find the rail.

On the bright side, I added an early morning lifer at Estero. Back by the alligator pond I stumbled upon a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Packing things up at Estero we divided up into a couple of cars and headed for Anzalduas to look for hawks. They wouldn't be up until the day warmed a bit so we weren't in a huge hurry to get there (spoiler alert, it never warmed up.)

In a happy turn of events, once we reached Anzalduas I realized Erik had left his Black Swamp Bird Observatory hoodie in our car. Thanks Erik! Hypothermia averted.

At Anzalduas we met up with artist Catherine Hamilton and her friend Luke Tiller. I hadn't birded with Catherine in years. It was good to hang out but the birds were few and far between.

At this point in the trip we had two goals, one was to see new birds and the second was to photograph birds. To see new birds we had to be strategic about where we went. Anzulduas was our spot to see Gray Hawk. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any.

As we stood in the driving cold wind we did add a green kingfisher to our list as well as Vermillion Flycatcher and House finches. We all got a good chuckle when eBird flagged our sighting of house finches as unusual. Uh, okay.

At this point we needed food. We used our phones to find a well rated Mexican restaurant that Curt said was only five miles away. Perfect!

Erik headed back to the festival with Paul, Robert and Annette to man his booth and we head to lunch with our Texan birding buddy Kelly.

Did Curt's new phone say it was only five miles away? It suddenly said eight, then ten, then fifteen. I was pretty sure he was reading the miles to next turn instead of miles total but we eventually arrived there. It weirdly ended up being the same restaurant that Erik and Paula and Annette ate at earlier in the week.

The food was okay but we'd had to wait and lost out on birding time. Kelly let us in on a little secret. We should have gotten tacos at the gas station.

This seemed like an odd bit of local intel. I'm not used to thinking of the gas station as the go-to place for quality food. If you've seen the quality of the shriveled up hotdogs and taquito rolls on the roller grill at a SuperAmerica, QuikTrip or Holiday Station then you know what I'm talking about. We made a mental note to either thank or berate Kelly later for this advice.

In the late afternoon we spent the last bit of birding back at Estero. Kelly's car was there so we headed back and why not do a little birding since we're there? We wandered around for two hours and tallied a quick 22 species almost all of which we had already seen. I took the opportunity to get some better photos.

This Long-billed thrasher showed up at the feeders.

This Green Jay was also cooperative.

We could have seen more but we were specifically looking for new birds like olive sparrows. No olive sparrows showed up but we did add Hermit Thrush to our Texas list.

We also had a very cool encounter with a new species though not one we could enter into eBird. While walking from the newly acquired RV section of the park to the visitor's center we happened upon two young bobcats!

It had been a slow cold day compared to the rest of the week so we felt the need to cap off the day with a near guaranteed bird. We headed out to look for Green Parakeets. Our inside information told us they would be hanging out in the Holiday Inn parking lot in Harlingen. As the sun set we pulled into the parking lot and sure enough, the whole flock was there.

We only added six new birds to our list all day and it was cold. Still, how could it not be a great day? We saw old friends, we were birding. We were now at 137 for the trip.

Sapcicles!

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:40:00 +0000

It's maple syrup season and at the end of the day my co-worker and fellow naturalist Brett spotted these awesome sapcicles. A sapcicle is an icicle made of sap. Members of the maple family have sap flowing on warm days in the spring. The sap flows due to a quirk in the structure of maples and is caused by pressure that builds as the result of the freezing and thawing of water in the tree in the spring.

Box elder trees are members of the maple family and their sap flows too. You can even make maple syrup from box elders. This particular tree has several broken branches that were probably nipped off by squirrels. The sap leaking out of the ends of the branches froze into icicles. These sapcicles taste sweet if you break them off. American Indians were probably the first to encounter sapcicles and this discovery may very well be how humans first clued into how to make maple syrup.

(Note: This post contains a video that is not visible to people reading via email. Click here to watch the video.)

Study documents effects of road noise on migrating birds

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 13:00:00 +0000

What effect do roads have on migrating birds? Scientists have a pretty good feeling that roads impact birds. Indeed, studies have documented fewer birds near busy roads than in other areas but that doesn't really tell us why. There is a problem of confounding factors. While doing an experiment, scientists want to only test one variable at a time. Real roads are full of variables. Are their fewer birds because of the physical presence of cars or the road or is something is missing in the habitat because of the road? Is it just a lack of trees? Do the birds dislike linear open spaces? Are roads naturally placed in locations that coincidentally are also lower in bird diversity? Are there fewer birds because predators use the roads as hunting grounds? Does the traffic noise drive them away?

These are all possibilities and experiments need to be carefully set up to test each factor. Researchers at Boise State University have conducted a new study designed to eliminate all factors except traffic noise to see what effect it has.

Researchers created a virtual road to simulate traffic noise in a roadless area.

Researchers set up a virtual road along Lucky Peak which is near the Idaho Bird Observatory's field site. The virtual road was created with speakers hung on trees to simulate only one variable of roads, traffic noise.

Post doctorial research associate Christopher J.W. McClure said, "We present the first study to experimentally apply traffic noise to a roadless area at a landscape scale, thus avoiding the other confounding aspects of roads present in past studies."

The researchers alternated periods of playing and not playing noise during fall migration and used bird surveys to document differences in bird presence during those times.

“We documented more than a one-quarter decline in bird abundance and almost complete avoidance by some species between noise-on and noise-off periods along the phantom road,” said Jesse R. Barber, assistant professor of biological sciences.

Could this have been a fluke or coincidence? As birders know, migration can be hit or miss. Luckily, the researchers also included control sites in their experiment. Barber states, "There were no such effects at control sites. This suggests that traffic noise is a major driver of the effects of roads on populations of animals.”

In science we need to be careful about drawing conclusions. The researchers say traffic noise is a major driver but this does not mean we can exclude other factors. We need more experiments like this, that only test one variable at a time, to truly understand the big picture of how roads impact birds. What we can say, based on this data, is that traffic noise should be strongly considered by land use managers as they think about bird populations.

“An experimental investigation into the effects of traffic noise on distributions of birds: avoiding the phantom road,” 10.1098/rspb.2013.2290 published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society

Source:
This article was based on information in a press release from Boise State University.
Photos courtesy of Boise State University.

Spring Red-winged Blackbirds

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 14:36:00 +0000

One of the sure signs spring is here is when the red-winged blackbirds show up. I got a tip that they had shown shown up for the first time on Friday at work while I wasn't there.

When I came in this Monday morning, sure enough, there were dozens of them flying around and calling like mad.

It may be snowing out but Happy Spring!

No White After Easter

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:58:00 +0000

I'm not one to follow the latest fashion trends. I work in a field where blue jeans, hiking boots and a hooded sweatshirt or t-shirt are pretty much worn every day of the year. There's one fashion nugget I've picked up over the years though and that's this bizarre "no white before Easter" nonsense.

My grandmother was a big believer in this. My family isn't religious, we celebrate Easter in strictly the eat brunch and look for eggs manner, but that brunch has always been an opportunity to dress up. I could always count on three things, my grandmother would have a new spring hat, she would be wearing white for the first time in the new year and she would stain those white clothes by dropping ketchup or some similar substance on them.

I've never understood this fascination with white wearing only between certain arbitrary dates. (Nor the desire to eat ketchup while clad in all white for that matter.) I've seen a few interesting theories though.

One is that back when houses were heated with coal it was nearly impossible to wear white any time other than the summer. The amount of soot in the air and on pretty much everything you might tough or sit on when it was cold made white impractical any time buildings were being heated. This seems to make sense but I haven't found any real evidence this is where the tradition came from.

Some people say that white is a fresh summery color and donning white is a signal of a new beginning. White is also, no doubt, a cool color to wear in the summer as it doesn't absorb heat and you feel cooler. Sure, okay, I buy that but how is white not a winter color?

Looking out the window at the end of this long winter, I am sick of white. There is white everywhere. We've melted 16 inches of snow away in the Twin Cities in the last week or so and there are still mountains of the white stuff.

We've even been overrun with white snowy owls. Haven't we had enough?

Apparently not. Here's the latest 48 hour snowfall total model run.

Seriously? More snow? Haven't we had enough? The core of that storm is showing as much as 20 fresh inches of snow on Minnesota. Now, this model is probably overestimating and it looks like most of it will spare the Twin Cities if this track continues but come on. Enough white.

Here's my new fashion advice. Throw away the old model of no white until after Easter. The new model is NO WHITE AFTER EASTER.

I'm done with it. I don't want to see the color white again until next December. Since today is St. Patrick's Day and everyone seems to want to wear green I say keep it up. Not just today, green everyday. Wear your green until nature gets the message. We're done with white.

Snow buntings!

kirkmona@yahoo.com (Kirk) — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:45:00 +0000

On my way home from work at the Lowry Nature Center in Carver Park Reserve I saw three birds fly up from the edge of the nature center driveway. They were snow buntings! Unfortunately, I had neither binoculars nor camera with me.

I grabbed my DSLR on the way out the door this morning and lucky me, the birds were in the exact same location this morning!

I only managed to click off three photos before they flew away but it was fun to get a good look at these handsome birds.