Birds in a Changing World: Birding 101

If you every struggle to explain your birding lifestyle--why you have the urge to drop a local green-way during migration or a local pond in the dead of winter, then my latest Birds in a Changing World post, "Birding 101," may be of use.

It's specifically targeted at Duke graduate students, but could be useful reading for any muggle (non-birder) in your life. 

Birds in a Changing World: Birding in North Carolina

Up now on my Nicholas School of the Environment blog: Birds in a Changing World is a post called: "Birding in North Carolina."

It is a primer on the bird diversity of NC written for the uninitiated, but birders of all levels should find it enjoyable.  Check it out!

Birds in a Changing World

This fall I applied and was accepted to a spot on the Duke Environment 'blogging team.' Hooray!

Overenthusiastic team photo

No longer am I a lone wolf (err... lone bird), but now have co-conspirators and an institutional platform from which to spout my bird-brained thoughts.

Don't fear--this does not mark the end of Birds on the Brain; I will continue to post birding stories here. 

But I invite you to check out my new blog, 'Birds in a Changing World,' where I have already begun experimenting with some new narrative angles. Come take a look: my first post, Will our Love for Birds Help Them Survive Environmental Catastrophe, is a manifesto of sorts. 

I hope to put more emphasis on science and hopefully reduce the use of obscure birder jargon, like "passerine," or "Thayer's Gull," or "cloaca" to appeal to a more muggle readership. If you have been enjoying my writing here over the past four years, I'm sure you'll have lots to look forward to in my shiny new (second) home.

I'll be sure to cross-link future posts here as well.  Click them early and often and leave comments (unless you're my mom; Google analytics filters those out) so I don't get cut from the team!

Windows on Duke's Campus are a Devil for Birds

Most birders come across a window strike victim every now and again and perhaps think of it as a tragic freak accident.  But did you know that collisions with windows are the second leading source of human-caused bird death in the United States?

Tufted Titmouse, a window strike victim at Duke University

It’s a serious problem, particularly for neotropical migrants, many of which have declined significantly in North America over the past century.  It isn’t possible to attribute population declines to collisions, but the annual death of an estimated 1 billion birds (*source below) certainly isn’t helping.  And with more and more buildings being constructed that means more windows and more chances for fatally concussed birds.  

The good news is that solutions are relatively cheap and easy.  Window panes can be coated with ultra-violet reflective films or stickers to make them appear visible to birds without ruining the view for people.  Mortality of nocturnal migrants can be greatly reduced by turning off lights and/or shutting blinds during peak movements.  This approach has been taken by major metropolitan areas, such as Toronto and Chicago, which have annual “lights out” programs.

Data on the scope of the problem here in the Carolinas is mostly anecdotal so far.  Around the campus of Duke University in Durham, NC a few birders have collected dozens of incidentally discovered carcasses to send to the natural history museum in Raleigh to be used as study skins.

An assortment of window strike victims found on Duke University's West Campus over the past year

I stumbled upon the first campus record of a GrasshopperSparrow outside Cameron Indoor Stadium over a year ago.  Luckily this bird was still alive, confused and fluttering against a ground-level window.  I was able to catch it, document it with an iPhone and release it unharmed. 

Grasshopper Sparrow, a window strike survivor at Duke University

The first campus Fox Sparrow record came a couple weeks ago, but this bird was less fortunate.

Fox Sparrow, a window strike victim at Duke University

Both these sparrow species are relatively rare around Durham and it is clear that buildings on campus are the cause of mortality not just to local residents, but also to passing migrants that may be drawn into the well-lit and reflective campus only to crash into invisible walls.  

a Hermit Thrush lies dead beneath Duke University's sparkling new Penn Pavillion

But it will take more than the tragic story of a few birds meeting an untimely end to sway the corporate administrators that crank the machinery running Duke’s multibillion-dollar empire.  Deliberate sampling, statistics and cost-benefit analyses are needed.

...which is exactly why carcass surveys began last week focusing on seven West Campus buildings. They will continue for 21 consecutive days of as part of a project led by Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, a doctoral candidate at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and Nicolette Cagle, a Nicholas School instructor.  Their Duke team will pool data with a consortium of 45 other North American colleges and universities investigating bird death from windows on their campuses.  The international team includes academic institutions in Mexico and Canada and is spearheaded by researchers at Augustana College in Illinois.  Duke is the only participant in North Carolina.  

Surveys at Duke will not only help quantify the magnitude of the problem nationally, but also help identify local campus hot spots for bird strikes where mitigation can have the greatest positive effect.  Data on the shape, orientation, surrounding land cover and window properties of these buildings will also help inform future architects about strategies for bird-friendly design.  Six of the buildings in the survey have received awards for Leadership in Efficient Environmental Design (LEED certification), but so far it doesn’t look like many are that actually that friendly to birds.

Did you know that last Tuesday night there was a big movement of migrating Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, an uncommon woodpecker that winters in Duke Forest?  I do because surveyors found three dead ones around Duke buildings on Wednesday.  

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a window strike victim at Duke University

Durham’s first Ovenbird of the season arrived that night.  It may have crossed the Gulf of Mexico recently on its way to breeding grounds in Duke Forest or points to the north.  But it’s chance to breed this year were ruined by a window of the French Family Science Center at Duke.

Ovenbird, a window strike victim at Duke University

This kind of practical action-oriented conservation science that Ocampo-Penuela and Cagle are pursuing is exactly what these birds need.

For more information about this project and instructions on what to do if you should find a window strike victim on Duke's campus, see their website: http://sites.duke.edu/birdcollisions/

If you find window strike bird anywhere in the world, you can report it to this new iNaturalist project: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bird-window-collisions

*Loss S.R., Will T., Loss S.S., and Marra P.P. 2014. Bird–building collisions in the United States: Estimates of annual mortality and species vulnerability. Ornithological Applications 116: 8-23. 

Leadin' field trips down east

North Carolina's Albemarle Peninsula and Outer Banks make up a world-class birding destination in mid-winter, with waterfowl galore, and a healthy diversity of waders, shorebirds and sparrows.

I had the honor of leading field trips 'Down East' (as it's called) in back-to-back weekends.

Trip 1: Duke Conservation Society / Nicholas School Naturalists / Student Association of Wetland Scientists trip to Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

A couple weeks ago Jeff Pippen and I took a group of 21 master's students from the Nicholas School down to Lake Mattamuskeetfor an unseasonably warm and sunny day of birding.

Lots of happy students

Bird highlights were a Eurasian Wigeon (thanks to Thierry Besancon, who we bumped into with a group from New Hope Audubon), a brief, but diagnostic glimpse of an Ashe-throated Flycatcher (the second one I have found in NC in as many months) and a very photogenic Anhinga.

Anhinga

I used this opportunity to swap SD cards and batteries for the cameras at my research site...

photo by Emma Hedman

Trip 2: Carolina Bird Club Winter Meeting at Nags Head, NC

This past weekend the Carolina Bird Club held its winter meeting at Nags Head, a launching point for a heap of the state's top birding hotspots.  I led 3 half-day trips around Bodie Island over Friday and Saturday.

The Bodie Lighthouse pond is the best place I know to get close enough to photograph (or in this case digiscope) ducks...

Northern Pintail and Northern Shoveler

sleepy Gadwall pair

American Avocets, Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail

Oregon Inlet always has something interesting going on bird-wise. This weekend the highlight for many of the birders on my trips were a pair of Purple Sandpipers at the end of the jetty.

Purple Sandpipers

On the way back west I dropped by the 'sparrow fields' by Lake Phelps.  The hotspot lived up to its name and the adjacent shrub line was loaded with oddball sparrows that are usually pretty hard to come by in North Carolina...

Vesper Sparrow

Vesper Sparrows

Vesper Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow visits Krzyzewskiville

After watching Duke handle Winston-Salem State last night in an exhibition basketball game I was walking through Krzyzewskiville to meet my dad at the Sheffield Tennis Center when I noticed a small bird fluttering against a ground-level window.  I easily caught it by hand and brought it into the light...

Grasshopper Sparrow

...a Grasshopper Sparrow ?!?

I got my brother to snap a few iPhone photos and then let it go...

Grasshopper Sparrow

The bird was clearly trying to migrate. Perhaps it struck a window and then got against the northwest face of the building.

This was my first ever Grasshopper Sparrow on migration and an exceptionally late one at that.  There are only 3 prior eBird records of the species in North Carolina for the month of November.

Grasshopper Sparrow

Since birds are known to be portentous (Homer et al., ca. 700 BC), I'll go ahead and declare this to be a good omen for the Duke tennis teams this coming season.  

More on the Hatteras pelagic...

To give my last post a bit more context, the Black-browed Albatross will be only the fifth formally accepted record of the species for the United States (once the NC records committee gets a chance to vote on it) with 10 or so other unconfirmed reports over the years (source). And it is only the second report of any kind from North Carolina waters with a first being a sight record of two birds seen in the 70s .

Obviously the Black-browed Albatross, for its incredible improbability and stunning beauty, stole the show from what had already been fabulous winter pelagic trip off Hatteras.

The weather was mild and the sea was calm (at least by afternoon). Our first rare bird of the day appeared almost instantly: an Iceland Gull, not 15 minutes out of port in the sound. I had seen a few of these on the pelagic trip I took February last year and got some great photos, so like lack of sunlight and photo opportunity didn't bother me.

Moments later we cruised by a flock of about 60 Brant, a goose species found on salt water that can be elusive within North Carolina (NC bird #302!).

Out on the open ocean we weren't finding the incredible density of alcids that we had last year; one Dovekie skittered away from the boat and I saw small groups of Razorbills here and there. But we found almost all the typical winter pelagic species that I had missed last year including a few Manx Shearwaters (lifer #1546), Great Skuas (lifer #1548), one lone Northern Fulmar (lifer #1549), and several groups of Red Phalaropes.

Red Phalaropes (lifer #1547!); so cool to see shorebirds at home on the open ocean

The phalaropes were working along an obvious contrast between warm blue gulf stream water and cold green water.

more phalaropes with a Bonaparte's Gull; at a distance these two birds can look remarkably similar

The confluence of nutrient-rich cold water and the gulf stream drives a hotspot of primary productivity, attracted fish and other marine macrofauna. Not-birds included Bottlenose and Spotted Dolphins, but most impressive were the abundance of Loggerhead Sea Turtles.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

We noticed 30 to 40 bobbing past and several that exhibited some really odd behavior...turtles swimming on their backs with flippers out of the water. One even craned its head out of its shell above water and opened its mouth showing its beak. I guess this was some sort of threat display because it proceeded to approach our boat and bite at the hull! Weird. I hope some turtle experts can offer some interpretation.

Black-browed Albatross off Cape Hatteras

Black-browed Albatross; pelagic off Cape Hatteras on Feb.18, 2012

Full Adult; the first adult of the species photographed in the US?

With 1st-cycle Great Black-backed Gull; I wonder how often these species meet?

With Northern Gannets; another unusual juxtaposition!

In flight; notice how close we are to the shoreline in the background. Also note the molting flight feathers.  I have read that albatrosses have to take a year off from nesting to molt.

During the ~45-minute view, it mostly sat on the water. This is the only glimpse of the underwings I captured

Overexposed and cropped photo shows a dark iris; an indication the bird is from the nominate race/subspecies and may be from the Falkland Islands off Argentina (rather than Campbell Island)

My first photo of the bird at 4:40 pm; imagine if it had disappeared after this shot

And the second capture; nice and blurry like most of my pelagic photos

Bob Fogg aboard the Stormy Petrel II (captained by Brian Patteson) with the Albatross in the background.  Bob spotted the bird fly into the wake (apparently they go for chum)

Jeff Pippen taking an iPhone photo of the bird to be sent instantly to his lawyer for safe keeping.  Jeff led a group from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University that fortunately included me!

And in case anybody wants to see some HD video (be sure to watch in 720p!):

Sorry about the shakiness, the boat just wouldn't hold still.  This clip is better for shake than many of the others I took (too much zoom), but just to be safe, you may want to pop some dramamine. 

Huge thanks to Captain Brian, 1st mate Kate and spotters Bob and Dave for a fantastic trip.  It was a phenomenal day even discounting this bird (lifer #1550 and my 5th of the day!).

For more on the context of this find and details about other cool birds and non-birds seen on the trip, check out my follow-up post.

A gorgeous morning of birds in SWAMP

I led a group of students from the Duke Student Association of Wetland Scientists (SAWS), Nicnats and the Duke Natural History Society (DNHS) out on bird walk in SWAMP yesterday.

Awesome people (from left Kai, Katie, Tong, Paul)

The weather and leaves were equally gorgeous and birds seemed especially active as if wanting to make the most of the warmth and sun.  Every dense patch of grass and bushes seemed to be saturated with calling sparrows.  The resident Red-shouldered Hawk cooperatively posed for photos by the dam.  

Birding on the Job

Part of my responsibility as teacher assistant for the Nicholas School of the Environment wetland ecology and management class is to help with the field trip: a visit to wetlands in coastal North Carolina.  Oh, the drudgery!  

Actually, this trip is -the- highlight of the course for student and instructor alike.  It does chew up fall break…but what better way to spend it than a bunch of beautiful marshes, bogs and swamps? It was a great opportunity for some on-the-job birding as well, and we stumbled upon some cool wetland species and birds of prey.  

Jones Lake, Bladen County, NC

Our itinerary covered more sites than I care to describe here (see photo above), so I’ll just stick to the ones with the most noteworthy birds.

Fall SWAMP count with SAWS

A whopping 14 masters students woke up early last Saturday morning and came out to tag along for a bird count with me in the Duke University Wetland Center (DUWC) Stream and Wetland Assessment and Management Park (SWAMP).  This shows that bird watching is exploding in popularity!  That, or that graduate students will do just about anything for free donuts and coffee, which were graciously provided by the Student Association of Wetland Scientists (SAWS) Duke Chapter.  But probably the real draw was celebrity leader Jeff Pippen who took time out of his busy schedule of finding rare seabirds in Durham to educate us all about everything natural that was to be found.

Jeff Pippen distilling wisdom in SWAMP

The Al Buehler fitness trail runs right through the SWAMP site and gets lots of traffic.  During our count we happened to be sharing space with an actual collegiate cross-country meet.  Obviously this isn’t the most conducive setting for birds and birding and we weren’t able to find any exciting fall migrants. 

A Belted Kingfisher at the pond was a crowd-pleaser.  But the best wetland bird came after everyone had left and I stole off on my own to count one final section of the site that is inaccessible to the public.  At a small vernal pool I stumbled upon a very agitated Green Heron that kept flaring its crown feathers, croaking and flicking its tail.

Green Heron

Here's a video of the tail-flicking part:

I was happy to see the Green Heron, but I think it was upset I hadn’t brought the others.  Even if the birds weren’t spectacular, it was a gorgeous morning and nice to show the restoration areas and new board walks and platforms to the group.  For me it was also more data for my bird study and I learned some new wetland plant species from Jeff.

Check out that Dodo!

 A big thanks to Jeff and all the SAWS participants for making such a great day!

Czech out these birds!

What?  Two trips to Europe in as many months?

Yes, it’s a tough life. 

A Society of Wetland Scientists conference brought me to Prague, Czech Republic where I told the top wetland scientists from 47 countries about how successful the stream restoration in the SWAMP has been for bird communities.   

 Check out my poster (give it a click)!

Now Prague is a city better known for castles than birds…

Great Spotted Woodpecker

…though Eastern Europe is a popular spot for British twitchers to visit in search of woodpeckers. 

I had some time for sightseeing over the weekend and after a heavy dose of Gothic architecture and Baroque art, I stole away to some of Prague’s many large and densely wooded parks.   

Great Spotted Woodpeckers were common and rather friendly. But this species is also a British resident (where I had seen it before).  Other woodpeckers proved to be far more timid and elusive.  I was able to spot a Green Woodpecker and a Middle Spotted Woodpecker (both lifers!), but missed out on Lesser Spotted and Gray-headed. 

Eurasian Treecreepers

Treecreepers, clinging vertically to tree trunks yet not woodpeckers, were all over the place (Eurasian ones were at least, though I was able to identify a couple Short-toed) giving me another couple life ticks.  

Also common and clinging, but not woodpeckers were Nuthatches.  I had been happy to see my first two in Croatia.  In the Czech Republic nearly every patch of forest seemed to be crawling with them. 

Other exciting new birds:

Crested Tit – a cute conifer specialist and my 10th tit species (including Long-tailed and three North American varieties)

Black Redstart

Black Redstart - Common, but cute and not at all like North American redstarts. 

Goldcrest - the European version of our Golden-crowned Kinglet

Common Cuckoo - A bird I had heard in Croatia, but never before seen.

We had a break from presentations to have a day of field trips.  I joined an excursion down to some wetlands near the town of Trebon.  The whole area was named a biosphere by UNESCO and has both ancient man-made fish ponds as well as pristine bogs.  Bird Life International also named it an Important Bird Area, so I had high expectations.

Unfortunately, this was far from a birding tour and we were visiting places not particularly suited for bird observation at the wrong time of year.  Red Bog, a wetland containing remnant boreal vegetation left over from the ice age, was promising.  But it was afternoon by the time we arrived and there was little bird activity.  

I was thrilled to catch a White-tailed Eagle flying over.  This is a rare breeding species I had hoped, but not expected, to see.   

Phyloscopus sp. (Wood Warbler?)

Better still was a Greenish Warbler on an exposed twig. This species’ range (according to my field guide) does not even extend into the region, but apparently it persists in this one bog alone where the anomalous ecosystem makes for appropriate habitat.   I got great looks at one actively foraging, but Phyloscpus warblers are essentially impossible to identify by sight for the uninitiated (i.e. me).  There are just too many confusion species, such as Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Wood Warbler.  I perhaps saw all these others as well, but my Wood Warbler candidate was mute and even my decent pictures were inconclusive.  

Fortunately two or three Greenish Warblers were singing and I was able to match their songs with the recording on my phone.   There were three other birders on this trip, but they were far ahead on the path and never got to see what would have been a life bird for them.  

White Stork was another target for me on this trip.  I was happy to get to see two poking around in a field from the bus, but sad not to see any nesting on a chimney top, a habit for which the species is so famous.  

Black Stork and Purple Heron were my two most disappointing misses.  

Nonetheless, 15 life birds in a non-birding week in central Europe is pretty darn good and I'm already up to 1527 life birds with the recent milestone fading fast in the rear view mirror.  

Blackcap - one of Europe's more colorful Warblers

After my two recent trips to Europe, I can't say I'm all that impressed with the continent's mainland Avifauna.  To be fair, I haven't visited Spain nor any other real birding destinations, nor been out with guides.  And I am horribly spoiled by South America.  But even compared to the densely populated and equally temperate Eastern United States, European birds, with a few exceptions, just seem to be shyer, drabber and less abundant.

Eurasian Jay - One of my favorite European birds and it isn't as pretty as a North American Blue Jay

I have no data to back this up and it's just an impression, but I wonder if there aren't any evolutionary or cultural/historical phenomena that could explain this. 

Spring Bird Counts

Northern Waterthrush

Last week I led the inaugural spring bird count in the Duke University Wetland Center (DUWC) Stream and Wetland Assessment and Management Park (SWAMP).  Randy Neighbarger from DUWC, as well as two Nicholas School masters students, Rachel Workin and Laura Mendenhall, and Robert Meehan all helped with the count.  We were unfortunate to end up counting on a gray drizzly morning, so bird activity was a bit slow, but we did get 40 species in a little over an hour, which isn't bad at all.  The best find was the site's first record of Northern Waterthrush heard chipping just below the dam.

Solitary Sandpiper

The weather and birds were actually much better the couple times I happened to be out at the SWAMP site in the week leading up to the official count.  I already mentioned the Prothonotary Warblers (new bird for the site) I had there in my last blog post.  But the morning before the count I also had two Solitary Sandpipers at 'Richardson Lake' (a new bird for SWAMP and for me state bird #249!).  It was the first time I had been able to put the new bird blind to good use;  I got a great video (see below) from it of the SWAMP in top form: both a  turtle and wetland bird are happily foraging, while pollution (represented by the large plastic bottle) is kept from reaching Falls Lake.



I also took this video of a Great Blue Heron catching and then losing a fish right by the dam.  A few minutes later it scooped up and swallowed a large crayfish before flying away.

Summer Tanager

Over the weekend I helped out with the Durham spring count up in the northernmost reaches of the count area at Quail Roost (which, ironically, was devoid of any sign of quail).   It has been Tom Krakauer's count territory since 1985 (coincidentally, the year I was born) but his hearing and hiking ability are not what they once were and he needs help to count the area effectively.  I was happy to be of assistance as this is truly a unique part of Durham, which I had never visited despite being born and raised just 20 minutes to the south.  The farmland and open fields have not yet been tainted by development and suburban sprawl and are habitat for a few birds that can be seen essentially nowhere else in Durham County: Grasshopper Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow for sure, and probably Purple Martin too.  Those three species were added to my county list along with Eastern Meadowlark, Louisiana Waterthrush, Orchard Oriole and Cliff Swallow.

Tom and I picked up just over 80 species for the day, though we missed some relatively easy stuff that we probably could have found with more persistence.  A 90-species day is easily within reach and will be a goal for next year.  Reaching the century mark should be a real challenge, though certainly achievable.

Purple Martins nesting in Durham County
(my first digiscoped capture!)

At our last stop of the day, a Purple Martin box near Tom's house, I captured my first digiscoped images just by holding my Droid X up to my scope.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how effective this crude technique proved to be.

This may be my last blogpost for a few weeks as I'm gearing up for a big trip to the southeastern corner of Europe to attend my brother's wedding on a Greek Island and see some remnants of ancient civilizations (as well as some migratory birds of course!).  I leave the US while on the doorstep of several list milestones: my NC state list is at 249, my ABA list at 298 and my Durham County list at 147.  But this trip to Europe should push my life list well over 1500.  My top targets are Bee-eater, Roller, Elanora's Falcon and Griffon Vulture.  Can't wait!