WildwingsBirds and Outdoor Issues as I see them

shoreline along Hog Island (K Corliss)

A friend and fellow birder began badgering me early in the year in order to get me to attend a “field ornithology” program run by Audubon on Hog Island, Maine. I resisted as long as I could giving cost, time, etc., as reasons why I couldn’t go. His persistance paid off and I relented. Last week we attended said course.

Regular readers may already know I’m not an Audubon member. I wondered how uncomfortable it would be for me given my right-leaning stances on most issues, including environmental ones. As it turned out, I only squirmed a few times and those were fairly mild.

On the plus side: Who wouldn’t like to go birding with some of the bigger names in the biz, headlined by Kenn Kaufman and his gorgeous wife, Kim? Other celebs included author Scott Weidensaul, sound collector Lang Elliott, and biologist Sara Morris. Moreover, the landscape is so unlike anything we are used to seeing here in the Red River Valley, just immersing oneself in the Maine experience is a worthy pursuit.

The days zipped by under a vigorous schedule of field trips and classroom-type instruction. Idle time was at a premium unless you decided not to attend a particular event. Forty-five adult “campers” were in attendance; most were AARP card-holders I imagine. Still it was instructive, it was fun, and it was breathtakingly beautiful (especially for a mid-continenter like me).

Atlantic puffins (K Corliss)

In addition, the food provided on this camp was amazing. No one went hungry with oodles of freshly cooked meals available three times a day. Biggest treat? Lobster on Thursday evening.

I got to know several attendees quite well–some I will maintain contact with and (hopefully) continue to call a friend.

Downside: I would have preferred more an emphasis on sea birds (hey, this is Maine after all!). The field trips to the mainland, while not necessarily boring, were similar to ones I might make around here in May in that well over 90 percent of the birds were the same ones we get.

I also have a couple small critiques about some of the scientific work being done but they don’t rise to the level of mentioning. Suffice it to say these are hard-core green folk.

Seven species were added to my life list: saltmarsh sparrow, arctic tern, roseate tern, Wilson’s storm petrel, razorbill, Atlantic puffin, and black guillemot. Again, I would have hoped for more pelagic birds but the field trips never really left Muscongus Bay and so we were limited.

I was mildly surprised by the number of folks who had been there in the past. The place certainly has a storied history and a charming allure but I doubt I will ever go back. For me it simply cost too much.

To find out more about the programs on Hog Island, click here.

Temporarily of course. A buddy strong-armed me into signing up for a Field Ornithology course in Maine. And that’s where I am currently. Back next week. Hope to have seen some new birds and learned a few things. I’ll let you know.

kcorliss@forumcomm.com

Working police dogs, or K-9 units, can be found in just about any city of decent size these days. But this story caught my eye for its oddity, and certainly for its imagination.

It seems a threesome of vultures (quaintly named Sherlock, Miss Marple, and Columbo) are currently being trained in northern Germany to help local police in finding corpses. (Nothing I read told me which species of vulture they are dealing with).

I’ve heard of the birds being effective in finding leaks along natural gas pipelines and we’re all aware of their keen ability to pick up the faintest of whiffs from rotting flesh. But this is the first I’ve heard of someone actually harnessing that ability and putting it to use.

“The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs,” said a Hanover police officer, Rainer Herrmann. (from the article at the BBC).

What are they using to train the birds? A mortuary shroud. How nice.

Might we see a day when we look into a cruiser and see a police officer with, not a German shepard dog, but a vulture in a large cage?

People just love statistics, especially kids. When it comes to critters they want to know which one is the biggest, smallest, smartest, fastest, most numerous, rarest of them all. One particular area of data that interests me as a pilot, is the bird species that flies the highest.

I’ve seen reports putting some large soaring birds at nearly 30,000 feet reported by airplanes. I’m sure it happens. But one species kept appearing in these discussions because of its habit of overflying the Himalaya range during migration–the bar-headed goose.

Now comes a report (from The Telegraph, of India) which makes this bird the high-flying champion in my mind. Not that the soarers aren’t getting up there but theirs is a much easier job. Simply find a giant thermal and ride it up.

However, bar-headed geese, according to recent findings, actually work their way to great heights instead of lofting on rising air currents. I would urge you to read the entire article describing the research into these birds magnificently adapted to altitude. Here’s a couple nuggets:

An international team of scientists has found that bar-headed geese cross the Himalayas through passes between the mountains in just eight hours, climbing to altitudes of up to 6,000 metres under their own aerobic power.

…

The researchers say their findings reveal the remarkable capability of bar-headed geese to sustain flapping flight at heights where even helicopters cannot fly because of thin air and where humans — without high-altitude acclimatisation — would struggle to even walk.

Amazing stuff. And another cool application of technology to help us better understand the workings of the natural world.

Some years ago I happened to spend a few months in Las Vegas. The Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve was a favorite stop of mine when I had the time. It’s a wonderful mix of public and private efforts directed at making their waste water treatment facility a showcase for birds and birders.

Now I see they have built some blinds as well as elevated platforms overlooking the various ponds. This according to a recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Sure wish they’d have had that when I was there.

Vermillion flycatchers are just one of many possible sightings at Henderson's Bird Viewing Preserve (K Corliss)

If you’re a birder and head to Las Vegas for whatever reason, make sure you stop by and tell them I said ‘hi.’

Not bed-and-breakfast in this case but rather two subjects with much personal appeal for me: Beer and Birds.

I won’t make it but if you happen to find yourself in Maui next weekend, you might want to catch a little fundraiser at the Maui Brew Pub where half the proceeds from beer sales on the night of June 24 will go to Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, according to an article at Mauinow.com.

Hawaii’s endemic birds are, and have been, in trouble for years. Such is the reality of mixing island species with human activities though. The ongoing work of the project aims to “develop and implement techniques that recover Maui’s endangered birds and to restore their habitats through research, development, and application of conservation techniques,” according to their website. Sounds reasonable to me.

By sipping a cool microbrew or two and lending a non-government mandated hand toward aiding a worthwhile project, I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening. Only wish I was there.

It wasn’t until I got home and was clicking through the photos I’d taken Saturday that I happened to notice something (isn’t digital photography great?). My intention was to capture an image of a “spittle” mass created by, you guessed it, spittlebugs.

Reviewing the photo with a little more scrutiny, though, exposed a pair of other bugs, or rather weevils. It doesn’t take much to figure out the insects are engaged in an, ahem, activity which will ultimately produce little weevils.

As to which species, well, again I turned to the experts. But alas, I got no definitive answer. Everyone wants a specimen to look at in hand.

But I received “likely” guesses from arguably one of the best entomologists in the nation. And get this, he even took a stab at the spittlebug ID.

Within the frothy mass itself is likely the diamond-backed spittlebug (Lepyronia quadrangularis) according to Dr. F. The weevils– he thinks–are sweetclover weevils (Sitona cylindricollis). They are on sweet clover after all.

I would only add one thing: Don’t ever bet against Dr. F, the guy is amazing.

Consider this the all-bug station, at least for this week.

Last week I briefly walked a Nature Conservancy site southwest of Fargo and was blown away by the number of dragonflies. There were thousands, mostly dot-tailed whitefaces. I can’t recall seeing such density ever in my life. The morning was cool which kept the insects quite docile and approachable so viewing was ideal.

Last weekend I ran into some south of Fargo but not nearly as many. Still there were some beauties.

Here’s a female 12-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella). Most photos of this species depict males with alternating white-and-dark spots. I suppose it’s akin to birders who fancy males over females merely for their visual appeal.

Dot-tailed whitefaces (Leucorrhinia intacta) were not nearly as well represented Saturday. Still I happened to see a few, including this one. The white face is barely visible at the far anterior portion of its face. Oh, and the spot in the tail is obvious too.

The only other species I was able to snap a shot of was this one, a four-spotted skimmer (Libellula quadrimaculata), which was probably the most commonly encountered dragon last Saturday.

When I first encountered this beetle south of Fargo last weekend I thought it might be a scarab given its bright metallic exoskeleton. Upon watching it and observing its stance and behavior, however, it became clear this was one of the tiger beetles. But which one?

Thankfully a friend of mine has spent years studying tiger beetles. Naturally I turned to him for the identification. Wham! He instantly pegged it as a six-spotted tiger beetle. In Pat’s own words…

“This little beauty is a six-spotted tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata). It’s a widespread species, but this is about as far northwest as it occurs. Ours have the spots on the elytra greatly reduced and sometimes even absent. I’ll have to head down there and collect a few – I don’t have any from Cass Co., though I do have them from Clay in MN, Richland, Sargent and Ransom in ND, and Roberts in SD. Ours like riparian/moist woods habitat with dark soil.”

All well and good. But it left me wondering what an “elytra” was. It’s been nearly 30 years since my entomology class so the word escaped me. Dictionary.com told me it’s a plural form of elytron, which means: “one of the pair of hardened forewings of certain insects, as beetles, forming a protective covering for the posterior or flight wings.” In other words, it’s the part that makes up the bulk of the visual part of a beetle as we see them.

Just another reminder there is more out there in the wild than we lay folk can imagine. Not that insect viewing will ever rise to the level of bird watching for me, but when the birding is slow, there are options.

Saturday afternoon I walked a piece of woods south of Fargo with little bird fanfare. Species counts were low and singing was even slow (although it was the afternoon).

What did catch my eye, though, was the insect life, which was abundant. This time I’m not talking about mosquitoes either.

There was just about one female monarch butterfly in every patch of common milkweed, including this one. She looks a little haggard so is likely a migrant. I watched her for a bit then approached the spot where she had been sitting. Sure enough, she had placed a single egg on a leaf.

In addition, there was a very brilliant beetle on the ground. I think it’s one of the tiger beetles but I’ve sent the photo to a friend who did his graduate work on tiger beetles. I’ll save that one until I get the name from PB.