Here are some excerpts from the American Birding Association’s Code of Ethics:

• Avoid stressing birds or exposing them to danger, exercise restraint and caution during observation, photography, sound recording, or filming.
• Stay on roads, trails, and paths where they exist.
• Do not enter private property without the owner’s explicit permission.
• Follow all laws, rules, and regulations governing use of roads and public areas.

Here are some excerpts from emails I have received regarding the behavior of people viewing the Snowy Owl:

• “At one point the bird was literally surrounded.”
• “To top it off, [local birder and photographer] was crawling in the construction site up to the bird for a photo.”
• “I also saw a birder “parked” on the busy street.” (I also saw a number of cars illegally parked or blocking a construction entrance).
• “I was there 4 times throughout the day and 3 out of the 4 times the owl was being flushed around by birders, all in the construction area.”

A friendly reminder was posted on the local birding list to stay out of the construction area, and that it was unnecessary to approach this accommodating bird so closely.  This prompted a number of denials dissenting opinions, including that “If there have been inappropriate approaches, I doubt that it was by list members.” This is typical of the comments I’ve seen posted when somebody notes poor behavior.  Of course, I don’t expect anybody to pipe up and publicly admit to being an asshat, but if instances of close approach, flushing, or harassment are so rare, why do these discussions come up so frequently, and why is there a need for organizations to publish ethics guidelines for birders and photographers that amount to common sense anyway?

Yes, this dead horse gets beaten often. In fact, in our area it was
flagellated only a few months ago when a photographer pruned vines away from a roosting saw-whet owl in order to take clearer pictures.  Every year a roost of Long-eared Owls, observable from a trail, gets disturbed by people bushwhacking their way up to the roost trees for a better look. Yet the gist of the ensuing discussion is always that it couldn’t be anybody from the local birding community, leaving me to wonder who the mysterious offenders could be.  Deceased pony or not, I agree with a New York birder who said that “a failure to criticize this behavior is tantamount to accepting it.”

Owls are often at the center of this type of controversy because even common species are not frequently encountered in viewable situations.  But certainly any rare bird can cause this kind of boorish behavior.  I’ve witnessed this enough times that I’ve given up disclosing the location of owl roosts and nest sites of any unusual bird, although I report them after the fact as necessary to the appropriate agencies. (Not without consequences: I received an irate email from someone I had never met who lived hundreds of miles away regarding rumors he’d heard that I had “suppressed” a sighting of a rare nesting bird, and was “concerned” that I’d not shared this with the birding community!)

One person on our list made an interesting observation. He felt that the ease and accessibility of digital photography might be contributing to some bad behavior:

My fear is that now that others have seen [great photos on a photo-sharing site of the owl] that they will try to get … equally good shots. Is it possible that [it] somehow adds to people trying to emulate shots and
therefore harassing the owl more? I know when I saw those pictures, I
thought about how I would love to have taken great owl pictures like
that.”

I had been thinking the same thing. The wonder of digiscoping is that you can get beautiful shots of birds from a long distance. In the past, few people had the money or where-with-all to lug film cameras and long lenses in the field to take close-up shots of birds.  And I never saw anybody with a small point-and-shoot film camera attempt to get close enough to a bird to take a good photo (I’m sure it happened, but it was probably not too common).  But nearly every birder I know has a small digital camera capable of fairly high-resolution photos, and they carry them all the time.  For some of these people, the temptation to see if they can get up on a bird and perhaps get at least a decent shot seems to preclude good behavior and common sense. I’m tempted too, but as you can see from my shots I don’t give in!

So far, I haven’t heard about anybody baiting the owl with mice. But I did see two domestic ducks wandering across the road.  There has been no open water there for nearly two weeks, and these things couldn’t fly.  Did somebody bring them in as an offering?  I have also heard the local paper will run a story.  That should bring people out of the woodwork over the weekend, hopefully not to this end, but it wouldn’t surprise me.  More reading:

• Wildlife viewing ethics – respect wildlife and other people
• Ethical standards in birding (Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative)

It has only been a week since winter rudely and abruptly arrived in Michigan.  And what more appropriate bird to ease our transition to Arctic-like weather than a Snowy Owl? This bird was found by a friend who was driving through a big shopping center, in front of an incomplete big-box store, only a few miles from my house.

It had been flying around, landing on the TJ Maxx, a “For Lease” sign, and a chain link fence, before I arrived.  When I got there, it perched briefly on top of a cedar tree outfitted for safe sex, then settled in on the lee side of a fire hydrant where it remained until I left an hour later. Ah, urban birding! We kept our distance, so I was able to produce photos just as crappy as the ones of the Purple Sandpiper. But others were digiscoping; I leave bird photography for those with better gear, patience, and expertise.

This shopping center is being built on an old landfill which received only construction debris such as crushed concrete. I had done one or two bird surveys there, and it was mostly a large, elevated grassland, although due to the compacted clay soil and concrete substrate, the vegetation was quite sparse and very dry.  I don’t think it was quality habitat for grassland birds, as some closed landfills can be, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Snowy Owls wintered there in the past.

There are a bunch of large retention ponds on the perimeter of the shopping center which attracted a number of interesting shorebirds last fall, including a Red-necked Phalarope. Interior migrating shorebirds may be following the Detroit River, which is within eyeshot of the shopping complex and its (so far) naked muddy ponds.

I’ve seen a great bird each weekend this year!  What’s next?

The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 has just been published, and one of my essays was included.

This project is important in another way. By their nature, good blog posts are relatively brief and tightly written, and often about subjects that are unusual or esoteric, and/or draw on personal experience. These are the types of writings that can really hook people, and print-on-demand technologies such as Lulu make publishing accessible and easy. I think projects like this, especially if even more targeted to specific science topics, have good potential to spark the public interest in science.

Time to get working on next year’s submission!

Two laugh-out-loud portions for only $2.89 each.

Bora Zivkovic, surely one of the most prolific bloggers in science, or elsewhere, is organizing the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in Chapel Hill later this month. Through that, he ended up with the job of editing The Science Blogging Anthology, a book collecting the top 50 science blog posts of all time.  He put out a call for submissions, got 218 responses, and he and a panel narrowed the choices down to 50, of which my post on Cuban Todies (“the little farter“) was picked for inclusion. I guess it wasn’t so cheesy after all.  More details when it comes out.

I did this last year, so I may as well do it again:

• Number of species seen: I did a lousy job of recording, so I don’t know.
• New life birds: 21
  • First life bird: I said it would be West Indian Whistling-Duck, but that was #5. The first was Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa). I’ve now seen every Cuban endemic except for Zapata Rail, Cyanolimnas cerverai.
  • Last life bird: Rusty Sparrow (Aimophila rufescens), Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.

• Total life birds: 908
• Total ABA-area birds: 568 (no progress there)
• Total state birds: 305
• Total birds in my home city: 208
• Total birds at my place of work: 183
• Yard birds: 131

What might be my first life bird of 2007?   That’s a tough one, as I don’t have any trips planned at the moment. There is a Black-backed Woodpecker a few hours from here.  I don’t do much bird chasing any more, but it is near a friend’s family summer home, so we could all visit some old haunts with him.  That seems the most likely bet for the moment.  Of course, the nicest part of birding is the surprises that turn up right near home…  Here’s wishing you good birds, close by!

When I receive a holiday letter, I sometimes don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It seems few people have mastered the art of a lively overview of interesting and relevant information and instead get bogged down in trivial or obtuse details.  I decided to start my own holiday letter tradition.  The following missive uses unaltered excerpts from letters that we received this year; only the names have been changed.

It’s that time of year again, and when we look back on this year, we have many fond memories.

Mikey celebrated his second birthday on March 26.  He has really grown a lot this year — he now has hair (actually a very long mullet). His appetite is amazing.  What a poochy tummy he gets!  We were recently surprised by how solid he is compared to other kids his age.  Just as the cake was put on the table, he put his foot in the frosting. Mom had fun licking the frosting off his foot, though!

In April, we moved into our new house.  Jane Killian was our realtor.  We finally found a spec house built by Joe Fox. Olivia Gregory did a great job with the interior design. Jack put up a wonderful set of cabinets/shelves in our garage (since our basement is finished) so we could use this to put up items we don’t use on a regular basis.  Frank has successfully avoided cleaning the basement for 5 years, and we have yet to hang a single picture on the wall. Mom and Dad’s urns still sit on our mantle.

Our health has remained relatively good. Dan passed his driver’s license without glasses, but will soon be a candidate for hearing aids. Linda fell down the stairs. We are fortunate so many people helped out. A special thank-you to Linda’s mom, Fred’s mom, Jill, Britney, Clark, Jack, Gale, Jeff, Steve, Jerry’s teachers (Wanda, Pete, Cathy, Kate), Robert’s classmate’s families, Rick and Jan, Francine, Don and Jackie, Patsy, Dan, and many others!

Allen is still working for Big Bank and is seeing a lovely young lady named Carolyn (who is studying Mortuary Cosmetology).  My job was everywhere this year. Ever tried to neuter a sugar glider that is the size of a small squirrel? Our department is now called “Global Administration” and everyone is called assistants (no more Executive Assistant, Senior Administrative Assistant, just Assistant). We moved from the third floor to the fifth floor then I went to the sixth floor to sit near my new VP.  I was told my old manager was also moving to the sixth floor, so I got to pack him up and move him while he was on vacation.

We are so richly blessed.  We hope you are, too.

I will confess right now to not being a huge fan of the holidays. However, I am very fond of both natural history and kissing, and that has led me to investigate the botanical life history of mistletoe.

Mistletoe is not one species of plant, but hundreds. They are not all related, rather their common traits evolved independently a number of times across the globe. Most mistletoes are not terrestrial plants, but evergreen hemi-parasites. They perform photosynthesis, but send their roots into the living wood of a tree to get water and nutrients. In most cases, this pilfering doesn’t kill the tree, which would be a bad adaptive move for the mistletoe, but can cause stunted growth and deformities in the host.

Worldwide, 66 families of birds consume mistletoe fruits, which are produced only by female plants. Forty-three bird families have species which nest in mistletoe clumps, and hundreds of insects are associated with the flowers, which have abundant nectar.

The common mistletoe in Europe is Viscum album, one of 30 species of Viscum. This is the species that was probably the source of the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. In the U.S., there are two primary genera: the true mistletoes, Phoradendron, and the dwarf mistletoes, Arceuthobium.

Phoradendron species are widespread and their large clumps (above) are found on many hardwood trees and some conifers. The berries (top) are eagerly eaten by birds, although all parts are toxic to humans. The seeds are extraordinarily sticky, so they cling to branches when a bird wipes them off its bill or defecates. The bird probably most closely associated with mistletoe in the U.S. is the Phainopepla (female at right). In winter, these birds defend trees laden with mistletoe, and have a specialized gut that can rapidly process the fruit – they are able to consume over 1000 berries a day. Phainopeplas frequently nest in mistletoes, as do Cactus Wrens and Abert’s Towhees, among others. Great Purple Hairstreak larvae feed only on mistletoes in this genus.

The dwarf mistletoes are radically different. Rather than relying entirely on birds for dispersal, dwarf mistletoe berries can eject their seeds, which travel up to 40 feet. Most dwarf mistletoes are leafless, and do little of their own photosynthesis. They grow on conifers in the American west, which respond by producing a lot of twigs and branches at the site of the mistletoe implantation, resulting in a structure called a witch’s broom. The damage they can cause to valuable timber species makes them unpopular with commercial forestry managers, but dwarf mistletoes, in fact, have considerable wildlife value. Witch’s brooms provide nest sites for Red Squirrels, wood rats, goshawks, and Long-eared Owls and other birds. Dwarf mistletoes are the only host plants of the Thicket Hairstreak and Johnson’s Hairstreak, as well as a number of other insect species.

Mistletoes are an incredibly fascinating group of plants, with ecological value far exceeding their utility as kissing prompts. You can read more here:

• Mistletoes on hardwoods in the U.S. — Forest Service page with range maps and characteristics of common Phoradendrons in the U.S.
• Not Just for Kissing: Mistletoe and Birds, Bees, and Other Beasts — Great article by the USGS.
• More on the mistletoe from the eastern U.S. from Hilton Pond Center (SC), including lots of close-up photos.

Phainopepla photo by Desert Vu. Oak mistletoe photo (Phoradendron leucarpum) by Steve Baskauf of Bioimages.

Seeing a Peregrine Falcon is not very unusual in southeast Michigan.  Although they were not historically found in these parts, they were introduced into the city of Detroit beginning in 1987 as part of the Midwest Peregrine Restoration Program (MPRS). For the last 10 years, there have been five to seven Peregrine territories in southeast Michigan, including some now-traditional nest sites on rather famous
buildings in downtown Detroit, including the Whittier Apartments, the FisherBuilding, and the Book Building.  So, we have resident birds in addition to migrants (the Southeast Michigan Raptor Research hawkwatch tallies about 50 each fall). I’ve even have one on my yard list.

Therefore it wasn’t too surprising that a pair (the male was banded with a MPRS band) took up housekeeping this spring on the central campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, on the Burton Memorial bell tower.  Although a nest couldn’t be seen, the behavior of the birds indicated the female was on eggs for a time, but no young were produced (although the music was halted so as to not disturb them).

The most interesting part of this story, to me, was that my friends over in the bird division at the Museum of Zoology routinely collected body parts at the base of the tower that had been dropped or not eaten by the falcons.  They kept a running tally of prey items from the beginning of April through the end of October, with a two-week gap when the collection manager took a vacation.

Urban falcons are frequently said to favor Rock Pigeons as food.  This pair had much more unorthodox tastes.  I was quite astonished to see that the remains of at least 71 cuckoos were found at the tower, with slightly more Yellow-billed than Black-billed. Granted, Ann Arbor has quite a bit of green space, and there is a large cemetery, the arboretum, and parks along the Huron River in the vicinity, but I would not have imagined there being that many cuckoos around, especially careless ones.

These Peregrines must have specialized in secretive prey, as the leftovers also included nearly 20 rails, mostly Soras but including, incredibly, a Yellow Rail, a state-threatened species considered one of North America’s most elusive and mysterious birds, a species last recorded in Washtenaw County in 1925! Least Bittern was also on the menu, along with regular servings of Pied-billed Grebe, Green Heron, and Northern Flicker.

Not eaten regularly, despite their ubiquity, abundance, and reported favor, were Rock Pigeons, of which it appeared only about a half-dozen were taken.  House Sparrows and European Starlings were represented on only two occasions each.

I found few readily available lists of Peregrine prey items.  One from Regina, Saskatchewan was also heavy on grebes and Soras, but Rock Pigeons also came in at 18% of the prey. Prey analysis of Peregrines nesting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton show few Rock Pigeons but lots of gulls, and the web site notes the importance of marsh birds even in urban Peregrine diets. In the U.K., an observer of Peregrines in Bristol has come to the conclusion that the idea of pigeons as a staple food for city falcons is something of an urban myth.

This may be just as well.  Analysis of a dead Peregrine from Baltimore in the 1980s [1] determined it had died of a gram-negative infection, associated with sublethal lead ingestion in other raptors.  Pigeons made up 93% of this bird’s diet, and samples indicated very elevated levels of lead in the blood and organs of the pigeons — a common occurrence, at least at the time, for pigeons that lived in cities with high traffic density.

This might not be as great a threat now that leaded gasoline has been phased out.  But studies in British Columbia have shown that although DDT has not been used since the 1970s in a local agricultural area, even short-lived birds are still contaminated with the break-down products.  It was estimated [2] that feeding on as little as 10% of species such as starlings, robins, and gulls would have damaging effects on Peregrine eggs.  Detroit Peregrines eat Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, which nest in the Detroit River. Levels of PCBs, DDE, and dioxins have remained steady or increased in local Herring Gull eggs the last decade.  Contaminated prey in urban areas is just one more thing to consider when evaluating the wisdom of introducing wildlife into cities.

Hopefully, those cuckoos were clean-living, and the Ann Arbor Peregrines didn’t get a dose of unwanted chemicals with their exotic meals.

[1] DeMent, S.H., J.J. Chisholm, Jr., J.C. Barber, and J.D. Strandberg. 1986. Lead exposure in an urban Peregrine Falcon and its avian prey.  Jrl. Wildlife Diseases 22:238-244.

[2] Elliott, J.E., Miller, M.J., and Wilson, L.K. 2005. Assessing breeding potential of peregrine falcons based on chlorinated hydrocarbon concentrations in prey. Environ Pollut. 134:353-61.

Photos from Wikipedia, falcon by Joe Kosack / PGC Photo.