Eat more cookies

In recent months, I’ve caught myself - when asked if I had heard about some strange news story or conservation issue - replying in a fundamentally new way that I had indeed heard about that. I’ll say, “I blogged about that,” the implication being that not only do I know about this, but I’ve conducted some rudimentary research on the topic, formed an opinion, and published my opinion for the world to see.

And now, assuming no one has beaten me to this, I hope to be the very first person to have blogged about this.

Rusty Blackbirds are in serious trouble - hence my excitement when we found them at Couch Park this winter! We can help learn more about populations and movements of this enigmatic species by participating in the Rusty Blackbird Survey through eBird. Lots of people have been posting about this on blogs and listservs. I found a great post on the topic this morning from “behindthebins“. Please check it out and seriously consider taking part in this important survey!

crickets are singing

“stridulating,” if you like

seems early to me  

As if the near exponential increase in wind turbines across the landscape is not enough, hibernating bats are facing a new and mysterious threat.

Turbine-killed Brazilian freetail bat, northwestern Oklahoma.
photo by Martin Piorkowski

According to this story from the BBC, bats that should still be hibernating in New York and New England are rousing themselves, leaving their hibernacula, and attempting to forage too early for their own good. The culprit appears to a mysterious (and most likely fungal) condition biologists are calling “white nose syndrome.”

How or even if the fungus plays a role in the behavior of bats isn’t known. The result, however, can be devastating. Bats survive the freezing temperatures and lack of flying insect food through harsh Northeastern winters by migrating or hibernating. “Tree” bats like the eastern red bat migrate to winter in the Southern U.S. where they undergo torpor (lowered metabolism to conserve energy) while hanging amid clusters of leaves that persist on oaks and other trees. Red bats may also spend the winter on the ground in leaf litter. “Cave” bats in contrast do not migrate, except to find favored caves, mine shafts, or other protected areas where temperatures are moderated from dipping into brutal cold and humidity is held relatively constant (and high). In these hibernacula, bats cluster together, living off of stored fat with a very low metabolism from roughly mid-November to early April. If bats are roused to awaken within their hibernacula, they will expend much of their energy “jump-starting” their incredibly fast metabolism. That energy (in the form of stored fat) needs to be replaced quickly, or the bats will starve.

In the Northeast this season, bats have been awakening too early and, upon detecting an energy deficit from the process, have been leaving their hibernacula to forage. One problem with this is that they are foraging in advance of hatches of midges, mosquitoes, and small moths that might form their staple diet. For species that already face multiple conservation challenges, this latest news is not good.

I headed out to Lake Carl Blackwell yesterday, and birded some of my favorite haunts for about three hours. My primary objective was to encounter my first Louisiana Waterthrush of the season, but I also was just overdue for some solo wandering to see some birds. I first checked around for the Western Grebe but it was nowhere to be found. Next I checked out the pine groves (not all of them) and I came up empty on Red Crossbills. So the suspense doesn’t overwhelm you, I must report that I also failed to find any waterthrushes. Curious. It’s certainly late enough in the season for them. I hope they won’t have abandoned our area following last year’s complete nesting failure . . .

The first interesting find of the morning concerned a certain Turkey Vulture roosting on a power pole. It was a cool morning and the bird was waiting for the sun to break before taking wing for the day. The fun part was that it allowed a rather close approach and I was able to snap some photos.

Next I headed over to the main office to purchase my season pass. There I found that the Purple Martins had returned and were staking out nest sites in the weird yellow thing:

I also found some of last year’s Cliff Swallow nests under the overhang at the fuel pumps, but my photographic evidence would suggest that perhaps it’s House Sparrows that make those things!

In the end I had a great day in the field (41 species), despite missing out on the waterthrushes. The Black-and-White and Pine Warblers had returned, I found a flock of migrant Chipping Sparrows, I flushed a nice covey of quail, and I found three LeConte’s Sparrows. Here’s the total trip list:

Turkey vulture - 4
red-winged blackbird - 4
purple martin - 5
house sparrow - 4
canada goose - 10
mourning dove - 4
tufted titmouse - 6
blue jay - 14
pine warbler - 1
black-and-white warbler - 4
yellow-rumped warbler - 52
carolina chickadee - 11
cedar waxwing - 30
chipping sparrow - 24
great blue heron - 1
common grackle - 3
northern cardinal - 3
field sparrow - 5
double-crested cormorant - 18
red-bellied woodpecker - 3
dark-eyed junco - 33
carolina wren - 2
downy woodpecker - 1
yellow-bellied sapsucker - 1
brown-headed cowbird - 1
hermit thrush - 1
white-throated sparrow - 1
purple finch - 3
pine siskin - 2
american crow - 7
ruby-crowned kinglet - 3
bewick’s wren - 1
red-shouldered hawk - 2
spotted towhee - 1
brown creeper - 1
winter wren - 2
eastern phoebe - 2
red-tailed hawk - 2
northern mockingbird - 1
northern bobwhite - 17
leconte’s sparrow - 3

The highlight, however, had to be the engaging time I spent with a pair of phoebes busily building their mossy nest at “the grotto”:

I also noticed something at the grotto I had never seen. On a Volkswagen-sized rock embedded in the ground that I have passed many many times, I saw handwriting! It was a little hard to decipher, but carved into the rock I was able to make out in all capitals:

“FRED WRIGHT
JULY 13
1893″

I wonder if Fred used to watch phoebes there too . . .

Not that I’ve seen one yet, but the migration map at hummingbirds.net shows a pretty impressive front of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds moving northward across the eastern U.S. (and shortly, Canada). It’s time to fill those feeders!

Ruby-throated Hummingbird photo by Bob Mulvihill
Powdermill Avian Research Center

A few days ago, I discovered Eric Beck’s terrific blog on birding et al. in Oklahoma, and it’s definitely worth a look.

For the first time since March 5th, the price of oil dipped below $100 a barrel today.

Why the sudden drop in price? Apparently, demand in the U.S. has been falling for the past several weeks, as people have begun to change their driving habits in an effort to cut down on their personal fuel costs.

Well, what do you know? When gasoline prices go up, people use less, and the price goes down. I wonder if people will notice, and keep trying to USE LESS even after they see that the price has fallen. I wonder what that would do? Hmmm . . .

NEWS FLASH - This just in. In a startling revelation, health officials in the Philippines have determined that crucifiction may be hazardous to your health.

There’s been so much political rhetoric of late regarding Barack Obama’s supposed inexperience on the international stage.  But just because you are older and have benefited from being First Lady in terms of meeting people all over the world in diplomatic contexts, or just because you have earned tremendous foreign policy street-cred due to your exemplary military service, that doesn’t mean that you are automatically better qualified to render important national security decisions. So here I’ll lay out some of the fallacies I’ve heard circulating that seek to erode confidence in Obama’s fitness for the job of U.S. President.

1. Iraq War. No doubt about it, this was an enormous foreign policy gaffe. There were no WMDs - certainly no nukes - and Saddam was not in league with Al Qaeda. We took our eye off bin Laden and he escaped. Five years later Afghanistan is still a major problem, we’re hopelessly mired in Iraq, bin Laden is still out there, our military capacity is reduced, and we’re running our own economy into the ground to support the war effort. Sorry Hillary, but you and McCain supported the Iraq invasion. Thanks for your wise leadership on that one. In contrast, Obama remained bravely steadfast in his opposition to the war, and guess what? He was RIGHT. So of the three of you, Obama is the only one who has demonstrated true wisdom on a matter of grave national security concern.

2. Presidents - even “deciders” - don’t make decisions in a vacuum. They surround themselves with people who can provide necessary expertise and counsel to help arrive at the best decision. Of course if you surround yourself with like-minded ideologs and yes-men, then that counsel can return to haunt you. But isn’t this notion of waking up in the middle of the night to make some national security decision in the next 5 seconds rather silly?

3. Speaking of “acting presidential”, I’ve always taken offense to the support given W for his “strong leadership” during the chaos of 9/11. Strong leadership? He walked around with a bullhorn, shook hands with emergency services personnel, and vowed to get the bastards. Yeah, that was pretty predictable. What did people expect him to do, go rock back and forth in a corner while sucking his thumb? I fully expect that leadership like W displayed is the absolute least we could expect from a crisis-facing President Obama.

4. Maybe, just maybe, the best message of good will we can send around the world is for this country to start practicing what it preaches. Maybe if we actually did elect the man of color with the Arabic-sounding name, we’d send the message that we really believe this democracy stuff we keep spewing, and we can start to repair our damaged reputation in other countries, and the pit of government cynicism in our own.

I haven’t decided if I’m supporting Obama in this presidential race - we’re still a long way from November. But for crying out loud, there is no reason to think that he is somehow unfit for the job.