Words on Birds and Wildlife

For the 15th time since it became a public fishery, Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake in Ames will be stocked with rainbow trout.

The biannual event is scheduled for around noon Friday, Nov. 16, at the north end of the lake.

Around 1,000 hatchery-raised trout from Manchester will be stocked as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources continues its popular and ever-growing Urban Trout Program. The program included only three locations in 2001, eight in 2006, 15 in 2011 and 17 in 2016. During that time Ada Hayden has become one of the most popular sites, especially during the winter stocking, with large crowds of 200 or more anglers routinely showing up when the DNR’s fish truck comes to town.

Keff Kopaska, of the DNR’s Fisheries Bureau, said fishing pressure on the state’s urban winter trout fisheries in 2016 increased to 99,444 from 70,202 trips in 2011, 48,868 trips in 2006 and 12,920 trips in 2001. Trips to urban winter trout fisheries increased to 13.8 percent of all trout angler trips in 2016 from 12 percent in 2011 and 9 percent in 2006, he added.

“Around 7,850 trips were taken to Ada Hayden to fish for trout in 2016,” Kopaska said. “Ada Hayden was visited by 2.9 percent of Iowa trout anglers, it accounted for 1.1 percent of all trout angler trips in 2016, and individual anglers fishing Ada Hayden took 4.4 trips to Ada Hayden to fish for trout in 2016.”

Last year, Kopaska said, about 14,000 individuals, or 30 percent of all trout anglers, “purchased their license specifically for fishing at an urban trout location.”

To fish for trout at Ada Hayden, anglers need a valid fishing license and a trout stamp. The daily limit is five trout per licensed angler with a possession limit of 10. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily limit. The child can purchase a trout fee, which will allow them to catch their own limit.

At urban trout stockings, the DNR usually has a law enforcement officer on site to check licenses.

Trout anglers frequently use in-line spinners, small blade-style baits, small crankbaits, minnows, wax worms, small worms, jigs, powerbait, corn and flies.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

Prior to Tuesday morning, if someone had for some inexplicable reason asked if I knew anything about honey- bees, I might have tried to sup- press a smug little grin, taken a deep breath, puffed out my chest, straightened my back and announced boldly — while attempting to sound modest — “a little.”

After all, I would have rationalized, my wife, Stephanie, has been a hobby beekeeper for more than six years during which time I’ve helped as much as possible; I’ve even taken the Iowa Honeybee Producer Association’s six-week beekeeping class to learn more about beekeeping; and I’ve probably read more about bees than most typical Iowans.

I could have rattled off a number of basic facts about honeybees, such as each colony may have upwards of 60,000 to 80,000 bees, only one of which is the queen; male bees, called drones, serve only one purpose, which is to mate with other queens and once that task is completed they die; and that all the thousands of “worker” bees in a colony are females.

If you opened a hive I could help you pick out the queen from amongst the thousands of other bees. She’s larger than the others and usually quite distinguishable because of her shiny, brighter golden color. What I didn’t know before Tuesday was that the reason she appears to be a different color is that although the queen starts out her adult life just like all the other bees covered by thousands of tiny hairs that are used for, among other things, the pollen gathering process, in the queen’s case the hairs are all worn off by the constant grooming she undergoes by a cadre of some 1,300 bees devoted exclusively to her well-being.
That was just one of many insights about honeybees that Carly Raye Vannoy explained to some 40 attendees at Story County Conservation’s Older Wiser Livelier Seniors program Tuesday at McFarland Park. Vannoy is the Iowa Honey Producers Association’s 2017 Iowa Honey Queen and travels the state as a sort of good-will ambassador for honeybees.

Before hearing Vannoy’s remarkable presentation — she’s a home-schooled high school senior from Urbandale who speaks with the ease, confidence and assurance of a college student working on a doctoral thesis in apiology — I could have described the honey- bees’ waggle dance, which a worker bee performs in the company of the entire colony after finding an ample resource of nectar or pollen that she wants help gathering. However, what I didn’t know after the worker bee makes its discovery and does its “bee line” directly back to the colony is that as she communicates to her sister bees in the total darkness of the hive they gather the information not from any smells or sounds she makes, but rather by vibrations they feel being emitted by the exuberant bee performing her dance.

“If she finds a patch of dandelions two miles south of the conservation center and goes back to the hive to tell the rest of the bees, once she starts the waggle dance they know exactly where they’re supposed to go,” Vannoy said.

Here are a few other fun facts from her presentation:

• Honeybees have five eyes and can fly 15 mph.
• Honeybees build tens of thousands of tiny hexagon-shaped cells used to hold eggs, pollen and honey. Each cell is identical in size and shape, and scientists have determined that the design is “less than a percent of a percent from being a perfectly efficient structure for their purpose,” Vannoy said. In other words, bees use their bodies to create the sort of super complex structures that humans can design only with the aid of tools and technology.
• The nectar used to make the honey is 87 percent water, but by thousands of bees using their wings to continually fan the frames, they elevate the temperature of the hive to the point that the excess moisture begins to evaporate. The bees don’t stop until it contains just 17 percent water. They do this always. Everywhere. Seventeen percent.
• Honeybees use a method called “festooning” in which they chain themselves together as a way of measuring space within their hive — be it a manmade or natural cavity dwelling. Since honeybees are typically only about a half-inch long, the process allows them to build row after row of honeycomb equally spaced three-eighths of an inch apart. No more. No less. Three-eighths of an inch.
• One out of every three bites of food a person eats is the direct result of the work of pollinators. Among all pollinators, honeybees account for 60 percent of pollination. Among all insect pollinators, they account for 80 percent of pollination.
• If you want to help bees but don’t want to be a beekeeper, plant native trees, bushes, vegetables and flowers in your yard and garden, don’t use pesticides and put out a couple shallow dishes of water. If you really want to attract honeybees, add a little lemongrass oil to the water. It recreates the smell of the queen’s pheromones.

Now you and I both know “a little” more about honeybees. Pretty sweet, huh?

Todd Burras can be reached at outdoorstoddburras@ gmail.com.

 

I reconnected with some old “friends” this past weekend. Many months had passed since the last time we got together, but as often is the case, we picked up right where we left off.

It helped that I brought several of their favorite snacks and dishes for the occasion. Food is always a great relational unifier. No sooner had they noticed the spread than they began flocking together en masse.

Some were so busy eating that they didn’t have time to say anything, while a couple of the more garrulous among the growing group seemed more intent on chatting than eating. A few mingled on the fringes, curiosity seekers — not interested in what was for dinner, yet drawn to investigate what all the commotion was about. Others tried talking and eating at the same time, and, well, you know how that often turns out. But what’s a few spilt crumbs, or seeds as the case may be, when old friends get together?

By now, of course, you know the “friends” I’m talking about are of the feathered variety. Chickadees, downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, hummingbirds and cardinals helped themselves to sunflower and safflower seeds, sugar water and suet dough, nyjer and sunflower chips, peanuts and tree nuts.

It was the sort of banquet spread not seen in our backyard for a long time, not at least since I left my family behind and moved into our cabin in northeastern Minnesota more than two years ago to deal with some health problems. Stephanie, who enjoys birds almost as much as I do, put out feed on occasion, but between working full time, caring for our two kids and fulfilling all the other duties of managing a household, filling feeders wasn’t high on the priority list. When I moved back to Ames last week, the backyard was eerily quiet.

One of the great things about backyard birding, however, is that the subjects are quite forgiving. If you forget about them, they just keep on doing what they need to do to survive. If you come around to putting out food for them again, it might take a few days for them to find it, but eventually they will. And they’ll keep coming as long as you keep filling the feeders. It’s a good thing for some of us that birds don’t hold grudges.

Birds, like any other creature, are opportunists. Give them a handout, and they’ll gladly take it. But if you fail to feed them for a day, a week, a month, or longer, don’t worry, wild bird populations don’t need the food offerings of humans in order to survive. They’ve taken care of themselves for millennia and will no doubt continue to do so for as long as they inhabit the Earth.

Still, for some of us, there’s great fun to be had by hanging a few feeders and filling them with food. It’s a sure-fire way to reconnect with old “friends” and an opportunity to even make a few new ones.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

Iowa waterfowlers who didn’t participate in the early teal-only season will get there first shot of the year at ducks and geese during the course of the next three weekends.

The state is divided into three zones that will open on consecutive weekends, starting Saturday, Sept. 23, when the north zone opens. The south zone opens on Sept. 30, followed by the Missouri River zone on Oct. 7.

Wetland conditions vary significantly across the state so duck hunters should know in advance if there are adequate water levels at their favorite hunting spots.

The Iowa DNR has a wetland conditions survey and weekly migration report online at www.iowadnr.gov/hunting.

The daily bag for ducks is six. A couple changes this season include the black duck bag limit was been increased to two, while the pintail bag limit has decreased to one

The daily bag limit for Canada geese is two. On Nov.1, the daily bag limit increases to three.

More information and season dates and bag limits is available in the 2017-18 Iowa Hunting, Trapping and Migratory Game Bird Regulations and online at www.iowadnr.gov/hunting.

 

Help harvest prairie seed

If you’re looking for a fun reason to get outside to enjoy the fall weather and to even catch a bit of the fall butterfly migration, Story County Conservation could use your help.

Conservation staff will be collecting seed at Doolittle Prairie on three different occasions in the next two weeks, and they could use some volunteers. Experience is not necessary and staff will show volunteers where, how and what species of prairie flowers from which to collect the seeds.

The first seed collection will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, at Doolittle Prairie, 14249 560th Ave., south of Story City.

Registration is requested so staff know how many supplies and refreshments will be needed. Call (515) 232-2516 to sign up.

 

Fall Festival is Oct. 1

Another opportunity to get out and enjoy the beginning of autumn will be the Partners Fall Festival. The annual free event will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, at McFarland Park, and will feature the traditional and modern blues music of Redz Bluez.

There will be a hayrack ride around the park, nature activities for kids, food vending options from the Mucky Duck Pub, and booths and displays from, among others, the Iowa Purple Martin Organization, Ames Smart Watersheds and Conservation Corps of Iowa.

 

‘Wildlife Calls! 2017’

Wildlife lovers might want to share an evening with a few wild creatures and some of the people who care for them.

The Iowa Wildlife Center’s “Wildlife Calls! 2017” fundraising event will be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines. The IWC is nonprofit organization that provides professional rehabilitation services for native wildlife.

IWC staff, board members and volunteers will be on hand to share stories about some of the animals they’ve helped in recent years while building a wildlife rehabilitation clinic and education center near Ledges State Park in Boone County.

There will be guest speakers, videos, a silent and live auctions, appetizers, a cash bar and door prizes. The cost is $60 in advance or $65 at the door. All proceeds will benefit the IWC.

For tickets, call Gina McAndrews at (515) 635-5760 or visit www.iowawildlifecenter.org.

 

Clean those birdfeeders

The fall migration is picking up, and if you aren’t already feeding your backyard birds, it’s time to put up the feeders.

Before you do, however, it’s a good time to get those feeders scrubbed and cleaned to eliminate potential disease for your feathered friends.

Wild Birds Unlimited’s annual fall birdfeeder cleaning fundraiser will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at 213 Duff Ave., in Ames. The cost is $5 per feeder, and proceeds go to Gilbert Boy Scouts Troop 157. Additional donations will be gladly accepted.

Feeders can be dropped off at the store during normal business hours starting Wednesday, Oct. 4, through noon, Saturday, Oct. 7. Cleaned feeders can be picked up late Saturday afternoon or between noon and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8.

For special dropoff and/or pickup arrangements, call WBU at (515) 956-3145.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

When it comes to the plight of North American pollinators, monarch butterflies and honeybees steal most of the headlines. And with good reason.

Most people likely have some childhood connection with monarchs, and seemingly everyone knows the sweet taste of honey comes from honeybees. As Steve Lekwa recently wrote, monarch butterflies and honeybees are “the poster children for pollinators.”
Still, as has been well documented here and throughout the media in recent years, countless species of insects, birds and mammals – not just honeybees and monarchs — play essential roles in the pollination of the plants that provide a majority of the food we consume.

Whether it’s bats, flies, hummingbirds, the scores of species of butterflies this continent, alone, is home to, or the thousands of species of moths that most of us can’t begin to identify more than a couple of and which we likely take for granted, many creatures, including – get this – lemurs, geckos and honey opossums – are responsible, in part, for the production of human food.

I’ve been thinking about one of those less high-profile pollinators this week as I’ve come back to central Iowa. In one of the gardens in our backyard, the stonecrop sedum I planted a few years ago has been host to a steady parade of painted lady butterflies. These pretty orange, black, white, brown and pink butterflies are members of the brushfoot family and considered the most cosmopolitan of all butterflies, being found not only in North America, but also South America, Asia, India, Europe and Africa.

Migrating painted ladies have been collecting nectar and sharing the tiny pink flowers of the sedum with wild bumbles bees, Steph’s honeybees and numerous other insects. In your own flower gardens or perhaps on a walk around Ada Hayden Heritage Park in Ames, you’ve maybe seen some 2-inch painted ladies with the jagged wing margins. Apparently it’s been a good week for them.

Last Saturday, the Friends of Ada Hayden Heritage Park daily photo update featured a pair of photos of painted ladies by Wolf Oesterreich. Along with the beautiful images, Wolf included a few notes indicating the number of painted ladies at the park had “exploded these past two days.”

On Sept. 4, Wolf counted two painted ladies during his daily rounds in the park. A day later, the number was 223-plus. By Sept. 9, the day I first noticed the painted ladies in our backyard, he had counted at least 592.

“The actual number of these butterflies could easily be double, if not triple, of what I recorded,” he wrote.

The little sanctuary in our backyard couldn’t begin to support numbers like that, but I did count at least two-dozen at one time on Sunday. As the week has progressed, they’ve been joined by a few monarchs, as both species make their way to the southwest United States and Mexico.

Whether its painted ladies, monarchs, hummingbirds, warblers, green-winged teal or any other number of species, the fall migration for avian creatures is well underway. Enjoy it while you can.

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

If you’re an upland bird hunter, don’t let the results of the August Roadside Survey trouble you too much.

That’s what Todd Bogenschutz is telling hunters, anyway.

According to the survey, the statewide pheasant population dropped 30 percent from 2016 while bobwhite quail numbers declined 23 percent. The numbers are derived from a total of 189 30-mile routes driven around the state. On average, the routes averaged 14.9 pheasants in 2017 compared to 21.4 in 2016. Quail, meanwhile, averaged 1.13 birds this year compared to 1.47 a year ago. Hungarian partridge numbers dropped 25 percent statewide from 2.8 to 2.1 birds per route this year.

But Bogenschutz says those numbers don’t match the reports he’s been receiving from around the state by landowners and others, suggesting Iowa’s upland birds are doing as well this year as last.

“Pheasant brood sightings are up statewide, and quail are being reported everywhere in the quail range,” said Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources who coordinates the survey.

That should translate into good news for ringneck and bobwhite hunters this fall, but why the difference in the survey results and anecdotal feedback?

Bogenschutz said the lack of dew in and ditches and fields during the survey timeframe is likely “a major factor skewing this year’s survey results.”

“Most of Iowa was listed as somewhere between being abnormally dry, in a drought or in a severe drought, during the survey,” he said in a DNR news release. “We need heavy dew when we do our surveys because it’s the dew that causes the hen to move her brood from the protective cover to the gravel road to dry off before they begin feeding. We coordinate our routes with that dry-off period. Without the dew, there is no reason for her to expose her chicks.”

Overwinter hen survival, brood survival and nest success are the major factors that impact upland bird populations.

“In years when snowfall is less than 30 inches, pheasant survival is good,” he said. “Warm, dry springs increase nesting success. A mix of the two will nudge the counts one way or the other.”

Bogenschutz said the majority of the state had “a below-average winter and a wetter-than-normal spring.”

“Based on those weather indicators, Iowa should have a stable to a slight decrease in the pheasant population,” he said. “In a nutshell, drought conditions probably lead to a poor survey count in 2017.”

Last season hunters shot an estimated 250,000 roosters, and Bogenschutz said he expects a similar harvest this fall.

In Iowa’s central zone, which includes, among others, Story, Boone and Hamilton counties, the survey showed pheasant counts dropped by 24 percent over last year from 31.6 birds per route to 24 this year. Partridge, however, jumped from 2.5 birds counted in 2016 to 5.2 per route this year, the highest average in the state and the only region that saw an increase in partridge numbers counted. None of the nine zones saw an increase in pheasant numbers this year with the central zone second only to the northwest zone, which saw 26.3 pheasants counted per route.

The complete August Roadside Survey can be found at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.

Iowa’s early teal season opens this weekend, and waterfowl hunters should have plenty of opportunities to bag a few small ducks now and also some bigger ones later in the fall, based on an annual survey released in mid-August.

The fourth year of Iowa’s experimental early teal season begins Saturday across the state and includes all three of its waterfowl hunting zones — the north (Sept. 2-10), south (Sept. 2-10) and Missouri River (Sept. 2-17). Hunters can shoot only blue-winged, green-winged and cinnamon teal during the teal-only season. Bluewings are the most common teal in this region of the country and the second-most numerous duck behind only mallards in North America.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service’s 2017 Trends in Duck Breeding Populations survey, which was released Aug. 15, the total population was estimated at 47.3 million breeding ducks overall in the survey area. That number is statistically similar to the 48.4 million breeding pairs in 2016 and 34 percent above the long-term average.

The survey, which began in 1955, encompasses more than 2 million square acres of waterfowl habitat across Alaska, north-central and northeastern U.S. states and south-central, eastern and northern Canada. It does not include Iowa, Minnesota or Wisconsin and west of the Mississippi River in the Lower 48 includes only the Dakotas and half of Montana. It provides the scientific basis for many management programs across the continent, including hunting season dates and bag limits.

According to the survey, the number of blue-winged teal was up 18 percent from the 2016 estimate and 57 percent above the long-term average while the number of green-winged teal was down 16 percent from the 2016 estimate but still 70 percent above the long-term average.

Gadwall and northern shovelers saw increases in their populations from 2016 as did northern pintails, which also have been in decline in recent years. Pintail numbers were up 10 percent from a year ago but are still 27 percent below the long-term average.

After a bit of an increase a year ago, scaup, or bluebills, which have seen their numbers in steep decline in the past decade continued that trend by dipping 12 percent from 2016 and are now 13 percent below the long-term average.

Mallards saw a decline from 2016, registering 10.5 million birds, which was 11 percent lower than the 11.8 million birds a year ago. American wigeon (19 percent) and redhead (13 percent) numbers also dipped from a year ago, while canvasbacks numbers remained similar to last year’s survey.

Unlike the regular waterfowl seasons, which allow hunters to start shooting one-half hour before sunrise to one-half our after sunset, hunting hours for the teal-only season is sunrise to sunset. Nontoxic shot is required, and guns must be restricted to hold no more than three shells. Hunters get a daily bag limit of six teal and a possession limit of 18.

This is the final year of the experimental September teal-only season, which began in 2014. Hunter participation, success, feedback and rules compliance along with management strategies will factor into the decision whether the teal-only season will continue next year.

 

ELY, MINN. — I’ll come straight out with it: frogs are cool.

Plop!

There, I’ve said it, the words leaping from my fingers on the computer keyboard to the text document on the computer screen as effortlessly as, well, a Northern leopard frog springing from its muddy and vegetative covert into the cool, clear water of a nearby lake.

Plop!

It’s a sound I’ve been hearing a lot the past couple of weeks whenever I’ve had a chance to get out on a hike around a lake, a wetland or even a mucky patch along a portage trail.

When I’m not hearing frogs go plop! into the water or calling from dark and damp hiding places, I’m seeing them. Seemingly everywhere. Along the road, in the dry grass of our little yard while mowing and even in the middle of a barren, sunny clear-cut in the middle of the forest.

Frogs it seems, lately, are everywhere. No more prevalent than on the gravel road I take in the dusky shadows of evening on the final 3-mile stretch to home from town after work. I always drive slowly on the washboard, twisting, undulating run of non-pavement that snakes through the forest because one never knows when a speeding vehicle will come around the corner hogging two-thirds of the road or a white-tailed deer will pop out of a ditch.

Of late, however, it’s not been rude drivers or unsuspecting whitetails I’ve been most focused on. Rather, it’s all the frogs – and an occasional toad or garter snake – that want to share the road. I frequently slow down, swerve (as much as one can “swerve” when driving 20 to 25 mph) or pump the brakes to avoid flattening a frog, toad or snake. I know I’ve spared a few reptilian lives this summer, but I’m also equally certain that I’ve probably been responsible for a few casualties. It would be impossible to see everything crossing the road, especially when one considers the size and camouflaged colors of some of these small forest-dwellers.

I’m not certain when this summer I got interested in frogs; I’ve always been drawn to charismatic mega-fauna, such as moose, bears and wolves. In fact, it was likely while on various hiking trips in search of the aforementioned mammals that I kept running into frogs on or along the trails I traversed. Wood frogs. Green frogs. Mink frogs. Tree frogs, that broad classification of several species of smaller frogs, some of which measure less than an inch in length.

No different than moose, bears and wolves, frogs play an important role in the environment and food chain. They feast on slugs, crickets, snails, flies, mosquitoes, beetles and numerous other insects, utilizing their long tongue with a sticky pad that snatches prey so quickly that the human eye can’t detect the tongue’s movement in and out of their mouth. At the same time, frogs, which can live from 3 to 10 years, provide nutrition to a smorgasbord of creatures, no more so than for herons, bass and northern pike.

More could be written here about frogs, but one adaptation by wood frogs says much about why frogs are so cool, no pun intended. Wood frogs settle under leaf litter in the fall and then freeze solid in the winter. Yes, solid. Their heart and lungs shut down completely for several months and then with the help of glycerol – a natural antifreeze — they thaw out in the spring, undamaged and ready to head for their snowmelt breeding pools.

How cool is that?

Plop!

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

 

 

 

ELY, MINN. – If the activity at the hummingbird feeder is a reliable indicator, then a significant change is in the air.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds hang around the cabin throughout the summer, but when there is the sort of frenetic feeding going on the likes I’ve witnessed the past two weeks it means they’re collectively coming or going. Arriving or departing. Coupled with the obvious shortening of sunlight on both ends of the day, it means the latter.

The hummingbirds in this area are fueling up as they begin their great migration south, and in an era and a culture known for hyperbole, it’s no exaggeration to deem their migration “epic.” In fact the hummingbird migration is a mind-blowing feat when one considers that many of these tiny creatures that weigh some 2 or 3 grams will travel by themselves 1,000 miles or more, including a grueling and harrowing 500-mile non-stop leg across the Gulf of Mexico, to Mexico and Central America.

In my mind, that’s epic.

So, too, is the monarch migration.

I watched a monarch flutter over the ditch by our driveway one morning this week. It stopped to sip nectar from the blossoms of a single fireweed plant. It’s only a few yards from the milkweed patch a few of us on this end of the road are happy to know is there. It’s the spot where dozens of caterpillars gorged themselves a few weeks back. Perhaps this lone monarch is one of those I watched.

This is a monarch that is of the generation, which, like the hummingbird, will make its own remarkable journey south for the winter. In this case, it likely destination will be the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve of Mexico. If this lone monarch is lucky and avoids predators, such as dragonflies, and speeding vehicles, it might just make its way south through Iowa along the Interstate 35 corridor, get a boost from all the nectar-producing wildflowers in the broad ditches, and arrive in Mexico sometime in September.

Those monarchs that survive the migration and the winter months will then make a return trip to someplace like northern Mexico or Texas in the spring where they’ll lay their eggs for the “new year generation” of monarchs. That first generation of butterflies will continue to migrate north but have very short lifecycles in which they produce the second generation of monarchs. Again, that next generation will continue migrating north to places such as Iowa, Minnesota and elsewhere where two more generations – the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the overwintering monarchs in Mexico – are produced. It’s the fourth generation of those monarchs that will make their own migration back to Mexico, just like their great-great-grandparents.

Amazing.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to hang your hummingbird feeders and fill them up with a little sugar-water. Your handout might just be the fuel that’s needed to help one of these little flying jewels make it home for the winter. As compensation, they’ll visit your feeders again next spring when they make their return migration north for the summer.

Epic and simply amazing.

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

ELY, MINN. – The undeniable thud shook me from the fog of an early morning doze. It had been several months since I heard a similar sound, but it had not been forgotten. Birds colliding with windows are an unfortunate reality of living in a cabin in the woods.

Looking out the bedroom window from where the sound had originated I saw nothing out of the ordinary – sand, gravel, ledge rock, trees. If the bird had been injured upon impact, it would have been quickly observable on the ground near the window. In this case, it appeared the victim – likely a blue jay based on the volume of the – had quickly recovered and continued its flight to wherever it was destined.

In this particular situation, the bird hopefully escaped serious injury – a broken neck is often the result of such collisions — with only a contusion or two to its head and body. There is another unfavorable outcome that I was reminded of earlier this week after reading some email exchanges among members of a local nature and citizen science group. The discussion focused on a belted kingfisher that had seemingly survived a collision with a window and flown off after several moments of being tended to by the homeowner.

But, as one contributor pointed out, the kingfisher’s coming to its senses and flying off didn’t ensure its future.

“Many injuries can occur when a bird hits a window but often it is a head injury as it is usually the head that hits first. Sometimes it is the swelling or continued bleeding inside the skull that occurs after the initial injury that kills them. I am always happy to see an injured bird take off but realize there is still a great chance they will die.”

Unlike humans, who can be treated for head trauma, birds don’t have access to such emergency care. The best scenario is that they don’t collide with a window in the first place, and that’s where humans can try to help, with emphasis on the word “try.”

“I guess the best we can do for the birds is put something up on our windows that will break up the reflection that makes it look like smooth sailing to them,” the email continued.

Since windows tend to behave like mirrors to birds and reflect their surrounding habitat, they often fly directly into them. While data on the subject is inconclusive, various studies estimate that millions of birds die in collisions with windows each year in North America, alone.

Some of the strategies employed by birders to try and reduce the number of bird-window collisions include affixing predator silhouettes or a series of static-backed decals to the inside of windows, covering the glass on the outside with screening or netting or hanging ribbons, mobiles, Mylar streamers, wind chimes and even strings of CDs on the outside of the windows.

After witnessing some 20 crashes in three years here at the cabin – at least half of which resulted in immediate death to the avian victim – I got serious about trying to reduce the collisions on the front of the cabin, which features 11 windows and glass French doors. I affixed several static-backed decals on the upper windows, mesh netting on four of them and a hawk silhouette I cut out of cardboard in the center of the largest of the largest window.

The strategy seems to have helped this year as the number of collisions I’ve witnessed has dropped significantly – the lone exceptions being a pair of Blackburnian warblers that became casualties within a couple days of one another in early spring. Unlike the majority of other previous crashes, however, these two took place on the unadorned bottom windows. The same thing happened with the blue jay, which prompted me to conclude that more window-dressing is needed.

Ironically, I heard an interview over the weekend with the founder of a company that’s been touting its own strategy for reducing bird-window crashes for some 30 years. The idea is to hang window-length, 1/8^th-inch-diameter strands of dark-olive parachute cord spaced about 4 inches apart using Velcro strips or screws and clamps on the outside of windows. While visitors to the birdsavers.com website can order customized, made-to-order Acopian BirdSavers from the company, founder Jeff Acopian encourages birders to make their own, offering complete instructions to do so on the company’s website.

Bird conservation over profit? I like it. I’ll be picking up some colorful paracord in the next couple of days.

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.