Friday Miscellany-A Bit of Blue, Okra and Ants, Doorstep Mourning Dove and Friend, a Season's Fledglings, Berries, Japanese Beetles, and Blight

Though there was a frost warning last night, when I awoke the first Heavenly Blue Morning Glory had finally bloomed for the season. There is was nestled amongst the beetle decimated Virginia Creeper like a flash of blue hope in a season without.

When first I came, the High Bush Cranberry had only one living branch. It has now come round and sports hundreds of berries waiting for the fruit hungry migrating birds. Thankfully the Japanese Beetles don't seem to have a taste for its leaves.

Though ravaged by Japanese Beetles, (yes, I used pheromone traps and must have captured and drowned 10,000 of them by hand...), the Concord Grapevines managed a bumper crop

In many places here the apple crop failed due to the cold wet spring, then there was a blight on the tomatoes, the ants took to human kitchens in search of food. For whatever reason they seemed quite partial to over mature okra, so I left some on my back step, their usual egress to the kitchen being that door. No more ants in the kitchen, at least so far.

Their two latest chicks fledged and on their own, Doorstep Dove and Friend appear once again together on the feeding floor.

The fledgling female Cardinal makes a foray under the sunflower seed feeder, both parents present watching over her. For whatever reason the local Cardinal pair only seems to fledge one youngster per season. The previous two seasons chicks were males. This year they've raised a female.

The three pair of local Goldfinch have all graduated fledglings from their single clutch each of the year. They nest only when thistle down is available to line their nests.

After raising enumerable Cowbird chicks this season, Mr. Chipping Sparrow appeared today with a chick of his own in tow. It made my day.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male with a Mouse, Doorstep Dove and Friend, Plus the First Robin

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male with a tasty mouse in his beak, flies in front of his new mate, showing off the treat. He gives it to her...

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
She flies over to the Carlyle, eats it, and gets into position to copulate and Pale Male as always obliges.

Why does Pale Male often bring gifts of food to his mate before copulation? Well, hungry or not, it will be cached if she isn't, she often at this stage of the game, becomes quite amiable to his attentions after a gift of food.

Could it be the same reason a male human who is courting a female human takes her out to dinner and gives her gifts?

The prevailing wisdom amongst scientists concerning why tiercels do it, is that the male is proving that he is a mighty hunter and will be a good provider for the formel and her young.

Are there buttons pushed in female humans as well by gifts?

Doorstep Dove and Friend in one of their favorite spots in the Maple tree. I'd seen Doorstep in the feeding area earlier. She is still limping but not as much as before. Plus I'd put out the remnants of Quicksilver's Nutri-berries just before she appeared, and she was eating amazingly fast even with her limp. She loves those Nutri-berry bits. Her back feathers are still ruffed up. I think she lost some of them and she ruffles them to insulate that spot better. Her tail is growing back in as are the primaries that she lost. Also notice that she looks more bright eyed and alert than she did
the last time we had a good look at her. And as always Friend, her mate
of many years, is in attendance.

The FIRST Robin makes his appearance! Spring must be around here somewhere!

Donegal Browne

What Is She Doing To Pale Male? Just What Are the Two Pales Up To? Plus Doorstep and Friend Soak Their Feet

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
12:43:35PM

What is she doing to Pale Male?

Now I've never seen one Red-tailed Hawk preen another. Not even the mom's preen the young as far as I know. Not even the tops of their heads which is a prime spot for another bird's help to get the sheath off a new feather as obviously your beak can't reach the top of your head.

Certainly many other species do it but Red-tailed Hawks though affectionate in their own Red-tail kind of way aren't exactly full time snugglers or preeners. They're more into sitting companionably together a few feet apart after copulation, or roosting even more feet apart but in the same tree sometimes for sleeping.

I did see Pale Male Jr. "kiss" Charlotte once as he was leaving the nest one day. He was taking off from one side of the nest and instead of heading off in that direction which would be usual, Junior flew past Charlotte who was standing on the other side of the nest, and they touched beaks. He then shifted around in the air and went off to do his business. Jeff Kollbrunner of jknaturegallery ,who watches Mama and Papa said he's seen them "kiss" several times.

Is the isolated preen so rare I've just missed it? Maybe. But Pale Male is all scrunched down and doesn't really look like he's enjoying having her beak in his feathers above his left eye.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
12:43:47PM
In fact it looks like he's telling her to knock it off by vocalizing. Double click on the photo and check out Pale Beauty's expression. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Isn't she looking at him as if he's good enough to eat? Actually now that I've looked at it again and I'm thinking about it. Eyasses sometimes give their siblings that look, when they are about to jump on each other and play and they have been known to nibble at each other a bit. Hard to tell what eyasses are thinking but as they are young I always took it as a form of play. Now the two Pales have been out there cavorting in the air courting, and Beauty is young and heavily jazzed up hormonally, so perhaps she's not totally sure what to do with how she feels right now. And in the typical Red-tailed Hawk way, when they have an urge, they try things one after the other in order to try and satisfy that urge until one works.

Hence Pale Male telling her that it may work for her but it is definitely not working for him. These particular photographs do show the reverse sexual dimorphism in size very well.

When everyone knows what they are doing on the nest, the nest boss is the female. Pale Male being plucky, experienced. and having had to train young mates before likely knows that there are some things that just have to be nipped in the bud before they become a habit, no matter where you are and I suspect pinching his eyebrow is one of those things. He isn't reticent to speak up when necessary as you can see.

Watching the two birds meld to each other habits, divide the chores as to who does what, and when should be absolutely fascinating this season.

For those who don't know, all the Red-tailed Hawk pairs I've watched divide up the chores in slightly different ways. At the Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine, every evening Tristan would take the last feeding of the day, stripping bits of meat off the prey and gently dispensing it while Isolde took a break sitting on a roof as the sun went down. Isolde's new mate, Storm'n Norman, has more of a tendency to practically throw the prey at the nest and zoom off if he can get away with it.

Pale Male Jr. on the other hand is quite attentive and will feed the eyeasses if he happens to be there when they wake up and Charlotte is out but he doesn't have a particular schedule as Isolde and Tristan did uptown.

From what I've been told Pale Male seldom if ever feeds the eyasses when they are small but he does do a tremendous amount of hunting and brings prey to the nest in abundance.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Photo: Donna Browne

And as evening fades in, there are Doorstep Dove and Friend in the bath warming those feet up before going to roost.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male and Pale Beauty Plus Doorstep Dove, Friend, and Mourning Doves in General

Pale Beauty, courtesy of www.palemale.com/

Pale Male and Pale Beauty are still an item and doing all the things that Red-tailed Hawk pairs should be doing this time of year-sky dancing, sitting companionably together, and keeping an eye on where the other is. Any day now copulation may start.

8:16am, January 18, 2011
Doorstep Dove and Friend on the left, and likely one of their yearlings on the right.

Though I didn't get a photograph of them, as the sighting was brief, I did see Doorstep Dove and Friend whip from the feeding area up to their particular spots in the north Maple tree. Both looked in fine fettle which was lovely.

Another five inches of snow fell today and even after it stopped all the birds seemed very wary in the feeding area for most of the day. I suspect a Cooper's Hawk is still out there somewhere.

Earlier in the week when Doorstep didn't look too well, the question arose in my mind as to what the life expectancy is for a Mourning Dove in the wild.

The average as usual with most species is rather depressing as so many juvenile birds don't make it. In Mourning Doves it is 1.5 years in areas where they cannot be hunted and of course lower in areas where there is hunting.

As I've been watching Doorstep and Friend since 2005, they've beaten the odds admirably. The oldest wild Mourning Dove on record is 19 years plus, and in captivity one lived to over 30 years.

4:16pm, January 18, 2011
On the 18th I looked out and the feeding area was awash with Mourning Doves, 28 of them.

Ordinarily doves who are going to migrate south usually do so in September and November. I presume these had been overwintering further north and either the snow drove them down or their usually sustaining bird feeder had fallen down on the job or both and they were now heading south.

The flock stayed for several days and when they left the third bird on the bath, likely went with them. Look at the photo. It was a mixed flock of males and females, so the yearling could well find a mate during the trip.

According to the literature, in "normal" migration patterns, Doves supposedly travel in three groups, first the juveniles leave, then the females, and then males. And over-wintering doves are able to do so due to bird feeders. Or I assume some other abundant food supply that is not buried by snow. Doves much prefer to eat at ground level but do not scratch for food which rather puts them at a disadvantage in snow. Perhaps the reason that bird feeders are a big ticket item for over wintering pairs.

For instance today I looked out and saw just the head of a male Junco in the snow. He'd scratched, the Junco technique is a rapid reverse scrape with both feet, a hole several inches deep which put him on a level with the strewn seed of the night before.

Doves just don't do it.

Personally I find the information that male and female Doves supposedly travel separately very odd. Mourning Doves are monogamous. Doorstep and Friend are pretty much joined at the hip. And during those times when they have disappeared during winter, they left and returned together. How would they find each other reliably if they migrated separately?

Fascinating.

Donna Browne

Pale Male's Tail and Is Doorstep Dove Alright?

Photograph courtesy of www.palemale.com/
Sally of Kentucky, who volunteers at a wildlife rehabilitation center, has been trying to come up with field marks to help watchers identify Pale Male from his newest girl, the possible Pearl. She is also quite pale and looks very much like Pale Male in many ways.

Sally said,

See the dark thin bars on each of his tail feathers? It is obvious from the top as well when his tail is flared a bit. Those are the bars I was noticing the new pale Pearl does not have on her tail.

But Pale Male does.

At first I thought Sally was talking about the terminal dark bar near the tip of each tail feather of a Red-tailed Hawk which are lighter in Pearl than in Pale Male but not nonexistent. But Sally is looking at pale horizontal stripes all the way down each of Pale Male's tail feathers that appear to be almost ghost bars of his juvenile tail.

Double click on the photo above and look particularly at the tail feathers on the upper part of Pale's tail. Do you see them?

3:22pm
I looked out the door earlier today and there was Friend and Doorstep out on the picnic table. I'd worried about them as the weather has been so inclement and the snow very deep. I was happy to see they'd found the bird seed I'd spread especially for the ground feeders who don't use the feeders.

But what is going on with Doorstep Dove? (on the right). Is she just having a nap? But her feathers are fluffed and don't look to be in as good condition as they do normally. Compare Friend's smooth feathers on the left.

Look at the exposed under layer feathers on her back. Are there missing feathers? Damaged ones? Or is she just not caring for them properly. What's going on?

Her eyes slip closed and then she rouses herself and stands.

She seems to be having trouble maneuvering through the snow, and stops after a few steps to peck at some seed.

She starts to walk over to more seed. Is she limping?

She is limping and favoring her right foot. So far she isn't having to use her wings to keep her balance but she does seem to be wincing with each step.

Then she pauses with her right foot up and looks at me.

She then continues her walk to a more seed populated area.

As per typical behavior of Mourning Doves in the cold, both birds hunker down on their feet while eating and even while walking the small distances for the short trips to more interesting seeds.

Friend keeps an eye on me.

3:24:23pm Doorstep Dove is tending her right foot. Did standing on the heating element and/or warm water of the bird bath have a negative effect on her foot later during the blizzard? Or did she have a close call with the local Cooper's Hawk which could explain an injured foot and the strange condition of the feathers on her lower back. Was it just the extended cold, snow, and biting wind?

Because of her less then tip top condition, I'm concerned about Doorstep as the forecast for tonight is a wind chill of minus 30F.

3:26pm Doorstep Dove goes back to her original position and rests. Friend plays sentinel and periodically forages near her.

The squirrels appear to have retired to their drays to semi-hibernate through the storm. Not one has appeared yesterday or today. Notice that the English Sparrow twig pile has been drifted in 2/3 of the way up. The right wall of the "nest" is nearly covered in places.
A wave snowdrift walls the back step. Doorstep Dove got her name from snuggling up to the patio door during cold weather. She gave up the habit when Pyewackit entered the household. I assume because Pyewacket spends a good bit of time with her face a half inch from the glass. As Pye was attempting to predate the feeding area I felt everyone would be safer with Pye in the house as opposed to outside the house. Besides Pye being much better fed and comfortable. But every move we make as humans has an impact on what is around us in the natural world. Perhaps Doorstep would have been warmer near the door if Pye had never come in but perhaps not as the drift was created by wind swooping the snow on both sides of the drift.

I'm likely not getting to the front door until Spring.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male, the Un-update, The Snow Spector, The Two Day Snow, plus Doorstep Dove and Friend

Last night, 1:32 am, February 1, 2011
The Snow Specter. I got some of these in a snow storm last year as well and I've been wondering what makes them.

I may have it.

The neighbor to the right, see the haze coming towards the specter from that direction, uses a wood stove for auxiliary heat and I think the specters are made of smoke and the added light of snow reflection to say nothing of the flash on the camera.

It has now been snowing for well over 24 hours.

6:08pm Doorstep Dove nestles down on the birdbath heater while Friend looks on. I wonder by the tilt of his head if he thinks she's acting a bit off.

It gets harder and harder to see Doorstep and Friend. I do hope they've found a particularly sheltered roost for tonight as beyond all the snow, the wind has become cruel and the temperature is dropping. It has been snowing steadily since last night but in speck sized flakes. Though as you can see those speck sized flakes have already begun quite a drift outside the door. We expect 20 more inches tonight. Doorstep and Friend are the only birds I've seen in the back yard all day. Earlier while shoveling the driveway I heard a Crow call, looked up, and saw Chris, Carol, and Junior Crow flying with the wind to the southeast.

8:42pm The snowflakes have gotten much bigger and the wind is erratically shuffling the snow in swirls and whipping it on and off the roof.

The flash goes off and catches the glint of the snow flakes in some of their glittering colors.

Grand article from the New York Times gleaning W.A. Walters.
Once again it's those Caledonian Crows. Remember Betty making a hook to retrieve food goodies? This is about what Caledonians do when they are in their family groups, how they raise their young and TA DA, they have culture!

SCIENCE | February 01, 2011
Basics: Nurturing Nests Lift These Birds to a Higher Perch
By NATALIE ANGIER
Researchers are trying to figure out how the New Caledonian crow became such an outlier, an avian savant...

So how do the birds get so crafty at crafting? New reports in the journals Animal Behaviour and Learning and Behavior by researchers at the University of Auckland suggest that the formula for crow success may not be terribly different from the nostrums commonly served up to people:

CHECK IT OUT!

New York City is in the midst of winter weather as well, though they seem to be dealing with a good bit of ice. So far I've received no new update today on how things are going for Pale Male and the possible Pearl. I imagine that they are snugged up together in a nice spruce for the evening waiting out the weather and looking forward to a nice warm breakfast.

And for those of you who still need a raptor fix, Robin of Illinois sent in an email about checking out James O'Brien's blog, The Origin of the Species--

http://yojimbot.blogspot.com/ AND CHECK OUT FRANCOIS' GORGEOUS PHOTOS OF THE PREVIOUS SNOW IN NYC Hey Donna, WE had a nice storm and Cleopatra¹s birds came alive in the morning: http://www.fotoportmann.com/birdblog/2011/01/27/cleopatras-falcons-central-park-nyc Greets Francois

Donegal Browne