Red-tail Update-Kay and Jay in Tulsa, Parthenogenesis in Kimodo Dragons, and Crows and Cutlets Part II

Photograph by the Tulsa Forum's Cheryl Cavert
Earlier this season Kay and Jay check the nest for needed renovations.
And Thunder's parents were back again today, well actually at this point Catbird sent me a correction, there is some question whether it was just Jay, or Kay and Jay or...

Everyone is waiting for Cheryl Cavert to check out the evidence as she knows the birds by sight better than most of the others.

In the meantime, here is the original Red-tail Update from Forum participant Catbird--

Mid-morning Friday, both Kay and Jay were spotted at the tower nest (Jay briefly, Kay for as long as about a half hour), fiddling and inspecting and gazing around in the high Tulsa winds.


We had some screen shots from mid October of the nest and it was then still pretty much as Thunder had left it...scattered hither and yon. But today there are clearly signs of nest maintenance having been done.

There is a definite nest bowl shape again, and the nest sides are higher, and the scattered twigs are all tidied up from the tower floor grating. Now we wait and watch for signs of greenery having been brought to the nest, right? And sky dancing?

That's right. Sky dancing first and an evergreen bough most probably as things get close.




Screen capture courtesy of MSNBC


Back in 2006, two female Kimodo Dragons in two different UK zoos produced parthenogenic young. In other words the process was asexual, there was no male Kimodo Dragon involved. Flora and Sangei did it all on their own, thank you.

When I read about it, I felt quite vindicated. I'd remembered having a rather heated discussion with my main zoology professor defending turkey farmers who swore they'd had virgin hens produce young. Dr. Gross wouldn't even consider the possibility, while I saw no reason why not as lower forms such as aphids, plants, various invertebrates did it all the time why couldn't higher forms possibly do it once in a while. And then a decade or so later DNA testing arrived. Yes, by 2006 one virgin turkey hen's reputation had been saved by DNA and two Kimodo Dragons had done it in a single year, pushing scientists to admit that not only did it happen, but just maybe it wasn't such a rare or abnormal occurrence after all.

And the kicker with Kimodos was that not only did the two dragon ladies reproduce asexually, they then went on to produce sexually. Something the lower forms tend not to do. Wow. This was big.

Then I ran across a quote from one of the scientists that had published in Nature about the DNA testing. I guess I'd just assumed that the asexually produced young were rather like clones and would be little versions of their mother. And of course all females. Not the case. They found that the DNA was slightly different from the mom in each case but it could only have been the mother's DNA as it wasn't even close to the other Kimodos that were at the zoo. And it's not like there are stray Kimodos running around, and sneaking into zoos when no one is looking having sex. Ten feet long, two hundred pound lizards are rather hard to miss.

After Science Friday on National Public Radio reminded me about this yesterday, I ended up talking to my seventeen year old daughter about it on the phone. Like me, she's intending college degrees in theatre and biology and her bio questions have gotten a lot tougher lately.

And she said, "Wait a minute mom, how can the DNA be slightly different. Is it mutations?"





Gulp. I wasn't really sure. So I started digging.





I don't have access to the paper in Nature here in Wisconsin so thank goodness for the internet and the BBC. The BBC, even in short articles, acts like their readers actually have brains and can understand at least basic science.

Here's the deal. Female Kimodos have a W and a Z chromosome. So when they reproduce by parnenogenesis, each of the chromosomes double. Creating WW eggs and ZZ eggs. Now remember females are WZ's so no females. Male Kimodos are ZZ. WW eggs aren't viable. So the offspring in asexual reproduction in Kimodo Dragons is always male.

And here are some links--Enjoy!



http://www.anotherchancetosee.com/2008/11/komodo-dragon-parthenogenesis-news.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6196225.stm


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7122/abs/4441021a.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16298548/



Here's where we left off. Stump Crow was, I thought, swallowing another big blob of fat that she had so laboriously worried off the meat and compacted with her beak. After looking at the sequence that comes next, I'm not so sure that's what was happening. We'll see what you think.


Ground Crow has also been pulling the fat off the cutlets too, but I think he has actually been swallowing his portion.

Look at Stump Crows cheeks and neck. I'm wondering if she isn't storing the fat in there somehow. Remember when Mr. Goldfinch kept poking one sunflower seed after another down his throat? And it occurred to me that Goldfinch shuck sunflower seeds before they eat them. After close observation, I realized that being he had no pockets and who wants to make more trips than necessary, he transported them to winter storage by carrying the complete seeds down his throat and then expelling them when he got to his storage facility.

Is Mrs. Stump Crow doing something similar with the fat?

Wait! Ground Crow looks like he may be collecting fat in his beak at the moment.

Mrs. Crow takes off from the stump.

Why is it that Crows let their feet dangle longer than most birds when they take off? What? They're heavy bodied birds and they have to get some flight momentum before even considering using other muscles for superfluous activities like stowing their feet?

The squirrels are completely shameless right now. Gluttony and the self absorption to steal from the feeders with me standing right there.

Look carefully, see Mrs. Stump Crow's legs and tail? I think this may be where she went the last time she left the stump for a few moments.

Yes, she's now going back into the same area of overlapping branches. Is she stashing the fat?

While the Stump and Ground Crow are otherwise involved, out of nowhere another Crow flies in, grabs a piece of cutlet and flies right back out through the Spruce boughs. He seemed rather like a Crow Pirate.

I get distracted by how fat the squirrel is getting. I wonder if squirrels have soft fat or whether if you touched them there is so much under the skin they'd feel as hard as a rock.

In the meantime, Ground Crow has hopped onto the stump only to be thwarted by Stump Crow who is back from the tree and has her foot on the meat.

And look, her cheeks and throat don't look puffed up anymore. She edges closer to Ground Crow. He hasn't hopped off yet so she makes a half hearted nab at his feet with her beak and it jumps off to go work on the piece of cutlet that is already down there.

A don't-even-try-it look at me...

And she's back to work.

Remember Pirate Crow? He's gone off to the playground with his cutlet and is enjoying it under the swing set.

Did the Stump Crow change while I wasn't looking?

What do you think? Looking back, maybe there was a change. Sheesh. Why do they have to all look alike? Actually, when I first started hawk watching all Red-tails looked alike to me too. I'm hoping that the more I look, the more perceptive I become about the differences between individuals for this species as well.

I don't suppose they'd all wear different color nail polish to help me out would they?

Not a chance.

D. B.

Ice Crystals, V Migration, and Part I of Crows and Pork Cutlets.

Since it became cold there have been spectacular sunsets. And yesterday, the sunset was not only spectacular but also quite strange. Look carefully on the left side of the photograph, see where the pink seems to have floated upward and almost reaches the break in the clouds? Not having noticed color floating in sunsets before I decided to try and track down the effect. It turns out the reason is the refraction of the light through tiny ice crystals floating in the air.


And here is today's sunset. No floating ice crystals that I can see but pretty spectacular none the less. The Crow (mid left) flew into it, I assume, in hopes of loosing me after I pointed my camera at him while perched.

Here is a photo that answers Greg of Utah's question concerning whether other species of birds beyond Canada Geese fly in Vs. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to see which kind of water birds these are, but they definitely aren't geese.

I looked for a list of V migrating species and haven't discovered one yet, but I did find out that previous to 2001 there were two schools of thought when it came to why some migrating birds fly in Vs. One group said it was aerodynamics and another said it was easier for the birds to follow each other that way.

In 2001, the French monitored a V of eight White Pelicans flying over Senegal for heart beat, wing flaps and other relevant criteria and aerodynamics won.

I do remember that in the 70s there was a question among scientists as to whether the lead bird changed or whether it was the same strong bird that flew point for the whole migration. The answer came from a gentleman who had a trained flock of working geese who would fly in formation for commercials and movies. He'd known the answer for ages, it's just that no one had asked him. And they couldn't put it down to anecdotal information as he had birds capable of demonstrating the fact.

THE CROWS AND THE CUTLETS PART I

THE PORK CUTLETS

First the back story. I was digging around in my parent's chest freezer and discovered an unlabeled plastic bag with some sort of mystery meat in it. I thawed it. It turned out to be the above pork, which I then put in the oven to cook. After about 10 minutes I realized that beyond the heating pork aroma there was a distinct fragrance of "too long in the freezer". Nope. Not happening. Out they came, out I went into the dark backyard, and onto the goodie stump they went.

The next day, upon walking through the kitchen I heard a Crow giving the three Caw Alert. I looked outside and there was a Crow on the stump a foot on the cutlet attempting to pull fat off the side of the meat with her beak, totally ignoring the sentinel.

A second Crow then hopped up on the stump nabbed a piece of pork and hopped off. The first Crow continued to wrestle with the fat. By then I had the cameras but Crow One had taken off towards the park.

Crow Two was still standing on his piece of pork and using his needle-nose-pliers-beak to pull sections off.

Sentinel Crow is still cawing but so far no one seems to care.

A Crow lands on the stump. I assume it is Crow One returning as she immediately begins pulling off bits of fat again.

She changes her grip and goes for it again.

She doesn't seem to be swallowing the fat but rather collecting it in her beak. Suddenly Crows One and Two fly away.

A few moments later, two Crows land in the yard and begin to circle the stump. I don't know if they are the same or different birds. They continue to circle.

One Crow looks to fly onto the stump then veers away, lands, begins walking back. The second is obscured by the stump.

The Crow behind the stump walks to the piece of meat on the ground.

He begins to eat.

The other Crow hops onto the stump. Conceivably these are the same birds.

She gives me a look.

Then swallows a morsel.

PART II COMING SOON.

Baby Thunder and Lucky Dog. Plus Coming Soon--Five Crows and the Pork Cutlets

One of the five Crows involved with the pork cutlets gives me "the look". Bear with me-- two cameras, several hours, and with well over a hundred photos, it's taking me awhile to reconstruct the sequence.


Screen capture courtesy of KJRH TV Tulsa
From Catbird of the Tulsa Forum--

Jackie and I from the Tulsa Forum were reminiscing about Thunder's babyhood and Jackie found this old screen capture. I think you published it long ago but having seen how grandly she turned out in the latest photos from Cheryl, I thought you might enjoy seeing this little dandelion gone to seed.

(And for those of you, who just can't wait another minute for more baby raptors, heartstopping fledging, and really bad novice landings, be sure to catch AMERICAN EAGLE on NATURE. See your local PBS listings. D. B.)

Photo courtesy of Shingo Mutoh

From contributor R. of Illinois--

Fishing party rescues dog a mile from land
http://www.newsobserver.com/802/story/1302184.html