I was taking the 11:00 am ferry from Tsawwassen to Schwartz Bay when a loon near the boat decided to take flight. I captured a bit of it with my camera in burst mode with a shutter speed of 1/800. You can get a good sense of the cartoon “running on water” take-off. Perhaps I should call it a Looney Tunes take-off.
Back in August of this year, the 14th to be exact, I was walking along the waterfront in Sidney, BC when I caught a gull red-handed (or red-billed) trying to swallow a sea star. Here’s the sequence of 4 pictures that I took over a half-minute or so:
The gull does not seem to be having a lot of success.
Then, I was looking through some older images yesterday and found another sequence of 4 images taken in March 2016 at Neck Point Park in Nanaimo:
The first image shows the gull with the sea star in its mouth. The following three images show the gull swallowing the sea star. It had to extend its neck which, as you can see by the white spot on the rocks appearing in the third image, triggered a ‘movement’.
[Updated December 10 2014 based on feedback. Additional links on the Palila have been added.]
A recent week-long vacation took us to the Hawaiian Islands (October 26 to November 1). Having previously been to the island of Kauai at the old end of the island chain, we decided to try the island of Hawaii at the other, newer end. To prevent confusion with the state of Hawaii this is frequently referred to simply as the Big Island. I had my Panasonic FZ-200 camera along to document the trip.
On the last full day, I signed up for a Rainforest and Dryforest Birding Adventure tour — a day-long outing put on by a tour group called Hawaii Forest and Trail. They do many other tours too that are not just for birding. The rest of our group, for instance, went on the Mauna Kea Summit and Stars Adventure trip which takes you up to the volcano’s summit to watch a sunset.
Our trip set out in search of 2 specific target birds. In the dry forests on the side of Mauna Kea we would be looking for the Palila, a critically endangered species which lives in a single forested area on the volcano’s slopes. This forested area is the source of the māmane plant which the Palila has adapted to be able to eat and which is toxic to other birds.
In the second part of our excursion, we would travel to some wetter forests where we hoped to find different endemic, the ʻAkiapōlāʻau.
While we were, unfortunately, unable to track down the ʻAkiapōlāʻau, we were extremely successful with the Palila and the rest of this article describes that encounter.
First, a quick note and the Palila habitat on the slopes of Mauna Kea.
Mauna Kea is still considered to be an active, though dormant, volcano and even though it has not erupted in 4600 years there is still the slim possibility that a lava flow from a future eruption could wipe out this habitat leading to their extinction. While this might make for a good story in Hollywood, the reality is that there are much more dangerous risks that could well see the Palila gone from these slopes long before they are touched by lava. Forest fires, for instance could, in the right conditions, very quickly destroy the Palila habitat. Other threats include introduced species of plants, animals, insects and disease. The Hawaiian government’s Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project has lots of good information here. Finally, according to BirdLife International, the endangered status of the Palila in recent years is also related to rapid population declines as a result of drought that has affected its primary source of food, the māmane plant.
The plan was simple. We parked in an area accessed by a hunter access road on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea. The trip organizers allowed for up to 4 hours climbing the slopes to find and view the Palila after which time, win or lose, we would head for the second location.
Here is a picture taken near our parking spot and at the lower edge of the area expected to contain the Palila. Note the sparse trees on fairly open grassland.
Here is a second shot taken as we climbed a little further up the Mauna Kea slope.
According to the guide, on one recent trip they spent most of the allocated time hunting for the Palila and only found them as they were about to quit and move on. We got lucky and found one after about 15 minutes with another pair showing up shortly thereafter. In fact it appears that we had found a family unit with male, female and juvenile foraging together. The juvenile showed typical begging behaviour with fluttering wings and an adult was doing the foraging and feeding of the juvenile though regurgitation as described, for instance, in a Palila wikipedia article. This article says that both adults will regurgitate to feed the young in our case the male was feeding while the female stood guard, presumably looking for predators. If the wikipedia article is correct then perhaps they take turns feeding and guarding or perhaps the guarding behaviour only happens occasionally, for instance when a large number of two-legged, orange-vested homo sapiens are also foraging in the area.
If we only consider predators seen historically before the arrival of man on the islands the most likely candidates would probably have been the Hawaiian Short-eared Owl (Pueo) and the Hawaiian Hawk (ʻIo). It is not clear what threat we birders posed to the Palila though it was clearly not enough to drive them away. Whether or not the female would have stood guard where and when she did if we had not be there is unclear.
As mentioned earlier, introduced predators are currently one of the Palila’s biggest threats. These include feral cats and black rats (see for instance this article on the Palila from BirdLife International (birdlife.org). Mosquitos transmitting avian malaria have also proved very dangerous to the endemic populations of birds. They are also threatened by habitat degradation especially if it affects the growth and spreading of their primary food sources, the peas from the seed pods of the māmane plant and certain types of caterpillar. Introduced mammals such as sheep and pigs are particularly bad for disturbing the forest plants. Through hunting and fencing the threat of these has been reduced.
Our first sighting of a Palila was that of an adult male who was processing a māmane pod in the middle of a bush that provided the bird with some protection. The following 7 pictures, shown in the order that they were taken, cover a period of about 9 seconds. All of these pictures were cropped from the original size of 4000 x 3000 down to about 1200 x 800. The displayed images below are shown at a resolution of 640 x 400 though the full-sized cropped images can be viewed clicking on the image and following the link back to Flickr.
The following is a short video that was taken starting 10 seconds after the last picture (above) was taken. You can hear the group leader describing the bird to some of the birders that were just then discovering it for the first time. Initially you can see the Palila alternating between working on the māmane pod and raising it’s head up to check its surroundings.
You can also hear the Palila in between the periods where it is working on the māmane pod and also after it appears to be done having released the māmane pod. Perhaps these calls were communications to the other family members that would be showing up in the seconds that followed the video. There may even have been a specific message to the juvenile that he (the adult male) was full and that it was time to eat. This might also explain why he dropped the pod. It’s not clear why they moved to a different location for the feeding. Perhaps it was because of our presence or perhaps because it is generally safer to keep moving.
Unfortunately there is a half minute gap between this series of pictures and the next series with adult feeding juvenile. The only thing that I recall from this period is that the juvenile and adult female arrived to join the adult male and then the female left again.
The second set of 7 images were taken over a period of 13 seconds starting 63 seconds after the last picture in the first set or about 38 seconds after the end of the short video. As mentioned, in these 38 missing seconds the male moved to a different perch and a juvenile and an adult female flew in to join the adult male. Only the juvenile stayed to be fed by the adult male while the female flew off to, it appears, stand guard (see the third sighting section below).
The sequence between the adult male and the juvenile clearly shows the begging behaviour as well as the regurgitation and transfer of food from adult to juvenile.
The final image was taken 5 seconds after the previous one and shows the juvenile left alone and somewhat hidden in the foliage while the adult male had moved on, perhaps to start a new cycle of processing māmane pods prior to the next feeding cycle at which point he would call the juvenile to join him there.
The third set of 5 pictures were taken over a period of 24 seconds starting 18 seconds after the last image in the second set.
The adult female Palila, which made a brief appearance off camera took up a position 100 feet or so from where the other two birds were positioned. Her perch at the top of a bare branch gave her good visibility. She chose a bush that kept all of the birders, which had broken into several groups by this time, on one side of her, perhaps in order to be able to see all of them at once without continually having to look in opposite directions. As the photos show, she still does look away from time to time, perhaps scanning for other possible threats. As mentioned previously, the two historic threats where probably the Hawaiian Short-eared Owl (Pueo) and the Hawaiian Hawk (‘Io). At this point in our trip we had already seen 5 of these owls hunting (one near where we found the Palila) and we had one unconfirmed hawk sighting.
I was impressed by the fact that both adult Palilas were caring for what was clearly a juvenile bird. The splitting of the task of feeing the young was split into roles of foraging and standing guard. It would have been nice to know if they switched roles from time to time. Many species, particularly migratory ones, leave their young to fend for themselves at a much younger age or only one of the adults take responsibility for the young.
I acquired my Panasonic FZ-200 camera to help with bird identification but on several occasions it has proven useful in seeing behaviours that I would never have noticed using just binoculars. The ability to capture large numbers of pictures and even videos with sound provides the opportunity to analyze different aspects of bird sightings that happen too quickly in the field.
It would seem that my camera is rapidly replacing my binoculars as my primary birding equipment. Here are some things that I might change in the future that might lead to better results:
It was a fun way to get introduced to a new bird and, while it took a lot of time post-processing, it was definitely more satisfying than a brief sighting and a simple pencil mark on a checklist.
The Palila article on Wikipedia.
The Palila Status at BirdLife International (birdlife.org).
The Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project website from the Hawaiian state government has much more detailed and accurate information on current status and threats to the Palila.
The Facebook page for “A Paradise Lost”, an animated movie about the Palila directed by Laurie Sumiye.
Puzzlers were meant to be fun first and a challenge second. I realized that all of that decoding to get to the answer in the original Puzzler #7 – A Hawk by Any Other Name… may have discouraged some. So, here is a modified, more user friendly version of puzzler #7 with no decoding. Instead, I split the post into 2 pages with the answers in ungarbled English on page 2. So, without further ado, I present the new and improved puzzler #7.
In the table below there are some ‘old’ historical bird names for North American raptors that are no longer in common use and which you probably won’t find in modern bird books except perhaps as a historical aside.
In case you are not a bird nut, raptors include hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures and the like. You may have heard of some of these ‘old’ names and know what they refer to. I probably would have got 3 maybe 4 out of 10 had I had to solve this myself.
| OLD NAME |
| Marsh Hawk |
| Pigeon Hawk |
| Sparrow Hawk or Sparrowhawk |
| Chicken Hawk or Chickenhawk |
| Grouse Hawk |
| Goose Hawk |
| Duck Hawk |
| Fish Hawk |
| Squirrel Hawk or Squirrelhawk |
| Starling Hawk |
Note: My original puzzler #7 required a lot of decoding to get to the answers. I have posted a new and improved version that you might want to look at instead: Puzzler #7 (New and Improved): Rename that Hawk.
Here’s something a little different.
In the table below there are two columns. In the left column are some ‘old’ historical bird names that are no longer in common use and which you probably won’t find in modern bird books except perhaps as a historical aside. In the right column is the encoded answer based on the ROT13 cipher (see the Puzzlers Page for instructions). To prevent guessing by looking at the size of the answer I have added a few extra filler word to each answer.
You may have heard of some of these. I probably would have got 3 maybe 4 out of 10 had I had to solve this without the advantage of being the puzzler author. Feel free to post your scores but no spoilers please unless you use ROT13 to encode them.
| OLD NAME | ANSWER (ROT13 ENCODED) |
| Marsh Hawk | abegurea abgznefu uneevre |
| Pigeon Hawk | zreyva gur zntvpvna |
| Sparrow Hawk | grrafl nzrevpna xrfgery |
| Chicken Hawk | nalbs pbbcre funecvr erqgnvy unjxf |
| Grouse Hawk | abegurea yvtugf tbfunjx |
| Goose Hawk | xjnufbt aerugeba ernq onpxjneqf |
| Duck Hawk | ybbxfyvxr-ryivf crertevar snypba |
| Fish Hawk | juvgr-naq-oynpx bfcerl |
| Squirrel Hawk | sreehtvabhf Unjx benal ebhtu-yrttrq |
| Starling Hawk | abcrohg jbhyqag gungoravpr |
Here is the ROT13 table that might make decoding easier:
Puzzler Clue/Answer Decoder: find a coded letter in the table and replace it with the letter above or below it in the same column. For instance “Hello” becomes “Uryyb”. Numbers, punctuation and symbols don’t change.
PS: If you don’t feel like manually decoding each clue just go to www.rot13.com, copy the clue into the box and click the “Cypher” button.
uggc://jjj.gbjurr.arg/uvfgbel/nepunvp.ugzy
uggc://jjj.fragvaryfbhepr.pbz/bcvavba/pbyhzavfgf/fgnss/obfnx/n-unjx-ol-nal-bgure-anzr-znl-or-n-xrfgery/negvpyr_rs45138q-n734-5340-9758-5r7n9or4q2q7.ugzy
uggc://oveqabgr.bet/fubj/ubj-oveqf-anzrf-punatr
The city of Palm Springs lies nestled up against the northeast corner of the San Jacinto Mountains, the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges, a group of mountain ranges that extend along the coast as far as the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico.
Driving due South from Palm Springs along Palm Canyon Drive takes you into a pocket in the mountains that includes part of the tribal land for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. This area is referred to as the Indian Canyons that is accessible for a number of activities. Numerous trails of varying length and difficulty are available for hiking and for equestrian use. Some good trail maps can be found at this Indian Canyons web site.
At the end of Palm Canyon Drive are several parking lots and The Trading Post that is the starting point for several of the trails. If you want trail advice or just a souvenir, you find it at the Trading Post. And if, like me, you forget to bring a sun hat, they’ve got that covered as well.
For those who like to watch hummingbirds, they have several feeders which have been quite active the two times that we have been there. During this visit, most of the hummers that we saw were Costa’s though the odd Anna’s was seen as well. This was actually not a problem since, being from the Vancouver area, we see Anna’s Hummingbirds all the time so I was more interested in the Costa’s hummingbirds anyways. Because of the feeder locations, you can sit at one of the covered picnic tables to watch the hummers come and go.
The following two images show a male Costa’s with its lovely deep purple colouration on throat and head. Depending on the direction of the light, I have seen the colour go from black to a deep blue.
The hummers appear to be fairly used to the humans so you can approach to within a few feet of the feeders and get a good view without having them fly away. If you have a camera with a reasonable zoom capable of fast shutter speeds, you can get some pretty good pictures too.
The following sequence of pictures show 3 Costa’s hummingbirds, 1 male and 2 female, as they go after the nectar in one of the feeders. The sequence starts with 1 male and 1 female both perched with the second female arriving to join in. Both of the feeding hummers initially stopped feeding, I suppose to check out the new arrival.
In the next 3 images you can see the seated hummer apparently ‘chirping’ at the new arrival when it gets too close. This appears to be successful at keeping the new bird away. The male seems content to let the females sort things out.
The entire sequence lasted only a few seconds. The first 5 images (above) were taken over about 1 second using my camera’s burst mode which was set to take 5 pictures per second for a burst of up to 11 images.
Eventually the late arrival moves off and re-appears at an empty spot on the far side of the feeder. In fact, as this image was taken 6 seconds after the first 5, this could be a fourth hummer coming for a sip.
The next picture shows both a male Costa’s and a female Anna’s facing each other on opposite sides of the same feeder. You can clearly see the larger size of the Anna’s Hummingbird. Another difference between the species is visible. In the Anna’s, when perched, the tail extends noticeably past the wingtips whereas in the Costa’s the wingtips and tail end at roughly the same point.
An interesting observation that is clear in this image is that when the two hummers are perched face-to-face, it appears that the center of balance of both is outside of the perching ring. In effect they are leaning backwards using their grip to prevent them from falling off of the perch. Why wouldn’t they just sit with their centre of balance over the perch? One reason that I can think of is that this allows for a quick escape by, in effect, ‘falling’ off of the perch.
The staring contest ended with the Anna’s departure. Note that the Anna’s departure is low, below the feeder consistent with a “quick getaway by falling off the perch“.
The dynamics of hummingbirds competing for spots on a feeder is always entertaining. These birds move so quickly, however, that capturing the details would be all but impossible without a camera having a high-shutter speed, burst mode and a good optical zoom. A tripod would be useful though the above pictures were all taken with the camera hand-held. The built-in image stabilization no double helped create sharp images without a tripod.
The progress of camera technology is impressive. A few years ago, taking the above images would probably have required thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment. I took them all using a Panasonic DMC-FZ200 which currently goes for well under $1000.
We spent the past weekend on Saltspring Island. The front yard feeders where we were staying attracted a good crowd of birds about 90% of which were Dark-eyed Juncos. One particular bird was there most of the time and sported some discolouration on its head which I attribute to Leucism. The first two pictures are views from left and right showing that the discolouration is not symmetric.
The following view with the junco looking almost directly at the camera also clearly shows the left-right asymmetry.
There was also a small group of American Goldfinches that showed up occasionally. Some of them posed nicely for the camera too:
The back yard had some bird activity as well including a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, a Fox Sparrow and an American Robin.
This story was brought to my attention through a post on the BCVIBIRDS forum.
Earlier this month the Greater Sage-Grouse, now almost extirpated from Canada, was granted a first ever emergency protection order by the federal government. One direct effect of this order is that a number of existing and planned oil and gas projects will be either curtailed or preventing on some 1700 square kilometers of provincial and federal crown land in both Alberta and Saskatchewan.
While an important precedent for species protection, it is not clear that this order will be in time to save the Canadian populations of Sage-Grouse. The numbers in Canada are currently estimated at around 100 birds, down by as many as 25 from the year before.
In the US there is still a significant population but, at least in some areas, local populations are decreasing rapidly mostly due to habitat loss. The US government is considering listing the Greater Sage Grouse as endangered in both Nevada and California.
Nature Canada, Endangered Species, Species Spotlight: Greater Sage-Grouse.
Nature Canada, Newsroom, 2013-12-04: Nature conservation organizations across Canada applaud emergency order protecting endangered species, caution more action is neededNature conservation organizations across Canada applaud emergency order protecting endangered species, caution more action is needed.
gazette.gc.ca, 2013-12-04: Federal Government Gazette with original order.
Associated Press, foxnews.com, 2013-10-25: Feds propose listing sage grouse sub-population as threatened, angering energy developers.
Schroeder, M. A., J. R. Young and C. E. Braun. 1999. Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/425; doi:10.2173/bna.425
Bob Weber, globalnews.ca, 2013-12-04: Sage grouse protection plan released.
When I first looked at the picture, I thought that I had totally botched the shot. The bird that I had seen seconds earlier appeared to have disappeared. A careful inspection of the entire image confirmed that I had captured enough of the bird to make an ID.
Now its your turn to find and identify the bird.
(See Puzzlers Page for Instructions)
Clue #1: Gur oveq vf uvqqra va cynva fvtug.
Clue #2: Guvf cvpgher jnf gnxra ng gur Gfnjjnffra Sreel Qbpx va Oevgvfu Pbyhzovn, Pnanqn ba Whyl 20 bs guvf lrne.
Vg vf n Ehqql Gheafgbar naq vg vf “uvqvat” whfg nobir gur jngre yvar n yvggyr gb gur yrsg bs prager.
The fledgling bird in the following picture along with a sibling (not shown) and an adult (also not shown) were seen flitting around in some cottonwoods somewhere in Canada during the summer of 2013.
Your goal is to guess the species.
(See Puzzlers Page for Instructions on decoding clues)
Clue #1: Here is a recording of the begging calls (the continuous clicking sounds) made by the 2 young birds as they chased an adult bird through the cottonwoods.
Clue #2: Gur cvpgher jnf gnxra jvguva jnyxvat qvfgnapr bs bhe ubhfr va Pbdhvgynz, OP ba Pnanqn Qnl, 2013.
Clue #3: Lrf, vg vf n jneoyre.
The answer including a picture of all three birds can be found on the next page …
Kevin's Nature Blog 
