Scoters

 

Winter Visitors -- © Dave Spier

Having Lake Ontario along part of New York's northern border bestows certain wildlife advantages. A few deep water ducks, also referred to as "sea ducks," stop there for a winter vacation, rather than spending the energy on a longer flight to the Atlantic coast where many of their "friends" go. As cold as it may get, Lake Ontario’s influence moderates the local climate and keeps the shoreline milder than the duck's Canadian homeland.

 

White-winged Scoters, Melanitta fusca, cruise off shore and pull into the open water channels of several bays, including Sodus Point. One by one they dive under water, swim to the bottom and feed on mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects and a few plants that coat the rocks. Strong swimmers, they can dive to 40 feet. I don’t know if they eat zebra mussels, but the scoter's winter numbers are so low they’d have little impact even if they did.

 

This species also winters along the Pacific coast, based on the range map available at All About Birds. An interactive and zoomable range map is available on eBird. This version includes frequency data.

Male White-winged Scoters are black with a white "comma" or crescent under and behind the eye. When flying, they flash white wing patches (called speculums). At rest on the water, the white wing patches may be hidden or only show as a thin white line near the rear. The male’s bill is orange with a dark protuberance (knob) on top. Females are similar to males, but browner and have two lighter spots on the face and dark bills instead of orange. This species, the size of Mallards, is called the Velvet Scoter in Europe.

 

Two other slightly smaller species of scoters are rare in the Great Lakes. The Black Scoter male is all black with an orange bump on its bill, while the Surf Scoter male is all black with a multi-colored bill and two white patches, one on the forehead and a second on the nape (back of the head). The name scoter comes from their habit of scoting (scooting) through waves while feeding offshore.

Along Lake Ontario, White-winged Scoters can begin showing up in mid-October but many of these are gone by early November. They are probably passing through on the way to the seaboard. Our long-term winter residents arrive in December. By the end of March, these few scoters will be on their way back to the northern prairies and Western Canada, although a few migrants from the Atlantic coast may stop here again briefly in mid-April. Unlike Mallards which can jump into the air and fly, scoters need to get a running start across the water’s surface in order to get airborne. In migration, groups of scoters fly in long lines low over the water.

 

At one time White-winged Scoters nested across the width of Canada. Now they breed from Alaska to western Ontario province. The adult males leave the breeding grounds in July, while the females and young hang around for another three months. Are the males just self-centered and lazy, or do they reduce the competition for food by leaving early? Either way, look for them hanging around with the other winter ducks.

 

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northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist.

Flowering Rush

At first glance, the individual flowers resemble lilies, and that wouldn't be too far off. Lilies and Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus) are both monocots, meaning that their seeds sprout with one initial "seed-leaf" and not two like dicots. The flower heads of Flowering Rush resemble those of chives and onions which makes perfect sense because onions are really lilies. The clusters are in arrangements called umbels (think "umbrella"); all of the flower stems radiate fom a single point at the top of the main, cylindrical stalk. Queen Anne's Lace (Wild Carrot) flowers also grow in umbels, but that plant is a dicot with deeply-dissected, feather-veined leaves.

The leaves of Flowering Rush are narrow, long-pointed and sword-like with parallel leaf veins, again similar to chives and other dicots, but it's somewhat misleading because Flowering Rush is in a plant family of its own. (In fact it's the only genus and species in that family.) It's capable of growing to a height of five feet, under the right conditions, with leaves up to 40 inches long. Most of the time it grows more in the one to four-foot height range.

Flowering Rush is an alien growing on muddy shores along the St. Lawrence Seaway and it has spread to Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes and beyond. It's a Eurasian species brought here as an ornamental in the early 1900's, and it continues to spread from Vermont to Washington and adjacent Canada.

The flowers are rather attractive with three pink and white petals alternating with three smaller pink sepals. In the center are nine pink-and-white male stamens in a radial pattern around six magenta female pistils.

Like all invasive species, it competes with desirable native wetland species, and once started, Flowering Rush is hard to irradicate because the trailing rhizomes spread under the mud and pea-sized bulbils detach, disperse in the water and quickly germinate into new plants. Varieties of this plant growing in the east also produce seeds that can spread on water currents.

There are many desirable native substitutes for Flowering Rush, including Sweet-flag, Northern Blue-flag, Pickerelweed, Giant Bur-reed, Lake Sedge, and Hardstem Bulrush. Blue-flag and Pickerelweed are attractive personal favorites.

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Least "Mudpiper"

Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) at Montezuma N.W.R., NY on May 13 - © Dave Spier (#D045935)

What's in a name? Take the compound word "sandpiper." Sand refers to the beach where these shorebirds are often found. The Lake Ontario shoreline of New York quickly comes to mind. Piper refers to the sound made by some species, although it's more of a peep. There's a group of small sandpipers, all similar in appearance, collectively nicknamed "peeps," in reference to their voices. Among these, the smallest is the Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla. Not only is it the smallest to pass through New York, it is the smallest shorebird in the world.

Least Sandpipers begin showing up in New York's Finger Lakes Region in April, peak through May, then decline in June and early July as the last of the birds fly to the Canadian tundra to nest and breed. Early migrants that failed to nest begin returning in early July and this reverse flow continues to build through the summer, peaks in September and trails off to end abruptly before November. The eBird bar chart for Wayne and Seneca Counties (NY) will illustrate this - but you can create a chart for any state or county you choose.

Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) at Montezuma N.W.R., NY on May 18 - © Dave Spier (#D029504)

Most of our eastern birds seem to winter along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida, or across the Gulf coast south into Mexico and northern South America.  You can see the entire eBird range map for Least Sandpipers (or any species) on the Explore Data page.

Dark feathers with buffy or rusty edges give sandpipers a scaly appearance on the back and wings. The belly is usually white while the head, neck and chest are various shades of brown. The black bill, used to probe for food, is longer and thinner than the bills of songbirds. Most small sandpipers have black legs, but here is the one distinguishing feature of least's; their legs are yellowish or greenish-yellow.

Least "mudpiper" at Montezuma N.W.R., NY on May 18 - © Dave Spier (#D029488)

The length of a shorebird's bill determines its feeding style and diet. A very short bill, like that of a Semipalmated Plover, limits it to feeding on the surface. At the other extreme, very long bills like those of snipe, dowitchers and curlews, allow them to probe deeply into mud. Inbetween are most of the sandpipers which probe to a shallow depth and capture aquatic invertebrates like insects, small crustaceans, worms, and mollusks such as small clams and mussels. The Least Sandpiper prefers to feed on mudflats giving it the nickname "mud peep." Does that mean we should change its name to the least mudpiper?

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page or photo page or Linked-in. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.  For more information on the Finger Lakes region, visit ILovetheFingerLakes.com

The photo below is a migrating Least Sandpiper on the Lake Onatrio shore at Charlotte Beach (a.k.a. Ontario Beach Park), Rochester, NY on September 18 - © Dave Spier (#1148-13 scanned from a slide)

Cormorants

Cormorants – © Dave Spier

If you’re a fisherman, “cormorant” is likely a four-letter word.  I suppose there are a few people other than birders who love them, but most probably don’t care one way or the other.

Cormorants are large, dark birds that can be mistaken for geese when flying.  Young birds are pale underneath with an orange bill and face. When swimming, the bill is raised at an angle.  At close range, you can see the small hook on the bill tip.  Nicknamed the “sea-crow” along the coast and “water turkey” inland, the common Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auratus) gets its name from two tufts of feathers on the sides of the head just behind the eyes.  The feathers curl around and meet at the back, but they are often matted down and resemble a bump.

Cormorants are adept at both flying and diving.  Normally these activities require opposite adaptations, such as light-weight versus heavy.  The cormorant has evolved feathers that lack the waterproofing of other diving birds, so they become heavier underwater.  This allows them to submerge and catch fish, their primary diet, but once they’re done feeding, cormorants must find a perch to spread and dry their wings.  It’s common to see them sitting upright on a dock, piling or stump with their wings outstretched.  This is also the reason they must head south for the winter.  Florida and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are the Double-crested Cormorant’s only year-round range.

Cormorants are widespread across the continental United States with the heaviest concentrations on all the coasts plus the Great Plains, lower Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes.  Check eBird for a current range map.

In some areas their population growth has been explosive which can affect local fisheries and fish farms. Fishermen have blamed them for declines in musky, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Yellow and White Perch, and Walleye.  An old stomach-content survey of cormorants, done over a two-year period in all four seasons, showed the birds predominantly prey on small minnows, including shiners, flatheads and dace.  Directly ingesting game fish amounted to less than 5% of their diet, and that was limited to late summer.  That leaves the potential problem of reducing the bait supply, but in areas like west-central New York, where the water is either weedy or deep, the minnows have plenty of hiding cover.  It’s only along shorelines like the east end of Lake Ontario, where the water is shallow and relatively clear, that there is a real conflict.

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The Largest Gull

Adult Great Black-backed Gull (December) -- © Dave Spier

The Largest Gull

© Dave Spier

The world’s largest gull, the Great Black-backed (Larus marinus), is a coastal species of the Northeast.  It breeds in the Canadian Maritimes, migrates through New England and now winters from the lower Great Lakes to the mid-Atlantic coast.  When I started birding in the early 70’s, it was still an uncommon visitor to the Lake Ontario shoreline, but its range has expanded southward from the original North Atlantic stronghold.

As the name implies, the gull’s wings and back are sooty-colored (more like slate than pure black).  The underparts are pure white, but in the winter, the white head exhibits some dusky streaking.  The legs are light pink and the adult’s bill is yellow with a red spot toward the tip of the lower mandible.  Sailors nicknamed these birds “the coffin carriers.”

Immature Great Black-backed Gull (January) -- © Dave Spier

It takes four years for Great Black-back’s to reach adulthood.  Young birds have light-colored heads that are more of a pale brown.  Their bills are dark and massive.  Wings and backs are relatively dark with a fine checker-boarded pattern.  The feet may be pink, but the legs start out as a dark bluish-gray.  A light rump accents a dark tail band.  Over the next several years, they gradually morph into the high-contrast adult plumage.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull eating a fish; note passing Wood Duck (October) -- © Dave Spier

Gulls, by their nature, are scavengers.  Their natural diet is dead fish and their job in life is to keep the beaches and shorelines clean.  Most gulls stick to this formula, but the GBBG, by virtue of its size, has discovered that it can become a predator.  I discovered this aspect many years ago when I was driving down the east side of Seneca Lake and noticed a Black-back attacking a small duck.  The victim was a female goldeneye that kept diving to escape, but every time it re-surfaced the gull would peck away at the bloodied duck.  As I recall, the goldeneye finally got away, or else the gull just gave up the struggle and went elsewhere for easier pickin’s.  In the “modern” world, easier often means garbage.  Depending on the season, they also eat fish, invertebrates (including insects), small mammals, eggs and carrion.  Given the opportunity, they will steal food from other gulls.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull eating a fish on the Erie Canal (February) -- © Dave Spier

In the late 1800’s, before protection was enacted, Black-backs were hunted to collect their feathers to supply the women’s hat industry.  The result was a population crash.  In the long run, their numbers have rebounded and continue to rise as their range expands southward.  This has become a new problem along the Atlantic coast where the gulls prey on colonies of terns and puffins.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull at Montezuma N.W.R. (October) -- © Dave Spier

          Corrections and questions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com  For more information about Finger Lakes birds and birding, visit the websites http://montezumabirding.webs.com and http://eatonbirds.webs.com

Ring-billed Gulls -- © Dave Spier

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November] © Dave Spier

Gulls are commemorated by a statue in Salt Lake City for saving the day when they ate the insects plaguing early Mormons in Utah.  Less dramatic are the local flocks of gulls that follow plowing tractors to feast on fleeing insects and (I suspect) mice and other small creatures like earthworms.  Gulls’ diets benefit in other ways from human activity.  To see this, just visit a landfill (unless they have trained falcons to patrol the skies).  The gull’s natural role in nature is being a scavenger cleaning the beaches of dead fish, but in reality these birds are omnivorous.

There are three gull species likely to be found in the Finger Lakes region and Lake Ontario during the winter.  Of these, the smallest and probably most numerous is the Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), sometimes nicknamed the “parking lot” gull.  It’s the one most adapted to life inland away from the sea.  It’s named for the black ring near the tip of the adult’s yellow bill.  Young ring-bills have a pink or flesh-colored bill with a black tip and we’ll discuss other differences.

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November] © Dave Spier

Ring-bills require three years to reach maturity.  First-winter birds resemble very dirty adults with dark bars beside the chest, dark streaky heads, spotty sides, mottled brown areas on the wings and a black band across the end of the tail.  The legs are pinkish, unlike the adults yellow legs, but the backs are starting to turn gray.  Second-winter birds are much more adult-like overall.  In addition, legs become pale grayish-green or yellowish and the dark band at the end of the tail becomes broken and thinner.  By the third winter, the gray mantle extends across the back and upper wings -- except for the ever-present black wing tips.  The tail is now all white.  After the first winter, all non-breeding gulls show a little brown on the back of the head.  After adults molt to spring breeding plumage, this brown tinge disappears and a red orbital ring becomes more prominent around the pale eye.  Adults show a white spot at the end of sharply-contrasting black wingtips.

Adult Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November]
© Dave Spier

The natural range of the Ring-billed Gull is transcontinental from the Canadian Maritimes to the Pacific Northwest.  Most of these birds travel to the southern states and coastal areas in winter, but the Lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley are mild enough with open water to hold a sizeable population throughout the year.  Ringbills seem to be born with a magnetic sensitivity that would take them in the right direction for fall migration.

Mixed-age Ring-billed Gulls at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario, NY [November] First-fall juveniles bottom center and lower left, 2nd-fall juvenile at right [based on The Sibley Guide to Birds]  - © Dave Spier

Ringbills prefer to nest on islands away from predators, and they will return to the same nest sites year after year if conditions permit.  This behavior is called site fidelity.  They nest in colonies limited only by the size of available habitat.  Given how common and widespread the species is now, it’s hard to imagine that they were once extirpated from parts of their range as a result of hunting for the millinery (hat) trade in the 1800’s.  Their breeding range is again expanding.

Many of these birds also return to the same wintering locations year after year.  If it worked once, it’s likely to work again in terms of finding food and shelter.

Occasionally a few Bonaparte’s Gulls will spend the winter along Lake Ontario.  This fourth species is smaller than the ringbill, has pink legs, a thin black bill and sports a dark “ear” spot behind the eye.  During spring and summer, adult Bonaparte’s have a black head.

As time permits, I’ll talk about the two larger common gulls.
Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com