Ring-necks

Ring-necks -- © Dave Spier

If you’re familiar with the male Ring-necked Pheasant (named for the white collar encircling its neck), you might think the Ring-necked Duck is similarly adorned. Well, talk about a misnamed bird, and this one fits. It actually has a chestnut-brown collar hidden between a dark neck and black breast on the male. It’s virtually impossible to see in the field, or should I say, on the pond. It was named by hunters and early ornithologists holding one in their hands. I mention early ornithologists because they collected birds for study at the end of a shotgun before binoculars were improved in the mid- to late-1800's.* This is how John James Audubon acquired specimens to serve as close-up models for his famous paintings in the 1820's. After shooting them, he’d pin the dead birds to a mounting board and position them to depict the desired pose or behavior. At the time, America’s natural resources seemed inexhaustible.

The Ring-necked Duck is actually a diver, but it is often found on small ponds during spring migration. It seems more at home with the likes of wigeon and other puddle ducks (also called dabblers). They are on their way to Canada where their breeding range corresponds roughly with the boreal forest. A map of the summer range shows the Ring-neck Duck extending down into Minnesota and eastward through the Great Lakes to the Adirondacks and northern New England.

Male ring-necks have a white ring around their blue-gray bills. Much of the male is dark with a white "shoulder" stripe between the light-gray flanks and black breast. In bright sunlight the head may have a purple sheen and often shows a crest at the back of the crown. Male Lesser Scaup are somewhat similar, with all blue-gray bills and dirty white sides.

Female ring-necks of course are drab with mostly brown tones. They have a faint white ring around the bill and white eye rings.

Questions and corrections may be sent to the Northeast Naturalist.  More information about other birds and birding in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and Finger Lakes region can be found on the Montezuma Birding Trail website http://montezumabirding.webs.com and the Eaton Birding Society website http://eatonbirds.webs.com/

*Although binoculars were invented in the late 1600's, soon after the telescope, they were low power and difficult to use because of a narrow field of view.   Higher-powered versions presented an upside-down image until 1854 when erecting prisms were added.

Blister Beetle

Blister Beetle, a.k.a. "oil beetle," Meloe sp., on moss

Blister Beetle -- © Dave Spier

Here’s an insect worth knowing if only to avoid touching it. This Blister Beetle (Meloe sp., first ID'd as possibly angusticollis, or Short-winged Blister Beetle) is a member of the Family Meloidae (which includes all blister beetles), sub-family Meloinae, and can exude a chemical from its leg joints that often causes blisters on human skin. Species in the subgenus Meloe are also known as "oil beetles." I moved this one out of the garden using a plastic plate for safety and then "hit" on the idea of photographing it against a contrasting, green, mossy background.

I didn’t take time to measure it (and didn’t have a handy ruler anyway), but it seemed to be slightly less than an inch long. My Audubon field guide lists the Short-winged Blister Beetle as 5/8 inch or less, but this one seemed larger. There’s more than one species, and there’s a difference in the size of the two sexes. Males often have a bend in the antennae about midway along the 11 segments and this one seems to fit that description. However, in other photos I've seen of them mating, the male is shorter, assuming "he" is the one on top. Females are larger. I've never seen more than one at a time, so comparisons in the field are a little difficult. I therefore assume the kink in the males' antennae is more pronounced.

I posted the photo on the Bug Guide site (https://bugguide.net/node/view/623283), and received an ID response as "probably Meloe dianella" from John D. Pinto at the University of California Riverside. (Registration for BugGuide.Net is free.)

This oil beetle is dark steel-blue and has a finely pitted surface. The front wings (called elytra) cover part of the abdomen, but there are no hind wings and the beetle is unable to fly.

Adults can be found wandering about in spring and fall. They eat the leaves of vegetables and weeds. (I came across one reference to hundreds of these beetles eating chives.) Their eggs are laid near wild bee nests and the beetle larvae become parasites of the bees. Given the decline of honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder, I’d say we need all the wild bees we can get.

If you have time to further research this insect, write to me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at the same e-mail or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. Edited 1/15/24.

Timberdoodles

American Woodcock at Assateague National Seashore - © Dave Spier

American Woodcock -- © Dave Spier

I am alive and well, but again seriously sidetracked by eBird... (continued below)

Given the recent warm weather in Upstate New York, it was no surprise that "spring" birds started arriving in winter (at least technically).  Okay, it really is calendar spring now and the birds are still arriving earlier than normal.

I'm not talking about all the robins.  Some of them spent the winter here if you knew where to look.  I'm talking about American Woodcocks (Scolopax minor), a type of shorebird that never sets foot on a beach.  Woodcocks are upland birds that prefer open, grassy patches where they can strut their stuff.  You'll seldom find them in the middle of the day, and if you do, they'll be silent.  After sunset and before sunrise are the best times to listen for their nasal "peenting" calls and their aerial courtship flights accompanied by fluttering wing-whistles.  What do I mean by "peeenting," a description often used in field guides?  I think it sounds more like a buzzy "jeeep," but don't take my word for it. Go to the website All About Birds (http:/www.allaboutbirds.org), type in "woodcock," select "American Woodcock" and then scroll down to "Typical Voice" on the left side and click the play icon (a triangle pointing right toward the slider).

Woodcocks have long, flexible bills designed to probe in soft earth for earthworms, their main dietary item.  Although the birds prefer grassy areas with open sky for courtship, they feed and nest in or next to damp, bottomland thickets, but not flooded swamps.  Cryptic feather patterns keep them extremely well camouflaged during the day, as you can see in the accompanying photo I took in February at Assateague National Seashore.  We unintentionally camped next to his courtship ground.  Every evening at dusk and early every morning we could hear him doing his thing.

On a related note, there are a number of woodcock reports on the Eaton Birding Club's Facebook page.  The club covers Wayne, Ontario, Seneca and Yates Counties in the Finger Lakes region of New York.  This is an open group and anyone can join for free, or simply check the page for sightings and upcoming events without actually joining.  I also encourage you to visit the club's website and become a supporting member which offers additional benefits.

For more information, or to ask a question, e-mail me.

I had many blog columns drafted for the winter, but, alas, my mind was preoccupied with entering eBird checklists.  It took me much of January just to finish entering my 2011 data.  I was simultaneously working on a project to enter data for other birders in the Blue Ridge region of southwestern Virginia.  When I was entering the remainder of my data from our February, 2011 trip to Charleston, SC, I noticed a serious lack of eBird data for Carroll County, VA, which we traverse on I-77.  Many of the weeks were totally devoid of reports, so I began contacting local birders and entering their data for them.  Following this year's February trip to Assateague (instead of Charleston), I've been busy keeping up with my own checklists.

Mourning Doves



Pair of Mourning Doves on the snow at the Montezuma Audubon Center

I call them "bobble-heads" because of the way their heads bob as they walk across the ground in search of seeds dropped by other birds from the hanging feeders. Small buffy head, large buff-colored body, darker gray-brown on the wings and back, dark spots on folded wings, long-pointed tail with white along the edges… They prefer to feed on the ground, usually in small flocks, but if there’s enough room they’ll land on a platform feeder. When they take off, the whistling of the wings is diagnostic. In the morning, flocks try to catch the early rays of sunlight by lining up on utility wires strung between poles along country roads. We are of course talking about Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura), named for their sorrowful cooing sometimes mistaken for the call of an owl.

Doves are the preferred prey of the Cooper’s Hawk, that long-tailed, short-winged, fast and maneuverable accipiter that visits our bird feeders.

The doves, related to domestic pigeons, are mainly vegetarian. You may see a flock picking up waste grain in a winter cornfield if there’s not much snow, but they also eat seeds from grasses and weeds. A few insects are fed to nestlings during the warm months. In late summer they eat the dark-purple, almost black, berries of pokeweed. Many doves head south to agricultural areas for the winter, and a few birds banded in New York have gone as far as the Gulf-coast states.

In early spring, watch for them to begin pairing up as they prepare for a long nesting season, and listen for their "song," a series of five coos with the second one rising and falling. Once they set up housekeeping, a skimpy handful of loose twigs barely qualifies as a nest and it looks like the eggs are in danger of falling through or rolling off. Mourning Doves nest repeatedly through the summer, and I’ve seen them sitting on eggs as late as October in New York. That particular nest, in one of our spruce trees, may have been the fourth brood of the year. It’s a good thing, because half the chicks don’t make it out of the nest; they fall victim to various predators, both avian and mammalian. Of the half that survive the nest and fledge, three-quarters don’t make it to their first birthday. Past that point, only 5% of the adults make it to five years old or beyond.

Mourning Doves were historically birds of the Southern states. They adapted to rural farmland where there was a combination of grain fields and watering holes or slow creeks to get a drink twice a day. During the 20th century the Mourning Dove population began expanding northward until it reached an estimated 10 million birds in New York State. They can live on the edge [called an ecotone] between woods and fields, but they are absent from large tracts of continuous forest. In the 1800’s Passenger Pigeons were the dominant bird in the forested Appalachians and north into New York, but that species was hunted to extinction.

The Mourning Dove is named for its sorrowful cooing, which is sometimes mistaken for the call of an owl. -- © Dave Spier

To get an idea of the Mourning Dove's range, visit eBird's "View and Explore Data" page, click on "Range and Point Maps" and type in "Mourning Dove" [or just click the link].  You'll notice there's a concentration of sightings across the South, the Great Plains and the Eastern United States.  Zoom in for detail.  The process works for any species anywhere in the world, but many areas like Asia and Africa and much of South America still lack data.

For more information, photos and sounds of the Mourning Dove, visit All About Birds.

In the Southern and Western States, you might encounter the similar Eurasian Collared-Dove. Check the eBird range map for this species if you have a question about your location.

Eurasian Collared-dove in Red Rock Park, New Mexico

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

Beaver Lake

One of the Eastern Gray Squirrels visiting the feeders at Beaver Lake Nature Center
 -- © Dave Spier

Beaver Lake -- © Dave Spier

Beaver Lake Nature Center west of Baldwinsville [Onondaga County, NY] is a favorite winter destination for several reasons. First, a long row of large picture windows overlook the feeders at the edge of a woodsy area. In addition to birds, there are the omnipresent Eastern Gray Squirrels, and you can view them from the comfort of a heated room. The second reason is a good system of trails for x-c skiers and snowshoers. For extended walks, there’s an easy, fairly-level, three-mile loop around Beaver Lake itself.  Boardwalks cross the swampy trail sections.

Boardwalks cross the wet trail sections -- © Dave Spier

Donna on the trail around Beaver Lake in December -- © Dave Spier

For more information on Beaver Lake Nature Center, including trail map, visit their website at Onondaga County Parks: http://onondagacountyparks.com/beaver-lake-nature-center/

A bench lets you take a break -- © Dave Spier

Questions can be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Beaver Lake from the loop trail -- © Dave Spier

White-throated Sparrows

I'd say this is an adult tan-morph White-throat based on The Sibley Guide to Birds, page 494.

White-throated Sparrows begin returning in October.  They spend the summer across much of Canada and the North Country, but for some of them, this is far enough south to endure the winter.  Many more go as far as the Gulf and Southern States.  A few western birds hug the Pacific coast in winter.

In the fall, it’s hard to find a good rendition of their song, likened to “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” (hence the nickname “Peabody-bird”).  Perhaps these are young birds, but they have until spring to get it right.  Of course if you’re a Canadian resident, they sing “pure sweet Canada-Canada-Canada.”  Up there it’s known as the Canada sparrow.

Likely a first-winter White-throated Sparrow in December (in an ornamental Serbian Blue Spruce) - © Dave Spier

As adults, this species comes in two genetically-based color races (a.k.a. forms, morphs, or phases) known as white and tan.  Adult "white-morph" birds have high-contrast black-and-white racing stripes on the crown, yellow lores (the area between the eye and bill) and bright-white throats.  The adult "tan" race or version has brown and tan (or beige) head stripes, dull-yellow lores and a dull-white or light gray throat.  The differences have nothing to do with age or gender or geographic distribution as I understand it.  Both types are found mixed in the same population, a situation biologists refer to as polymorphism, or “many forms.”  That said, after the fall molt, the variation is less pronounced in their winter plumage.  To confuse matters, first-winter White-throats resemble the tan race, with lower-contrast head markings and a more-pronounced lateral throat stripe, a.k.a. malar-edge stripe or simply malar stripe.  Many field guides describe "bird topography" with illustrations of various field marks and their names.  In The Sibley Guide (the large, nationwide version), it begins on page 15, with the White-throated Sparrow as the example on page 16.

There are also behavioral differences.  White-morph males are more aggressive while tan females are better care givers.  Tan males and white females fall in the middle.  Ninety percent of the time, one color phase mates with its opposite and it is believed this balances their behavior characteristics.  After the young fledge from the nest, the brood is divided into two groups and each parent cares for only half of the fledglings.

White-throated Sparrows often associate with Dark-eyed Juncos, another type of sparrow.  Both species are ground feeders and at my house they clean up the sunflower seed dropped by the goldfinches, chickadees and other birds above them.  (With sunflower seed getting so expensive [about $25 per 50-pound bag, up from $11 a few years ago], I’ve taken some old metal garbage cans that rusted through on the bottoms, turned them upside down and placed screened tray feeders on top to catch the falling seed.  It used to pile up on the ground faster than squirrels, chipmunks, doves and other ground feeders could clean it up, and then the seed would mold and I’ve have to throw it away.  The screened trays allow precipitation to drain through on milder days, and the birds have a second chance to eat the seed.)

On rare occasions, White-throated Sparrows and juncos have been known to mate and hybridize.  [Off topic, we saw a pure-white junco when we were in Shenandoah National Park early in October.  It was hanging out with other juncos and a flock of Chipping Sparrows on their way south.]

During the summer, White-throated Sparrows consume high-protein insects, but the rest of the year they switch to a vegetarian diet consisting mostly of fallen seeds.  In the wild, they find their food by scratching through dead leaves and grass.  They also eat the fruits of dogwoods, cedars and spicebush.  These native shrubs and trees are plentiful at the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC), but the sparrows have plenty of competition from thrushes and other berry-loving birds in the fall.  (The Audubon center also hosts a flock of American Tree Sparrows that over-winter in the walnut-grove thickets and brush piles.)   

White-throated Sparrows might be confused with White-crowned Sparrows which are also gray-breasted but lack the yellow lores and usually lack the white-throat.  In the fall, young white-crown’s resemble the color of tan-phase white-throat’s but have what I call a “butch-cut” or slight crest toward the back of the head.  Most of the white-crown’s are long-gone, having migrated farther south; they pass through about two weeks ahead of the white-throat’s.

A few White-throated Sparrows will stay here through the winter, but more return on their way north in the spring.  They stop for a few weeks in April and sing their characteristic song, well refined by then, before continuing north.

High-contrast, white-morph White-throated Sparrow in April with black and white "racing" stripes on the crown. - © Dave Spier

        Send corrections to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com  or find me on Facebook.

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