Unconditional love?

Unconditional love or parasitism, you decide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism

As a kid my father and I watched every nature show that was on TV. My father thought Marlin Perkins was a god. He did not think that Marlin's sidekick Jim was very bright. Jim had a tendency to jump on and wrestling every animal he came cross. Anyway, one of the animal shows that captured my imagination as a kid was one that showed the European Cuckoo and how it laid it's eggs in the nests of other birds and never participated in the rearing of their own young. It seemed so exotic, bizarre and far away.

As my experiences with birding expanded over the years I learned of the Brown Headed Cowbird found in the western states of the U.S.A. It has a similar method of leaving it's eggs in the nests of birds of other species to have them raise their offspring. When I moved to Western Washington I found Brown Headed Cowbirds lived here. So began my quest to get a picture of a Brown Headed Cowbird being fed by a host parent.

That was in 1976. Since then I have seen this young Cowbirds being fed by host birds twice but could not get any pictures of it. There is a very short period of time in each birds life where it follows it's parents around begging for food.

Let's shift back in time a couple months from today, a small nondescript Female Common Yellow Throat search the thick cattails of a backwater pond for a perfect nest location. She began to built her beautifully woven nest among the cattails keeping it high enough above the water line to prevent flooding if it rained and low enough to evade prying eyes.

Little did she know she failed. High above a dull colored silent female Brown headed Cowbird watched with infinite patience. She watched every move of the Yellow Throat to and from the nest location and even knew when the Yellow Throat had started laying her eggs. The Cowbird's timing was perfect, she had a narrow time frame between the start of the Yellow Throat's egg laying and the beginning of her incubation period after which there would be no chance to approach the nest undetected.

Evolution had given her an edge, her eggs are generic enough in color and size compared to a variety of possible host birds eggs so her opportunities to find a suitable nest to violate were greatly enhanced. Birds species that fall into the Cowbirds possible "victim" criteria are not always fooled by this slightly larger and slightly differently colored egg. Suspicious or older birds that had experienced this event prior would abandon the nest or build a new one on top of the intrusive egg as well as their own eggs in the nest. By doing this the hosts clutch of eggs are sacrificed.

Given that a Female Brown headed Cowbird will watch several to dozens of nests each breeding season, she and each of her equals find enough opportunities to keep their kinds numbers strong. The tragic down side of this form of parasitic nesting is that for each juvenile Cowbird egg that is discovered or hatches, two to six baby birds of the host are lost.

Yesterday my luck changed. I went of a short walk in the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. It was overcast and muggy. As I was heading out I heard the begging cries of a young bird in a dense patch of cattails. I waited a few minutes hoping that it would eventually move into the open. Finally when it did expose it's self I thought it was a young Red Winged Blackbird by shape and color but that quickly changed when a few seconds later a Male Common Yellow Throat flew out of the cattails with a bug and taunted the young begging bird. I knew instantly I had found what I had been looking for all these years. I took a series of forty to fifty pictures. Low light and distance prevented the quality I had hoped for but that is how it goes.

Here a male Common Yellow Throat flies out of the thick cattails calling to the young Brown Headed Cowbird.

Out comes the Cowbird fledgling.

The Male Common Yellow Throat would catch insects and then lead the young Cowbird around in circles making it take to wing in an effort to be fed.

The young Cowbird's size is an indicator of how daunting the task of feeding it is.


First up high then down low to the Duckweed covered surface of the pond.

The needs of the one young Cowbird must equal or exceed the needs of the Yellow Throat's own young if they had survived to this point. The Cowbird is relentless in it's need for food.

So is the Cowbird a parasite or just smarter then the rest of the birds in it's ecosystem? Does the Common Yellow Throat know it is being used and willingly going along with it?

Is the urge to feed a young bird so strong that the Yellow Throat is blind to what is going on?


In a few weeks the young Cowbird will fly off and find a flock of others of it's own kind. Some will have been raised by Common Yellow Throats and many others will have been raised by a variety of other bird species. How do all of the young Cowbirds figure out that the are Cowbirds and not what their host parents were? How can they recognize their own kind without ever seeing them? How do they learn their songs to attract a mate to continue this cycle. There are a number of theories as there always are when the answer is as elusive as this.

Human observers tend to see the Cowbirds as a scourge of the bird community that causes the deaths of thousands of young song birds across the cowbirds range each breeding season.
You will have to decide for yourself. The system has worked like this for thousands of years and should continue for thousands of years after we are gone.

It is only when we and our ways tip the balance through the things we do that the Cowbirds actions make a greater difference.

All in a day

Yesterday was Thursday and I had planned on taking some time to go to the local wildlife refuge to look for young birds. It just did not work out like that. The meeting I had been scheduled for started two hours late and the cloud cover never burned off as forecast had promised. The day got busy and I never made it.

This morning the weather was at sunrise was spectacular. The kind of start to the day you long for during the gray of winter. The air was filled with the sounds of the usual morning birds with the additional cries of young Cedar Waxwings. I have been hearing the "noise" for the past few days and seen the ghostly images as they chase their parents high in the trees. The sun cooperated and I was able to get this picture.

A young Waxwing refuses to take to wing and follow it's parent. After dozens of attempts to get the young bird to fly a passing Crow spooked the the youngster and it dropped straight down out of sight.


On the other side of the yard this Robin was trying to coax it's young out of the nest with a big mouthful of juicy worms.

Here the local Male Anna's hummingbird lords over his domain.

Here is one of his offspring that recently fledged.

With the chores of the morning done it was time for a mid-day treat and we were off to the beach. We live near the Fort Lewis Army base here in Washington state. Ft. Lewis has a small saltwater access on the Puget Sound and it is called Tsolo Point. A steep and curved road leads down to this seemingly ugly scrape of gravel at the waters edge but it is one of the best kept secrets on the base. I have been coming here for about thirty years now and it never fails to provide something new.

The tide was coming it and the dogs were dieing to to get into the water.

No holding back.


Tsolo Point is a just North of the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge and there is an uninterrupted shore line from there up to the gravel loading dock at it's South boundary. This is a rich wildlife focal point with Keatron Island as an off shore obstacle to the flow of the tide which forces fish and sea life come closer to the shore. The waters of the South Puget Sound are in excess of six hundred feet leaving only the narrow bands along the shoreline where food is accessible. In the 1980's a group of Boy Scouts worked on a project where they made an artificial reef out of use tires tied together and sunk just off the shore. This created a safe haven for the lower end of the food chain and a magnet for the upper end.

The area is a complex mix of rocky, muddy and sandy beach so there is something for everyone who lives here. A number of crab species are found here.

Sand dollars breed here.


The area is rich in bird life. This is the first digital photo of a Pigeon Guillemot I have taken and it was an unexpected sighting . This is the breeding plumage of the Pigeon Guillemot.

As the dogs played in the water and extra "dog" appeared just behind them out in deeper water.
This is a Harbor Seal, the dogs splashing in the water drew it in fairly close to see what was going on. Typically when you see a seal there are more around. They are shy and sneaky, but will sometimes come surprisingly close. They are usually around long before you notice them. When Sea Lions show up the Harbor Seals disappear.

As I lowered the camera from my eye after taking the seals picture, off to my left I saw an large dark object moving fast toward the water. I turned and took this series of pictures. The first is out of focus due to the camera's auto focus hunting for the image.

I could not tell what kind of fish it was but then again I am not going to eat it.

Everyone wants a free lunch! This Crow was in hot pursuit but never had a chance to catch up.


Here is a non wildlife view. In the distance to the North are the Tacoma Narrows, home of the famous "Galloping' Gertie" bridge that collapsed shortly after being opened back in November of 1940. In the foreground is the newest bridge that was recently opened next to Gertie's replacement. There is no charge to cross the older bridge but there is a toll to cross the new one on the way back.
The structure to the left is the Steilacoom Marine. The marina has fallen to disrepair over the years after the owner was tragically killed during a botched robbery.

As to the canoe, I have canoed on the Puget Sound in the past. I doubt if I will EVER do it again. Tides are deceptive and dangerous and the water temperature here is cold. So cold it can kill in as little as fifteen minutes in the winter but during the summer it is much safer, about twenty minutes. The cold water take it's toll on the dogs play time so frequent beach runs are needed.


The net result was cold, tired and happy pit bulls as well as a happy photographer!

Black Capped Chickadee nest box, 2009

This past winter I spent many hours watching the birds in the yard. With these yard birds I had time to look for characteristics that might help me tell individuals apart. Rarely I can find one or two birds in a particular species with something identifiable enough to follow. Some are easy, this winter snows force three Fox Sparrows in to the yard. Each was unique enough to tell apart but they as well as the Varied Thrushes were seasonal. The resident birds like the Bushtits and Dark-eyed Juncos form flocks during the winter then split off into pairs in the spring to make secretive nest in thick cover. The Spotted Towhees and Song Sparrows can be told apart to a degree but then they are very secretive all year long.

Fox Sparrow


Male Varied Thrush

Male Bushtit


Male Dark-eyed Junco


Male Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow


I made four Chickadee bird houses during the winter and placed them in the yard around Mid-April.

http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/guides/nestbox/housewren.asp

From observations I thought I could get two pairs of Black Capped Chickadees to nest. I was not sure of how the winter resident birds were going to divide the yard territory wise. I drew my own line through the yard trying to think like a Chickadee looking for a place to nest and put two boxes in each zone. I selected locations that offered what Chickadees prefer. Four to ten feet above ground, clear approach and exit avenues. Weather protection, near by cover to hide in and watch for predators. Water and areas to forage for food. The most important variable in the box placement was if I could get good camera angles and lighting in order to take photographs. I put the birds where I could get the best chance for the best photos.Chickadees are easy when it comes to that. I had hoped to pull in a House or Bewick’s Wren pair but that would have been too good to be true.

Two weeks after I put up the boxes I went filled them white pine shavings I bought for the chickens bedding. I found one of the boxes already had a fully formed nest and another had roughly one half of an inch of green moss in the box. Both locations were the ones I had hoped they would use. I had a security camera I bought at Harbor Freight on sale for $20 a few years ago. It works on 115 VAC and connects to a VCR with a 25' lead. It can see in the dark with it’s internal infrared LED’s and is one and a quarter inches in Diameter. The best thing about it is that is has a self adjusting focus and can focus down to within a couple inches. I grabbed a battery operated drill and a bit and watched over the selected box and waited for the birds to show me their routine. In less then twenty minute I have the pattern figured out, hole drilled, camera installed and watching the female put the finishing touches on her nest from the 27" TV in our spare bedroom. Four days later she started laying eggs. Eggs that were smaller than jelly beans in the nest were the size of duck eggs on the TV. Momma Chickadee never knew what was going on.

The behavior around the box changed when the first egg was laid. A week later the same behavior change happened at the second box. Both boxes were successful and I would like to share with you both of their stories. This is the photo story of box number two. My next installment will be the story of box number one. Make sense? I never implied it would.

Part Two
Box Number Two


Here is a tell tale sign that some one is nesting.


Oops, I got caught.


Here is the nest about one week before egg laying. The bottom layer is the saw dust from making the box. I used clear Western Ceder with no preservatives, stain or paint. I put a "face" of older weathered Cedar on the front of the box to make them look older and more inviting. The green layer is fresh moss and the top white-gray layer is a combination of plant fluff, fibers, tiny downy feathers and spider webs.

We need to talk about how I took these pictures. Taking a picture of a tiny bird around while it is rocketing around in the forest takes a bit of forethought. I used a tripod that I left in place for two weeks before I started to take pictures. It takes a day for a Chickadee to lay an egg. Four eggs, four days six eggs, six days. The hen incubates from the start and in 12-14 days the chicks start to hatch, one a day in the order they were laid. This works well for photos because the birds can become accustom to the tripod and myself while the hen sits and when the chicks need to be fed the adults are accustom to myself and the camera being there.

So how do you "hit" a moving target? Meet my little birding friend.


It is a small hand carved Basswood Chickadee. I carved it back in the late eighties. I drew a series of black lines evenly spaced following the curves of the body. This is invaluable in focusing and adjusting to natural lighting or the flash. It gives me a target to aim at when there is nothing there. It also gives me a perspective of the back ground and overall composition of the photo. It also allows me to take a digital picture and make corrections before I waste time and unnecessarily stressed the Chickadees by taking pictures that are out of focus. Once I have everything set up I make sure the camera is set to manual focus to prevent any changes. Years ago I tried this with a 35mm camera, all I got were rolls of blurry useless pictures.
Less then a minute after the picture above was taken the owner hit the hole.

Here are some of the roughly 225 digital pictures I took over a three week period. Click on the photos to enlarge them and take note of all of the different kinds of worms and insects they brought back to the nest. I did not crop this group of pictures so you can see the full field of view the camera had. I was able to identify the sex of this pair by observation, trust me. See if you start to notice the differences between them.

Male

Male

Female

Male

?

?

Female

Female

Female

Female

Male

Female


Now, the chicks have hatched. When the adults bring food to the nest the chicks beg wildly to be fed, the luck one to get it's morsel then bends over to expose it's tail to the adult. The adult stimulates the chicks but and the chick expels a "fecal sac". This is a neat membrane encased waste capsule that is either eaten by the adult or removed from the nest and dropped some distance away from the nest. This keeps the nest clean, odor free and difficult for predators to locate. A "better" look

When the adults approached the nest I could see them coming for quite a ways. Sometimes they would linger outside the box softly calling to the box while keeping an eye myself or the camera. When it came time to capture the exit photos I had to react in a split second. The instant I saw the head appear int he hole I would hit the remote camera release. In the fraction of a second the exiting bird could cover from two inches to three feet. A lot of hit and miss doing this.


Here is a great example of doing it wrong. When the camera is at the side of the nest I have a focal plane that does not change. This picture was set up at an angle and the bird got past my optimum focal point and is out of focus. Anouther point is that the camera is limited to the fastest shutter speed uner it's internal flash is 1/200th of a second. I just inches the bird could accelerate to fast the camera could not freeze the image. This is something that can be seen often in my pictures. I am the type of person that wants to prefect my tequniue before I dumps buckets of money into equipment. I need to justify in incremental steps.