Twenty-one birders joined me today at the Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve in Dryden for the final group walk for this month’s 10th annual Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (SBQ).
Our best viewing, as expected, was along the power-line cut near the parking lot. Here we had long views of CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, INDIGO BUNTING, and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, plus glimpses of passing CEDAR WAXWINGS and CHIMNEY SWIFTS. (I had previously counted Chimney Swifts for my SBQ species tally only because I’ve seen them at the Land Trust’s office in downtown Ithaca. I’m glad to remove the asterisk.) In the woods, we saw only a few birds – a singing BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER at the top of a hemlock tree, barely visible through a gap in the canopy; a pair of DARK-EYED JUNCOS both with caterpillars in their bills, waiting for us to leave before returning to their nest; and a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER also at a nest. We did hear many other unseen birds – a few HERMIT THRUSHES, a couple of WOOD THRUSHES, several BLUE-HEADED VIREOS, one YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, many RED-EYED VIREOS, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, and others. I think that the vireos provided the month’s best lesson in the subtle distinctions in their songs. At one point, two Red-eyed Vireos conveniently sang at the same time as an American Robin too. Suan Yong found the sapsucker nest with his infrared camera. It was hugely fun to watch Suan using this device to find warm-blooded life in the shadowy woods. He even found a bee, stationary on a branch. I had previously thought of individual insects as strictly ectothermic, but some cursory web research indicates that I was quite wrong. Various insect species, especially bees, thermoregulate. They do not maintain a high temperature all the time, but can warm themselves up quickly when they need to. A bumblebee can warm up its body from an ambient air temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit up to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in just six minutes!! See Heinrich and Esch, American Scientist, Volume 82, page 164. And see also Suan’s very entertaining blog at http://infrared-birding.blogspot.com/. Many thanks to all who joined me on today’s walk and on all the field trips this month. I am always honored and energized by everyone’s efforts to attend. Collectively, I think we have had about 90 people come to SBQ events, or 135 if you count repeat participants each time. I still welcome pledges in support of my month-long species tally from Land Trust preserves (121 so far, with possibly some last-ditch solo birding to come tomorrow). Thanks to all who have pledged so far, and to everyone for your patience with my recurrent pitches on behalf of the Land Trust and the SBQ. Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
