Tag Archives: nature

Reconnecting with the Common – A Celebration of Mallards

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Mallard Duck by Tim Lintz

Mallards, A Reintroduction

Although common in our state, the Mallard Duck male is anything but common in appearance. He is eye-catching with his bold green head, bright yellow bill and equally bright orange legs. He also has a splash of iridescent blue in the wings (on the speculum). By comparison, the female is plain in coloration. This helps her stay concealed for safety during nesting.

My granddaughter, Isabelle, has helped me see Mallards in a re-energized light. She’s so captivated, she’s drawn and written poetry about them. I am grateful these ducks are so common. This makes it easy for her to observe them in the fresh water ponds near her house.

A Poem & Drawing by Isabelle

The Mallard is a dabbling duck, meaning it does not typically dive for food. Instead, Mallards tip end-up and uses their beaks to grab plant food. They will also eat insects, mollusks and crustaceans. Mallards dive for food when needed, although their bodies are not built for this. Their legs are positioned in the middle of their body, which is not ideal for diving. Diving ducks, on the other hand, dive freely with legs near the back of their body.

Fun Facts About Mallards

Migrating Mallards can fly 55 miles per hour!

The “quack” you hear is from the female, as the male gives a quieter, raspy sound.

At the end of breeding season, Mallards lose their flight feathers and cannot fly for 3 to 4 weeks. During this time, they gather in groups in sheltered places as their feathers regenerate. Their body feathers molt during this time into a less striking plumage called “eclipse” plumage.

Many hunters target Mallards for sport. It was hunters who discovered the oldest known Mallard. The bird had been banded in Louisiana in 1981 and was shot in Arkansas in 2008, making it at least 27 years old.

A Place in the Ecosystem

Mallards play an important role in creating habitat. In a recent article published by Audubon, a scientist revealed his discovery of their eating habits after tracking their movements. As the article states, Mallards use the landscape as one big buffet. They will eat plants in one place and as they travel throughout the day, they excrete these seeds into areas sometimes as far away as five miles. This creates habitat, maintaining existing patches of healthy plant communities and creating new habitats. Read the full article here https://www.audubon.org/news/mallards-are-everywhere-and-thats-great-wetlands

Enjoy these ducks as much as Isabelle does, as they return to Michigan from their wintering grounds in the months to come.

 

Rosann Kovalcik, Owner

Wild Birds Unlimited, Grosse Pointe Woods

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Cedar Waxwings

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Cedar Waxwings – An Introduction

How fabulous-looking are Cedar Waxwings? The plumage appears soft and perfectly groomed. The facial mask is so striking. The wings have tips that appear as if they have been dipped in bright red wax. The bird has an elegant look, its tail edged in yellow, its head topped with a feathery crest. Winter is a great time to look for these birds as they eat fruit. You’ll find them travelling in flocks, often congregating near trees with berries.

My most recent experience with Cedar Waxwings was at Ira Township Park in New Baltimore. A group of 45 of them attracted my attention, sitting in the sunshine at the tops of trees. They flew down a few at a time to an area behind tangled vines where a creek could be accessed. Daintily dipping their beaks, some drank from the running stream while others stood sentinel above. Such a peaceful sight made the winter walk so rewarding.

Cedar Waxwings are known to pass fruit back and forth. This can be a courtship ritual or bonding between a mated pair. Many times it is not just one bird that passes the fruit. Rather, two birds may pass back and forth until one bird finally eats the berry, typically the female.

On a Personal Note…

The Cedar Waxwing was a prominent bird in the book “Mystery on Mackinaw Island”. The librarian in this story had a stuffed Cedar Waxwing and used it as a signal to let the main character, a young boy, know she needed to see him. The dead bird had been found by him outside of the library when he was nine years old and he gave it to her. The book was a page turner for me – how couldn’t I love a book where the main character aspired to become “a real Bird Man”.

The book came to my attention when I spoke with Kathy Schmitz, a teacher at Kerby Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Farms. Her class was reading the book and she discovered the Cedar Waxwing was our bird of the month for our coloring contest! I look forward to seeing the masterpieces from these children. I hope they feel more deeply connected to the story and the main character as a result of this artistic enterprise.

Thinking Bigger

What can you do to become more engaged and attuned to Cedar Waxwings? Give serious consideration to planting fruiting trees for these beauties. They can subsist for months on a diet of fruit alone. Cornell Laboratory suggests juniper, mountain ash, crabapple and hawthorn as well as their namesake cedars for winter fruit. In summer, serviceberry, strawberry, mulberry, raspberries and dogwoods all provide a good food source. Envision your yard as a place to welcome these lovelies, as you make your planting plans. Get outside and search for berries, and you may be rewarded with some sights similar to these fabulous photographs, compliments of Roberto Viguilla and Marie Read.

Winter Tree Birds

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After spring and summer, the majority of birds in Michigan leave for the south. Their instincts pull them to return to wherever they have a full diet of insects and fruits. Those winter birds that stay for the colder months are marvels at finding food. What can they possibly eat? How do they find food?

Black-capped Chickadee

Chickadees: The Flock Masters

Whenever I hear the calls of Chickadees in winter, their “dee dees” catching my attention, I know to look for them if I want to locate other winter birds. The Chickadees are what I call the “Flock Masters”. Very hardy and inquisitive, they are usually the first to locate a food source, whether natural foods or those found at feeders. Other birds are keen to the Chickadees’ ability to find food.

Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches and Brown Creepers make up the companion group that follow Black-capped Chickadees as they forage for food. Even those birds that come to our feeders for sunflower, suet and peanuts will continue to forage for natural foods. They eat what protein they can find, including insect eggs and cocoons, in addition to the insects hidden within the trees. They perform a great service as they keep our trees healthy and strong.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Working on the tiny twigs of the trees is the smallest of the team, the Black-capped Chickadee. The ability to hang upside down and investigate with their sharp eyesight and small, probing beaks enables them to find the eggs and hiding insects on the smallest of twigs.

 

Tufted Titmice: The Cousins

The Tufted Titmouse, a cousin to the Black-capped Chickadee, is a little larger and can focus its energy on the larger twigs. They work more slowly and usually move around in mated pairs. Their comparatively louder calls ring out clearly in the winter time, as “Peter, Peter” or “Cheer, Cheer, Cheer.” Titmice are also adept at hanging on to branches in an acrobatic manner. Sometimes when they are very intent on their food gathering, their head crest will remain down. At other times, the feathers of their crest become erect as a warning. Perhaps they feel a hawk is in the area or a squirrel is getting too close to their food source and they do not want to share.

Tufted Titmouse (Photo by John Graffius)

Downy Woodpeckers: The Listeners

The Downy Woodpecker is an even larger bird in the team of Winter Tree Birds. They work on the limbs and larger branches of the tree. Not only do they look for insects, eggs and cocoons on the branches of the trees, they listen for the sound of insects moving inside the trees. This is why you may watch a Downy Woodpecker clinging to the side of the tree, moving its head from side to side – it is listening for the insects. Once it locates them, it uses its small beak to chisel a hole and extract the insects inside. A woodpecker has special tools for this function, a barbed tongue with sticky saliva that is excellent for extracting the insects it finds.

Downy Woodpecker

Nuthatches & Creepers: The Bark Bandits

The deep cracks in the bark of some trees are a perfect place to find cocoons, insects, and eggs, sheltered from rain and snow. This is where the White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown Creeper are very adept – their beaks well-suited to the job. White-breasted Nuthatches have a thin dagger-like bill that is slightly upturned on the bottom edge to create an angle, perfect for the type of feeding it does. When seeking food, the Nuthatch travels upside down and from top to bottom on the tree trunks. This allows them to find the food the right-side-up birds do not see.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Brown Creeper, who can be identified by its behaviors. Flying from one tree to another, the Brown Creeper lands at the base of the tree and work its way up, searching along the bark for food, and circling the tree as it climbs. Its long, needle-like bill allows for deep probing within the nooks and crannies of trees. This bird eats only insects in the winter – an admirable accomplishment.

Brown Creeper (Photo by Jerry Jourdan)

Brown Creeper

The Black-capped Chickadee takes care of the tiny twigs, the Tufted Titmouse gleans from the larger twigs, the Downy Woodpecker from limbs and branches and the White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown Creeper take from the trunks and larger branches of the trees, travelling in opposite directions. By working as a team, these five species of birds help to keep our trees healthy and strong.

Enjoy your birds!!

Rosann Kovalcik, Owner

Wild Birds Unlimited, Grosse Pointe Woods

 

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Bird Spotlight: Long-eared Owl

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Long-eared Owl (Photo by John Graffius)

An Owl Appears

I can still hear the excitement in my friend Debbie Graffius’ voice as she explained what she was seeing. She was looking in her yard at a large owl with ear tufts. She knew enough to know it was not a Great-horned Owl.

At this point, I grabbed my binoculars, as there was only one answer. I quickly headed to her house in the north part of Grosse Pointe Woods (not far from Lake Shore). Sure enough, perched on a limb open to the sun, yet protected by surrounding evergreens, was a Long-eared Owl. When Debbie’s husband John returned home, his photography skills came into play. Some excellent shots of this comfortably roosting owl resulted.

A Little Bit of Background…

We spotted this bird on March 29th of 2013. We don’t often see Long-eared Owls in our area. The only other time I am aware of was in April 2004, when Tufted Titmice in my yard began to scold. This led to an investigation on my part. Sure enough, a Long-eared Owl was in the evergreens in my 75 x 150 Grosse Pointe Woods yard. This is a great testimony to the need for evergreens as shelter. The bird did not budge during the daylight. Mike Florian, my good buddy and President of the Grosse Pointe Camera Club, was able to get some great photo opportunities that day.

This behavior is typical of Long-eared Owls do. They roost during the day in dense evergreens, typically near field edges. When trying to conceal themselves, Long-eared Owls sit erect, tightening their body feathers,“ear” tufts sticking straight up. One of the most interesting facts I have read about these owls is how they use the same distraction technique as that of Killdeer. When luring predators away from the nest, both the owl and the killdeer often feign a broken wing as they drag themselves along the ground.

Long-eared Owl (Photo by Mike Florian)

Bird Stats

The wingspan-to-body-length ratio of this bird is quite amazing; head to toe it is only 13 – 16 inches tall, with a wingspan tripling that at 39 inches! For a bird this size, it is amazing they weigh only 8 ounces to 1 pound.

To raise their young, Long-eared Owls use the abandoned nests of hawks and crows. These are usually 20 feet or more above ground. They lay between 2 – 10 eggs, with an incubation period of 35 – 40 days. The young are fed the same diet as the adults, torn into bite-sized pieces. This diet consists of mammals including: mice, shrews, voles, rats, rabbits and less commonly, birds. The adults kill the prey with a bite to the back of the neck of the mammal, and eat their prey whole.

Long-eared Owl (Photo by John Graffius)

Owl sounds are always magical to me, and the sounds of a Long-eared Owl are no exception. The male gives a low hoot call, similar to the sound of blowing across the top of an empty bottle. The owls repeat this call sometimes up to 200 times, between 2 -4 seconds apart. The sound carries more than a half mile away. When disturbed during nesting season, the owls clack their mandibles together and also give a call that sounds like the bark of a small dog.

As set forth on the Cornell web-site, Long-eared Owls are rated as a 13 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score and they are listed on the 2016 State of North America’s Birds Watch List. This list was compiled to bring attention to those species that are at risk of extinction unless conservation measures are taken to reverse the challenges that they face. For Long-eared Owls, this includes loss of habitat including wooded areas and grasslands. Continued protection of our small wetlands is a step in the right direction for this species’ survival, since many of these wetland areas are adjacent to wooded areas.

Final Reflections

Long-eared Owl (Photo by Kevin Karlson)

Some of my best memories of this bird is watching their moth-like flight as they lift from the trees at dusk at Whitefish Point, on their way to migrate further north. This is when their wingspan can truly be appreciated. Knowing this is their behavior, I advised Deb and John if we sat and patiently watched the Long-eared Owl in their yard, it would become active at dusk. And as if on cue, when the sun began to set, the bird sat more erect and stretched its wings. Looking about, it then flew to the top of the nearest phone pole and after another stretch, lifted itself and headed north.

Do you want to see this owl? Mark your calendar for the Michigan Audubon Spring Fling on April 28th and 29th at Whitefish Point in Paradise, Michigan. Stand on the hawk watch platform at dusk and wait for the magic to begin.

Enjoy your birds!

Rosann Kovalcik, Owner

Wild Birds Unlimited, Grosse Pointe Woods

 

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The Joy of Listening

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Working in the garden in the summer can be a delightful experience when we pay attention to the sounds of the birds. It’s educational and entertaining to concentrate on birds sounds and look for the stories behind them. You’ll be surprised at what you can learn just by listening, finding joy in the process.

A Morning In the Garden: The Birdsong Begins!

Blue Jay (Photo by John Graffius)

This morning I heard a conversation between a family of Blue Jays, murmuring to each other with a tone that reminded me of an interplay between The Three Stooges. They seemed to be comparing notes about where they would go to find food. Later, I heard the familiar “Jay! Jay!”  Were they sounding the “jay alarm” for the good of the group, because of a threat of some kind? Or was this practice just a “fire drill”?

House Wrens are singing less compared to the constant song which announced their arrival back in May. It seems my neighborhood wren gives an earnest song just once or twice these days, and nothing more. Done nesting, there is no need to advertise territory.

House Wren (Photo by Jerry Jourdan)

Afternoon Sounds

At this moment, the Robins are the most vocal. Two spot-breasted youngsters are incessantly reminding mom they are hungry. The young can be easily located by their shrill “peek” calls. Mom is quite silent as she searches continuously for food. This is very different from her morning routine. At daybreak, I hear her frantically repeating, “peek, peek, tut, tut.” She does not stop until both youngsters respond, a way to let her know they made it through the night.

Heard but not easily seen are my neighborhood Northern Flickers, White-breasted Nuthatches and Chickadees. All of them are making contact calls between adults and fledglings, giving clues as to where they are feeding. The nuthatches seem to be in the most constant contact – soft and repeated many times. Maybe this serves as encouragement to the young, that they are doing well finding the bugs they need.

The Northern Cardinal definitely has a second brood of young. How do I know? His song is constant in the neighborhood. He sings from perches in the yards that surround mine, as well as from two places in my yard. These singing points define his territory. When he is closest to the nest site, I can hear the female sing back to him from her place on the nest. Cardinals are one of the few bird species that engage in counter-singing between the pair.

Male & Female Cardinals (Photo by Christopher Goodhue)

Song & Dance

American Goldfinches are in full-on breeding mode. A male makes his presence known, taking flight from the neighbors’ birch trees, singing “per chicory” over and over as he flies. His flight is undulating, a gentle loop up and down, singing continuously. I watch him define his territory, cutting diagonally across my yard, then over two yards, then across towards the fringe of Ferry Elementary property and back to the birch trees. This display is gently repeated about every fifteen minutes.

American Goldfinch (Photo by Rodney Campbell)

 

Bird Sounds at Dusk

High-pitched calls in the trees overhead give away the presence of Cedar Waxwings. If I watch the area where they are calling long enough, I will eventually see the family group leave in flight together, off to another feeding stop.

As evening approaches, I hear the familiar chatter of Chimney Swifts. Gladly, I take a break from the garden and look up, admiring the family group of six that are flying in unison. Soon after, I know I will hear the Common Nighthawk’s raspy display call, a sound I will dearly miss once they have migrated this fall.

Make your next venture into the yard an auditory experience – you may be amazed at the Joy that listening brings!

 

Enjoy your Birds!

Rosann Kovalcik, Owner

Wild Birds Unlimited

Grosse Pointe Woods

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