November 18, 2008
Avian surprises
Birdwatchers (or “birders” as we’re also called) can get just a little excited when we hear about sightings of birds that are considered unusual for our state.
Iowa has resident birds that live here year-round, and then there are migrants that are expected every year in spring and fall as birds head north to breed and south to winter. Most of these migrants are easy to find if you go to their expected habitat to look for them. Some are more uncommon, with only a few sightings of a particular bird each year. It’s these uncommon birds that birders are always hoping to find.
One of these uncommon birds is the Black-legged Kittiwake. Normally this bird from the gull family is found along coasts, not in a land-locked state like Iowa. But just about every year a few show up here, often along major rivers or at a large reservoir. Just a couple of weeks ago, 2 Black-legged Kittiwakes showed up at Saylorville Lake in Des Moines. One was an adult bird and the other was a juvenile.
Reid Allen, a birder and photographer, was one of many Iowa birders who went to Saylorville to see the Kittiwakes. He took a number of photos and upon returning home and looking through his photos, he realized one picture was a bit different from the rest.
Black-legged Kittiwake
Take a look at this photo showing the juvenile Kittiwake in flight (click on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture). The bird is exhibiting some surprising behavior. Conversation on the birding list-serv about this picture suggests the bird may be expelling salt or coughing up some substance. Whatever it’s doing, Reid definitely got an interesting shot of the bird! Can you imagine turning your neck almost 180 degrees, much less doing that while in flight?!
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Another unusual bird appeared at a bird feeder in Waterloo in late October. Rachel Anderson of Waterloo noticed this bird and realized she had never seen one like it before. She checked her bird ID books but couldn’t find any bird that looked like this one. So she then e-mailed the state birding list for help. Before long she had her answer. This is an Orange-cheeked Waxbill, a bird from the finch family that is native to Africa, not to North America. Probably this is an escaped cage bird, not a migrant bird that is way off-course. Check out the picture of this bird taken by Rachel’s father, George Hau of Waterloo.
I know I would be quite excited to see something this unusual show up at my bird feeders. But that’s the fun of bird-watching – you never know what you might find!
If you’re interested in following bird sightings in Iowa, go here to join the IA-BIRD Listserv. You can also read the bird sighting messages there without joining, if you prefer.
November 11, 2008
My dog can’t tell time!
On November 2, 2008 most Americans enjoyed an extra hour of sleep — the benefit gained from setting our clocks back one hour when we reverted to Standard Time.
But not in our house. Tucker, our 6-year-old keeshond, has his own internal clock. It’s set by his belly. He expects breakfast every day between 5 and 5:30 a.m. and when Tucker expects something, he has ways of making sure he gets it.
So what happened on November 2? Did I get to pamper myself with that one extra hour of sleep? Of course not! We dutifully set the clocks back an hour Saturday night before going to bed. So early Sunday morning, at what was now 4:00 a.m. by the clock, Tucker was wide awake. He needed to go out. He wanted to eat. A simple “No, go lie down” did not suffice. To Tucker and his tummy, it was 5:00 and all was not well. No breakfast was forthcoming and he was not happy about it.
Tucker is relentless anyway when he wants to get up. We never have to set an alarm. We can count on Tucker waking up around 5 a.m. — HE is our alarm clock.
When he wakes up, he demands that we get up also. He jumps onto the bed. He walks around our prone bodies. He comes up and lies on my pillow, curling himself around my head. This is a 35-lb. dog, by the way. If I fail to respond to him, he is patient for about 2 minutes tops. Then he jumps down off the bed. He leaves the bedroom. He returns. He jumps back up on the bed. He walks around again. He lies on the pillow …. well, you get the picture. This is repeated as many times as needed until we eventually get up. We can ignore him, we can say “no”, we can roll over and pretend he’s not there. But he doesn’t give up.
And the bad thing is that he always wins, so his behavior is reinforced. Eventually we HAVE to get up. To Tucker’s little doggy brain, that means — yay! The humans are responding to my doggy communication, so I’ll do the same thing tomorrow, no matter how many times it takes.
Back to November 2. It’s 4:00 in the morning. Tucker thinks it’s 5:00. The “wake-up” routine starts. Finally at 4:30 I give up trying to go back to sleep, get up, let the dogs out and feed them their breakfast. No extra sleep for me. It’s not like I can really go back to sleep with a dog jumping on and off the bed every couple of minutes anyway.
On November 3, the same story. Tucker was wide-awake at 4 a.m. Each morning for the next week my goal has been to hold him off just a little bit longer. By the end of the month I’ll have his internal clock adjusted to the “new” 5:00.
Meantime, I’m losing sleep. I may have to start a campaign to stay on Standard Time year-round. Do the politicians who come up with these ideas take animals’ feeding schedules into consideration? I think not!
Minnie the collie (also known as “the good dog”) always sleeps until WE get up. She has a doggy bed on the floor in the bedroom where she waits patiently for signs of our stirring. But despite her good role model behavior, Tucker hasn’t learned from her example.
Sure, sure — I could shut the dogs out of the bedroom. I could put Tucker in a crate overnight. That would be the proper and sensible thing to do. But I can’t resist him. And his antics are all part of what I love about him — he is very entertaining to live with. So who needs extra sleep anyway!
November 4, 2008
The Great Cat Standoff of 2008
I’m hoping my fellow pet-lovers can offer some advice for a friend who is having problems getting her 2 new cats adjusted to living with each other.
My friend has had cats for most of her life. After she recently lost her old cat, she spent some time carefully picking out a new kitty to bring home and love. She purposely selected a cat that had been at the animal shelter a long time and wasn’t a prime candidate for adoption to just any home. She felt her quiet lifestyle would be the kind of home this scared and shy cat would respond well to.
After the first 2-3 months, the cat seemed to have adapted to its new home. It had become attached to its new owner, was exploring the house and appeared to be settling in nicely. It will never be a brave and outgoing cat but it was coming out of its shell.
My friend hoped a second cat would be a welcome addition to keep the first one company while she was at work. She searched the local animal shelter cats for quite a while until she found one that she felt would be the right match for the scared and shy kitty she already had at home. The second cat she adopted is around a year old, small and gentle, but also more outgoing than the first cat. She hoped it would not become too much of a threat to the cat already in the house.
A couple months have gone by but the two cats are not adapting to each other despite my friend’s attempts to slowly acclimate the two cats to each other. The first cat retreats to one room every time the newer cat is in the area. The newer cat has begun to hiss back at the first cat when confrontations arise. She has resorted to keeping them separated almost all of the time.
How have you dealt with the introduction of a new cat into a home that already has a cat? How do you handle the problem of the cats not adapting to each other? Will these two cats ever adjust to each other or will they always have to be separated? We’d like to hear from you.
October 28, 2008
Remember to look up
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- White-throated Sparrow
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- Dark-eyed Junco
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- Bald Eagle
Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the cool weather and the colors of the leaves as they change. But mostly, I love to watch the bird migration taking place all around us.
I’ve been hearing the singing of White-throated Sparrows in my yard just after dawn each morning for the past few weeks. These little birds are common in Iowa during spring and fall migration. In spring they head north to breed and in the fall they move south for the winter. Their song is very distinctive. You can listen to it here: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i5580id.html and click on the Song link on left side of page.
The “snowbirds” – the Dark-eyed Juncos – have arrived in Iowa to spend the winter. I can’t help but enjoy a bird that thinks Iowa is a great place to spend the winter. How bad does winter have to be where this bird came from!
My favorite bird of the autumn skies is the raptor. Raptors are on the move in the fall. Many of them, such as the Broad-winged Hawks, leave the U.S. to winter in Central and South America. Others, such as Rough-legged Hawks, may find Iowa is as far south as they need to go.
Have you ever noticed how many Bald Eagles you see along the open rivers in Iowa in the winter? Those eagles move north in the summer to raise their families (although a few do stay and breed here in Iowa), then move south again in the winter following the open water. Fish are a primary food source for the Bald Eagle.
So while you’re out enjoying the fall weather, listen for the chips and tweets of the small migrants as they pass through Iowa on their way south. Watch your trees and bushes for the frenetic movement of the tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglets, check under your feeders for the Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows scrounging seed off the ground, and most importantly, remember to look up and watch the skies for the magnificent raptors moving overhead.
Upcoming opportunities to learn about birds:
You’re also welcome to participate in the Iowa City Bird Club outing on Saturday 11-1-08. The website is http://icbirds.org/ — you can find more information here. Saturday’s outing begins at 7:30 a.m. Meet at the Dodge Street Hy-Vee in Iowa City, southwest corner of the parking lot near the recycling bins. You do not need to belong to the bird club to participate in the outing.
All Creatures 