An Incursion Of Boobies..."Never Tell Me The Odds"...The Goldmine of Melodrama

No, a small orange butterfly did not land on the tip of the bill of this White-breasted Nuthatch...the 'hatch is hoarding grubs in its bill, probably for some nuthatchlets in a nearby tree cavity. Laguna Campground, Laguna Mountains, CA.

Making booby jokes never gets old. We don't have many tits here in the states, so booby jokes prevail. Part of the title of this blog post comes from Uberblogger Nate Swick, who writes for 10,000 Birds, the ABA blog, and his very own Drinking Bird. How he has the time to do all this writing and research, have a real job (allegedly), and have a family is a mystery to me.

My field season has officially peaked folks. The Least Terns I've been monitoring are now officially doing horribly, and my work days will only be getting shorter as the weeks progress. It's pretty depressing. A lot of chicks are hatching, but only a tiny fraction are surviving, at least at the site I spend most of my time at. The Snowy Plovers seem to be doing a bit better at least...I got to band 5 adorable little plover chicklets yesterday.

This Steller's Jay was getting in on the maggot action as well. It was literally raining maggots from the trees, I've never experienced anything like it. Laguna Campground.

Otherwise, my status as Number 7 in the Nation continues to inspire people, birders and nonbirders alike. Some people could really use some of the education I can provide. To wit (whit?):

Last week, a singing Alder Flycatcher was reported in Northern California, and it was noted that its song was recorded. This is an exceptionally rare bird here, and nothing seals the deal of this staggering rarity like a recording of its song. Shortly afterward, it was decided that bird was actually an Eastern Wood-Pewee, which is fine, because this species resides on the same pleateau of crippling rarity here in the west. THEN, someone who actually knew what they were doing looked at the bird, and it was a fucking Eastern Phoebe...still a good bird here, but not a bird that would cause blood to boil (like the Curlew Sandpiper I saw on Sunday).

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? The misidentifications, the communication breakdowns...I feel sorry for anyone who went out of their way to look for this thing. No, I'm not shit-talking inexperienced birders (not that I can remember what that's like, hey-oh!), I'm just wondering how this phoebe was presented to the birding community on the duel delicious platters of Empidonax alnorum and Contpus virens...apparently sound recordings of this bird do exist, but as far as I can they are not privy to the birding masses. Although I have seen and heard  Alder Flycatcher all of once, I have run into the other species of this disastrous train wreck many a time, and I can tell you they do NOT sound alike.

It's an Alder Flycatcher...it's an Eastern Wood-Pewee...oops, no, its a Steller's Jay.

Perhaps the birding community is suffering...suffering from AN INCURSION OF BOOBIES!

No I'm just joking about that, I just had to say it. Anyways, to continue...Alder Flys and Eastern Wood-Pewees do look somewhat alike, yes...but NEITHER look like an Eastern Phoebe. All of these species are in different genera, for Christ's sake. A clusterfuck for the ages....only someone like C3P0 could calculate the odds of this chain of events unfolding at a relatively unknown fish hatchery in northern California...

Right. Speaking of clusterfucks and a big waste of time, I highly recommend you go check out the death of a cyber birding community in Maryland.......something like the Human Birdwatcher Project ("Birders are people too!") could probably do years of research on the goldmine of melodramatic and straight up hateful messages on there. The Drinking Bird has already linked to it, but I think this "discussion" really is funny to look at...check it out here!

Lark Sparrow. It has a face anyone can love. Laguna Campground.

California Ground-Squirrel...right? Laguna Campground.

This Western Fence Lizard is doing a stand up job (literally) at defending his piece of fence. Look at the height of that push up! Look at the hanging blue throat flap! I love it.

Lesser Goldfinch. They seem more dignified when not ravenously attacking a bird feeder. Old Mission Dam, San Diego, CA.

White-tailed Kite in regrettable light. I do like the affect it has on it the different shades of darkness coming through it's primaries and secondaries...it took me a while to realize/appreciate that. Old Mission Dam.

Forster's Tern. Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial Beach, CA.

Marbled Godwits, a couple Whimbrels and a Willet. One of the Coronado Islands (Mexico) lurks/looms invitingly in the background. As you may be aware...there are boobies there. Tijuana Slough.

Pied-billed Grebe. It was probably trying to catch something with more fins or legs, not flossing with algae. Old Mission Dam.

Ok, I know some of you came here expecting to see some boobies, so here is a giant, white booby for you. Judging from the horror stories I've heard from other researchers, you do not want these boobies in your face though. This vicious Masked Booby was at Midway Atoll.

Passion Unabated Will Be Readily Conflated

Black-chinned and Broad-billed (the strange glowing thing in the background) Hummingbirds. Florida Canyon, AZ.

My indigent lackies who slave away in the BB&B basement have finally come up with a topic that we have not touched on yet: feeding wildlife. Ok. Lets take a look at it.

People feed wildlife all the time. There are probably millions of bird feeders all around the world. At city parks and waterfronts everywhere people feed ducks, geese, swans, gulls, squirrels....even monkeys in some places. This has been going on for a long, long time, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. Then of course there are the myriad rodents, possums, skunks, raccoons, bears, etc. that also fill up on what the other animals don't eat, usually at night.

The standard opinion amongst American wildlife biologists is that no wildlife should be fed by people at any time except for in the most extreme circumstances, such as when they are trying to stabilize or boost the population of an endangered species (a la giving carcasses to California Condors). Why the extreme view? Potentially, wildlife can become habituated to humans (which potentially puts them more at risk to injury or death by various dumbasses, dogs off leash, etc) and view them as a source of food (human food lacks a lot of the nutrition wild animals need). When they congregate in large masses (i.e. at bird feeders), this puts them at risk for spreading of disease, which indeed does happen at unkempt feeding stations. And if wildlife change their habits to exploit certain food sources (i.e. stay in an exposed, snowy, freezing place instead of going someplace warm), then that can just lead to them dying. Perhaps the most obvious example of this conflict is the classic Yogi Bear situation, in which potentially large and dangerous animals learn to associate people with food. A friend of mine actually lost a loved one due to something like this happening....so this is no joke. So not only is this not good for people, it's bad for the animals, because the ones that get a little too comforatable with people either end up shot or getting relocated, which is not necessarily that much better.

There are many more reasons to not feed animals, but I don't want to bore you, especially if ya'll know this already. As an exception, I have met relatively few people who are against the standard backyard birdfeeder scenario, as there is scant evidence to support the ideas that feeders will stop birds from migrating or switching to healthier food sources when it comes time to lay eggs and raise some chickies. Feeding birds is also extremely Quaint, and its really hard to publically come out against something that gives both you, your grandmother and your children a source of joy.

California (?) Ground-Squirrels. No food was dispensed in the making of these images. Morro Bay, CA.

Got it? Good. FEEDING WILDLIFE BAD. Now, as you may have anticipated, I have a slightly different take on all of this. For one, there are certainly situations in which feeding wildlife (and just littering, although its sad that I need to state that) can be extremely detrimental. I need not mention Yogi and friends. But take Humboldt County for instance. On Clam Beach, there is a population of Snowy Plovers that nest there. This being a Threatened species in the state of California, is a big deal. So when you feed gulls, ravens (intentionally), foxes, skunks, raccoons and rats (unintentionally), you are encouraging more and more of these predators to come around, get fat, breed more, and eat more Snowy Plover eggs/chickies. This is bad. In the old redwood forests, feeding squirrels, ravens and jays can lead to the same thing happening to the embattled Marbled Murrelets that nest there. So boosting populations of these versatile and capable predators is most certainly a big problem that could have heavy implications.

On the other hand, I think it can be pretty harmless in some cases. Take these squirrels above. They live in the rip-rap at the edge of Morro Bay, and are completely habituated to people and take handouts on the regular. There are two reasons I think this is not a big deal. A) Countless people stop by and hang out with these things. A few birders thinking they are doing some great deed by resisting the urge to toss one a crumb will not change the situation at all. B) They're squirrels living in a tiny margin of rocks between the road and the ocean. It's a pretty crappy place to live. I highly doubt that these fat things, buoyed by some crazy mix of nutrition (a discarded 4LOKO, perhaps?), are prone to leap down in a bloodthirsty rage upon unsuspecting turnstones poking around in the barnacles. Its just not a big deal. Now I don't think feeding them is a good idea, but get real. It's not the end of the world. 

As an aside, I am 100% against the feeding of stray cats. Feeding them does not stop them from killing birds, and god knows how many other reptiles, amphibians and undeserving native rodents. Cats (feral and otherwise) kill MILLIONS of birds in the United States each year. Most biologists are on the same team on this one. There is a legendary story about someone I know beating a cat to death with a stick in front of a stunned, blue-haired Audubon group. Now I don't condone this in any way, and I don't know if I'm even capable of doing something like that (I actually like cats)....but it makes a good story.

An Arizona Woodpecker harmlessly hones in on some suet. Paradise, AZ.

I guess all I'm saying is, there are few issues that are completely black and white, especially within the scientific community. I remember when I was a little kid, some Western Scrub-Jays would raise a couple chicks every year and would always spend a couple months with their family hanging out with my family. I loved that shit. I'm almost getting misty-eyed just thinking about it. Anyways, after a while the jays knew the deal and we would know the deal, and pretty soon the birds would be hopping into our kitchen to see if we had any snacks (FYI raw, unsalted nuts are not bad jay food). This had quite the impact on an impressionable young Steve. Now, getting on 20 years later, we still have jays that come sit in the same tree and yell at us to come outside. One is obliging enough to sit on your hand to grab a peanut. Call me sentimental, but I'd like to think they are the some of the same birds that we hosted so many years ago. Again, I don't recommend inviting wild animals into your kitchen, but perhaps this experience played a roll in me becoming the Uberbirder I am today.

If your child shows more interest in feeding your local park ducks than trying to kill them (which seems to be most kids who are capable of walking), then I say let  'em toss a cracker in to the lot. Live a litttle.

Have a weird Thanksgiving or Thanksfornothing (depending on where you are). I know I will.