Birds of the Neighborhood (April 21-30)

The “neighborhood” consists of a 9-block rectangular area (my block plus the surrounding 8 city blocks) in a downtown neighborhood in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. But most of my observations are of birds seen in, or viewed from, my yard, an area just shy of 0.25-acres. Several prolonged rainfalls occurred during the period, and temperatures returned to a more seasonably cool range (60s to 70s). The following list of 22 species is probably fairly typical of what you would expect to see in many older, small-town urban residential areas in the Mid-Atlantic States at this time of the year (species are listed in alphabetical order, with numbers in parentheses indicating the order in which each species was detected, # symbols indicating species new this period, and * symbols indicating species not native to the area):

American Crow (11) - occasional
American Robin (6) - common; nesting
Barn Swallow# (4) - 1 flying over on 4/21
Blue Jay (9) - occasional, with maximum of 2 on 4/29
Canada Goose (18) - heard flying over on 4/21
Carolina Chickadee (13) - noted on 4/21
Carolina Wren (12) - throughout period; territorial singing
Chimney Swift (19) - near-daily (not noted on cold, rainy days)
Common Grackle (5) - present daily in small numbers
Downy Woodpecker (20) - 1 heard on 4/23
Eastern Towhee (21) - 1 sining on 4/26
European Starling* (3) - very common; nesting
Fish Crow (16) - present daily in small numbers
Gray Catbird# (22) - 1 singing on 4/28 (first arrival)
House Finch* (2) - quite abundant; nesting
House Sparrow* (1) - extremely abundant; nesting
House Wren# (15) - first arrivals (2 singing) on 4/21
Mourning Dove (7) - common; nesting
Northern Cardinal (10) - common; territorial singing
Northern Mockingbird (14) - 1 or 2 pairs present
Rock Dove* (8) - common; nesting
White-throated Sparrow (17) - 1 singing on 4/21

Total Species This Period - 22
New Species This Period - 3
Cumulative Species Since 3/11/2002 - 28

Keyboarding Skills and Environmental Awareness

When I took beginning typing class in high school, back in the days when the IBM Selectric was all the rage, our teacher's favorite practice lesson was to have us type the following ditty (at least this is the way I remember it) interminably:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back

As an alternative, I would like to suggest the following exercise for teaching key-boarding skills and raising environmental awareness at the same time:

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their environment.

National Geographic BirdWatchers Society

My father-in-law recently received an invitation in the mail to become a charter member of the National Geographic BirdWatchers Society. Dues for the NGBWS are $2/month, billed annually (I guess that doesn't sound as bad as $24/year). The odd thing is, there is no mention of the fledgling NGBWS anywhere on the National Geographic Society's Web page. As a matter of fact, I couldn't find mention of the NGBWS anywhere on the Internet! Wouldn't you think that they'd want to promote this thing as broadly as possible?

As described in the promo on the back of the envelope, membership in the NGBWS entitles you to the following:

SUBSCRIPTION to National Geographic BirdWatcher newsletter

FREE GEAR GIVEAWAY--in each issue of National Geographic BirdWatcher

THE HIGHLY RESPECTED NGBWS LIFE LIST AWARDS--keep track of your sightings and earn rewards

UNIQUE PRODUCT TESTS OF BIRDING SUPPLIES--and you keep what you test--FREE

EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS-ONLY DISCOUNTS on birding products

Opportunity to GET YOUR PERSONAL BIRDING STORIES AND PHOTOS PUBLISHED

The cynic in me says that the National Geographic Society simply sees this as an opportunity to cash in on the booming interest in everything birds. They are certainly targeting their compaign toward novices. But maybe that's not all bad. If even a handful of the people who sign up go on to become avid birders or, better yet, advocates for bird conservation, I can forgive NGS for their crass commercialism.

Oh yeah, you also get a nifty-looking plastic membership card; it features a perched Great Egret on a dark blue backyard--vaguely reminescent of National Audubon's logo. And last, but not least, you get 3 stickers featuring a very bold, ninja-style cardinal. My grandson will love them!

Notable Bird Quotes I

The crow that mimics a cormorant is drowned. --Japanese proverb (from The Quotable Birder, edited by Bill Adler Jr.).

Online Bird Journals and Other References - Number 5

Journal of Field Ornithology. The JFO is the youngest of the "big four" North American ornithological journals; the others (in decreasing order of longevity) are the Auk, the Wilson Bulletin, and the Condor. The JFO is a quarterly publication of the Association of Field Ornithologists. A JFO Archive of all articles published since 1998 (Volume 69) is maintained by Allen Press, the commercial firm that prints JFO for the AFO. Abstracts of individual articles can be down-loaded in English or Spanish, and searches of Author and Keword indexes can be conducted.

Online Bird Journals and Other References - Number 4

Wilson Bulletin. The Wilson Bulletin is the second oldest of the North American bird journals, now being in its 114th year of publication. It is the quarterly journal of the Wilson Ornithological Society, both society and journal being named after Alexander Wilson, the father of American ornithology. The only content currently available online are Tables of Content for issues 3 and 4 of volume 110 (1998) and issue 2 of volume 112 (2000).

Optical Illusion

On the ride home through western Loudon County, Virginia, yesterday afternoon, my attention was drawn to a crow sitting on the grassy roadside right-of-way flicking its wings. The next thing I noticed was a very large white patch on the dorsal surface of one wing. But I quickly realized that it was merely an illusion created by the glint of the sun off the bird's feathers, a fleeting trick that my eyes had played on me before under certain lighting conditions. It's amazing how something black can actually appear to be white, if only for a moment.

Online Bird Journals and Other References - Number 3

The Condor: An International Journal of Avian Biology. The third oldest North American bird journal, The Condor is now in its 103rd year of publication. It is the quarterly publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society. Starting with the February 2001 issue, Abstracts of all Feature Articles, Shorter Communications, and Commentary can be down-loaded free as PDF files in English or Spanish; to download from the COS Homepage, click "The Condor" in the left-hand frame, then select the issue of interest. Full-text articles are currently not available online.

Since relatively few issues of The Condor have been posted to the official COS Homepage, I offer my preferred alternative. Allen Press, the commercial firm that publishes The Condor for the COS, maintains a Condor Archive of all issues published since 1998 (Volume 100). Not only can Abstracts of individual articles be down-loaded from the Archive, but you can also conduct searches of Author and Keyword indexes.

The "Killer Hawk"--Again!

Also in todays Sunday Gazette-Mail [Charleston, West Virginia], semi-retired sportswriter Danny Wells displays his ignorance by taking yet another swipe at West Virginia’s most famous Red-tailed Hawk. To wit: “with one deadly swoop by the hawk, the Capitol grounds are turned red with the blood of the squirrel. And then the Capitol grounds ain’t [and this guy is a professional newspaper columnist?] so lovely.” Wells is apparently of the opinion that natural interactions between predators (hawks) and prey (squirrels) reflect a nature out of balance and is quick to label the actions of the hawk as "evil," a human quality it doesn't deserve. When are they going to start teaching basic ecological concepts in high school?

The New River Neos

A feature article in todays Sunday Gazette-Mail [Charleston, West Virginia] by Rick Steelhammer discusses the dreams and aspirations of the New River Neos (Neos being shorthand for Neotropical migrants), a team of four birders from Fayette County, West Virginia, who will be competing in this years World Series of Birding in Cape May, New Jersey, on May 10. The World Series of Birding is a competition in which teams of birders compete to see who can tally the most species of birds in a 24-hour period. This will be the first time, I believe, that a team from West Virginia has competed in this event, and I wish them the very best of luck. But if Roger Tory Peterson actually shows up for the event, as this article claims he will, he will have accomplished a feat that has eluded the likes of Harry Houdini and Edgar Cayce. Peterson, famous for his series of bird field guides and long the dean of North American birders, died in 1996 at the age of 87.

Birds of the Neighborhood (April 11-20)

The “neighborhood” consists of a 9-block rectangular area (my block plus the surrounding 8 city blocks) in a downtown neighborhood in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. But most of my observations are of birds seen in, or viewed from, my yard, an area just shy of 0.25-acres. The latter third of the period was unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s; still suffering from a rainfall deficit. The following list of 17 species isn’t particularly impressive, but I suspect that it is probably fairly typical of what you would expect to see in many older, small-town urban residential areas in the Mid-Atlantic States (species are listed in alphabetical order, with numbers in parentheses indicating the order in which each species was detected, # symbols indicating species new this period, and * symbols indicating species not native to the area):

American Crow (13) - only 1 or 2 detections
American Robin (1) - morning chorus very evident by mid-period
Blue Jay (14) - 1 flying over on 4/12 & 2 heard on 4/20
Carolina Wren (12) - 1 singing on 4/12 and thereafter
Chimney Swift# (16) - first arrivals seen 4/16; resident thereafter
Common Grackle (8) - present daily in small numbers
European Starling* (3) - common; nesting
Fish Crow (11) - present daily in small numbers
House Finch* (6) - common; nesting
House Sparrow* (2) - abundant; nesting
Mallard# (10) - 1 flying over on 4/11
Mourning Dove (5) - many resident pairs; nesting
Northern Cardinal (4) - several resident pairs; nesting
Northern Mockingbird# (9) - 1 singing on 4/11, another on 4/12
Red-bellied Woodpecker (17) - 1 calling from the "woodpecker tree" on 4/20
Rock Dove* (7) - much reduced in numbers
White-throated Sparrow (15) - 1 singing on 4/12 & again on 4/20

Total Species This Period -17
New Species This Period - 3
Cumulative Species Since 3/11/2002 - 25

Island Biogeography

While doing an Internet search for information on the Near Islands, the westernmost group of the Aleutian Islands (which, interestingly, actually lie in the eastern hemisphere), I happened upon this very useful primer on the basic principals underlying the ecological concept of island biogeography.

The Redstart

The Redstart is the quarterly journal of the Brooks Bird Club, a regional natural history organization headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia. The issue for October 2001 (Volume 68, Number 4) arrived in the mail yesterday. The featured articles are:

Clay-colored Sparrow: First State Summer Record, Canaan Valley, West Virginia - John E. Northeimer & Marjorie Keatley - 95-98

Increased Occurrence of Red Crossbills in West Virginia for 2000 and 2001 - Gary Felton - 99-103

The 2000 Christmas Bird Count Summary - Ronald A. Canterbury - 104-110

Three Rivers Migration Observatpry: Fall Migration 2000 - Ronald A. Canterbury et al. - 111-118

Field Notes: Spring Season (March-May 2001) - James D. Phillips (Editor) - 120-123

Online Bird Journals and Other References - Number 2

Ornithological Newsletter On-Line. The bimonthly (6 issues per year) newsletter of OSNA, the Ornithological Societies of North America. Regular features include Organization News, News and Announcements, News from the Ornithological Council, Requests for Assistance, Positions and Opportunities Available, Grants and Awards, Publications Available, Personal Exchanges, Meetings, News of Members, and The Flock Special Section. All isues since October 1997 are available online in their entirety.

Online Bird Journals and Other References - Number 1

The Auk: A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology. The Auk is the granddaddy of North American bird journals, being now in its 119th year of publication. It is published by the American Ornithologists’ Union. Starting with the January 2000 issue, Abstracts of most articles are available for free down-loading. Full-text Articles and PDF files are available only with a paid subscription to BioOne.

Caribou and Oil

Check out Mark Fiore's fabulously hilarious animated cartoon depiction of the Bush Administration's approach to dealing with caribou and other environmental issues in their desire to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Birds of the Neighborhood (April 1-10, 2002)

The “neighborhood” consists of a 9-block rectangular area (my block plus the surrounding 8 city blocks) in a downtown neighborhood in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. But most of my observations are of birds seen in, or viewed from, my yard, an area just shy of 0.25-acres. Species are listed in alphabetical order (numbers in parentheses indicate the order in which each species was detected, # symbols indicate species new this period, and * symbols indicate species not native to the area):

American Crow (18) - flying over on 4/6
American Robin (1) - daily; territorial singing
Blue Jay (13) - seen sporadically
Carolina Chickadee (20) - 1 on 4/7
Carolina Wren (11) - 1 hanging around, singing periodically
Common Grackle (8) - a few (up to a dozen) hanging around
Downy Woodpecker (15) - 1 heard on 4/3, 4/6, & 4/7
Eastern Towhee# (19) - 1 singing on 4/7 & 4/10; unusual
European Starling* (4) - moderate numbers daily
Fish Crow (7) - almost daily
House Finch* (2) - moderate numbers daily; nest found 4/7
House Sparrow* (3) - large numbers daily
Mourning Dove (5) - daily; nesting
Northern Cardinal (6) - daily; territorial singing
Red-bellied Woodpecker (16) - 2 birds on 4/3
Rock Dove* (9) - daily, but much reduced from a month ago
Song Sparrow# (10) - 1 singing on 4/3
Tufted Titmouse# (12) - 1 on 4/3
Turkey Vulture (14) - 1 flying over on 4/3
White-throated Sparrow# (17) - 1 or 2 singing on 4/6

Total Species This Period - 20
New Species This Period - 4
Cumulative Species Since 3/11/2002 - 22

Military Aircraft of the United States with Bird or Bird-Like Names (Part 1)

This list was initially prepared with the help of Emmanuel Gustin's comprehensive Military Aircraft Database for the United States. I later discovered Joe Baugher's Encyclopedia of American Military Aircraft. Baugher's list is an excellent complement to Gustin's, often providing more extensive descriptions of some aircraft types. These were my two primary sources of information on military aircraft with bird or bird-like names.

ALBATROSS:
Grumman JR2F (1945-1970 fixed-wing flying-boat utility)
Grumman SA-16 (1945-1970 fixed-wing flying-boat utility)
Grumman U-16 (1955 fixed-wing flying-boat utility) . . . more info
Grumman UF (1945-1970 fixed-wing flying-boat utility)

BANTAM:
Northrop X-4 (1949 fixed-wing experimental)

BLACKBIRD:
Lockheed F-12
Lockheed M-21
Lockheed SR-71 . . . more info 1 . . . more info 2 . . . more info 3
Lockheed YF-12

BLACKHAWK:
Curtiss A-43 (1945-1970 fixed-wing attack aircraft--never developed)
Curtiss F-87 (1948 fixed-wing fighter)
Sikorsky S-67 (post-1970 attack helicopter) . . . more info

BLUEBIRD:
Lewis-Vought VE-7 (1921 fixed-wing trainer)

CONDOR:
Curtiss B-2 (1929 fixed-wing bomber)
Curtiss C-30 (1934 fixed-wing transport)
Curtiss R4C (1934 fixed-wing transport)

DUCK:
Grumman J2F (1937 fixed-wing floatplane utility) . . . more info

EAGLE:
General Motors/Fisher P-75 (1943 fixed-wing fighter)
McDonnell Douglas F-15 (1973 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info
Windecker E-5 (post-1970 fixed-wing experimental)

FALCON:
Curtiss A-3 (1918-1939 fixed-wing attack aircraft) . . . more info
Curtiss O-1 (1929 fixed-wing reconnaissance)
Curtiss SNC (1940 fixed-wing reconnaissance trainer) . . . more info
Hughes F-98 (originally classified an unmanned fighter; later designated a missile) . . . more info

FIGHTING FALCON:
General Dynamics/Lockheed F-16 (1976 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info 1 . . . more info 2

FLEDGLING:
Curtiss N2C (1918-1939 fixed-wing trainer)

GLOBAL HAWK:
Teledyne Q-4 (unmanned reconnaisance/surveillance) . . . more info

GOOSE:
Grumman J3F (1939-1945 fixed-wing flying-boat utility)
Grumman JRF (1939-1945 fixed-wing flying-boat utility) . . . more info
Civilian Use of the Goose . . . more info

GOSHAWK:
Curtiss BFC (1918-1939 carrier-based fixed-wing fighter-bomber)
Curtiss F11C (1933 carrier-based fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info
McDonnell Douglas T-45 (1989 carrier-based fixed-wing trainer)

HARRIER:
McDonnel Douglas V-8 (1983 VTOL attack aircraft)

HAWK:
Curtiss F6C (1925 carrier-based fixed-wing fighter)
Curtiss P-1 (1926 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info
Curtiss P-2 . . . more info
Curtiss P-3 . . . more info
Curtiss P-6 (1931 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info
Curtiss P-11
Curtiss P-36 (1935 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info
Curtiss P-42 (1939 fixed-wing fighter) . . . more info

HAWKEYE:
Grumman E-2 (1972 carrier-based fixed-wing electronic) . . . more info
Grumman W2F (post-1970 carrier-based fixed-wing electronic)

HELLDIVER:
Curtiss A-25 (carrier-based dive-bomber) . . . more info
Curtiss F8C (fixed-wing fighter/dive-bomber) . . . more info
Curtiss SB2C (carrier-based dive-bomber) . . . . . . more info 1 . . . more info 2

Why So Few West Virginia Wildlife License Plates?

I’’ve always had an interest in license plates, so I find the current trend of many States to issue specialized plates to be quite exciting--especially the ones featuring birds. I was so thrilled at the opportunity to buy the West Virginia Wildlife license plate featuring the Rose-breasted GROSBEAK a few years ago that I showed up at the local West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles office before they even knew they had been issued! In my opinion, the West Virginia grosbeak plate is among the finest of the many State plates featuring birds. So, why do you see so few of them displayed on West Virginia cars and trucks?

Strange as it must sound, I spent parts of several days tabulating West Virginia license plates around the Eastern Panhandle. Here’’s what I found (location, date, number of plates with grosbeaks, total number of plates of all kinds excluding dealer and temporary, and grosbeak plates as a percentage of all plates; all locations except the first are in or near Martinsburg):

USFWS NCTC employee parking lot 3/28 - 5 of 54 (9.3%)
Downtown Martinsburg 3/29 - 8 of 260 (3.1%)
Martins Foods parking lot 3/30 - 2 of 86 (2.3%)
Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot 3/30 - 1 of 143 (0.7%)
K-Mart/Food Lion parking lot 3/30 - 2 of 184 (1.1%)
Hoyts Cinema/Ruby Tuesdays parking lot 3/30 - 3 of 97 (3.1%)
All Locations Combined - 21 of 824 (2.6%)

Recent surveys show that about one-third of adults nationwide consider themselves to have at least a modest amount of interest in birds (in most cases, this translates to backyard bird feeding). Given this degree of interest in birds, why have so few West Virginians opted to display the GROSBEAK Wildlife plate on their vehicles, especially since a portion of the proceeds ($15 from each sale) helps to fund the State Nongame Program?

I attribute it, at least in part (I guess you can't rule out education and income), to a lack of marketing on the part of both the West Virginia DMV and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Compare, for example, the lack of available information on the GROSBEAK plate versus the media blitz that accompanied the issuance of the NASCAR plate. Information about the NASCAR RacePlates is prominently displayed on the DMV home page, but you have to do some serious looking to find any information at all about the GROSBEAK plate. The DNR home pages doesn’t have anything at all to say about the GROSBEAK plates, even though one of its major programs stands to benefit from their sale.

The good news from my informal survey is that GROSBEAK plates outnumber NASCAR plates by 7 to 1–way to go birds!

West Virginia Bird Place Names (Part 5 of 5)

[Note to readers: Part 4 of this series was published on 3/28/2002]

TURKEY (61) - a populated place and an historical School in Wyoming County; a populated place (Turkey Knob) in Fayette County; Branches in McDowell (Turkey and Turkey Gap), Putnam, and Raleigh counties; Churches in Putnam (Turkey Branch) and Wyoming (Turkey Creek and Turkey Ridge) counties; a Dam and a Public Fishing Area (both named Turkey Run Lake) in Jackson County; a Dam (Turkey Gap Mine Refuse Dump) and an Impoundment (reservoir, Turkey Gap Slurry) in Mercer County; Creeks in Fayette, Mingo, Monroe, Nicholas, Putnam, Wayne, and Webster counties; a Flat in Roane County; Forks in Clay, Gilmer, Jackson, Kanawha, and Upshur counties; a Gap in McDowell County; a Hollow in Mingo County; Knobs in Mercer, Pendleton, Roane, and Tucker counties; Mountains in Hardy and Pocahontas counties; a Ridge in Wyoming County; Runs in Clay, Gilmer, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Marshall, Mason, Nicholas, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tucker, Upshur, and Wetzel counties; historical Schools in Gilmer (Turkey Fork), Jackson (Turkey Fork and Turkey Run), Taylor (Turkey Run), and Upshur (Turkey Run) counties; Springs in Jefferson (Turkey Run) and Monroe (Turkey Creek) counties; and Trails in Randolph (Turkey Hunter Access), Tucker (Turkey Run), and Webster (Turkey Mountain) counties.

TURKEY FOOT (3) - a Bend in Morgan County, a Lake (reservoir) in Jackson County, and a Run in Harrison County.

TURKEY SPUR (1) - a Rock (summit) in Raleigh County.

TURKEYBONE (3) - a Mountain, a Ridge, and an historical School in Randolph County.

TURKEYCAMP (2) - a Branch and a Knob in Wayne County.

TURKEYFOOT (3) - an historical populated place in Hancock County, and Runs in Hampshire and Hancock counties.

TURKEYLICK (1) - a Run in Gilmer County.

TURKEYPEN (6) - Branches in Kanawha and Logan counties; a Creek in Lewis County; and Runs in Greenbrier, Lincoln, and Wood counties.

TURKEYWALLOW (1) - a Branch in Wyoming County.

TURKEYWING (1) - a Run in Kanawha County.

WAR EAGLE (2) - a populated place and an historical Post Office in Mingo County.

And finally, those of you who have persevered in reading this far deserve to know that West Virginia does indeed have a Sodom (a populated place in Logan County) but, thankfully, no Gomorrha. THE END.

Ornithological Spoof

On 03/29/2002, Scott Ray brought to the attention of BirdChat subscribers the news that scientists had recently announced the launch of a satellite, dubbed the DNA Remote Sensing Satellite (DNARS), that will be able to track the real-time movements of any animal weighing more than 500 grams. While Ray suggested that this new technology “might be a useful birding tool,” others have raised concerns about threats to personal privacy. But, in an effort to allay such fears, a spokesperson for the National Association of Law Enforcement Organizations released a statement saying that “Only persons with something to hide need worry about this technology.” The entire API account can be read here.