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Posts Tagged ‘migration’

At Our Best

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on October 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

It’s migration season and millions of birds are, right now, flooding the skies. I grew up noticing flocks of geese arrowing their way south but migration is much more than that.

According to BirdCast’s tool, 347 million birds are predicted to be on the move across the US tonight.

For those of us in other Western hemisphere locales, this site beautifully illustrates the interconnected flow of birds by type and pathway. 

Bird Migration Explorer

A quick search of my area shows the paths of eagles, thrushes, gulls, woodcocks, owls, scoters (had to look that one up), whip-poor-wills, hawks, sandpipers, warblers and more.

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I’ve written about bird migration before but this post has a more specific call to action. Nothing too hard, just a polite request: for the few weeks when migration is at its peak, dim your lights if you can.

Opinion | Lights Out, America! (Songbirds Are Counting on Us.) – The New York Times

Migrating birds are vulnerable to many hazards: predators, extreme weather, insufficient food and insufficient water. Glass is particularly treacherous. Expanses of glass — windows without mullions, storm doors, skyscrapers — are the worst.

Good news? When it comes to lighting and windows, there’s usually an easy fix.*

I’ve tried the UV stickers designed to show birds where not to fly but they were just so-so.

Remember those little gold stars teachers sometimes give out? I picked up a batch and have used them to give the patio doors “Bird-friendliest glass in the neighborhood” awards. The upside is that these stars are cheap and easy to replace. The downside is that they are made of paper and, while they last a surprisingly long time considering, they are still just paper. I’ve had to replace them at least once a season.

This year I upgraded to purpose-built stickers designed both for birds and the great outdoors. This is the company I used but I’m sure there are others (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer): Feather Friendly.

Easy, satisfying, and one step toward being a better neighbor to nature.

At our best as a species, this is what we do: We change our ways to protect others, and then we adjust to the new ways. Soon, we can’t remember doing things differently.

— Margaret Renkl

* For more about this problem and potential fixes, including Lights Out programs and building guidelines, check out What You Should Know About Bird Migration and Light Pollution and Bird-Safe Design Guidelines.

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Photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash

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The Eagles are Coming, The Eagles are Coming!

Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2021| 3 Comments »

(Being me, I couldn’t resist a Hobbit reference, but this post is about migratory birds in general. No Goblins allowed!)

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We’ve still got two feet of snow on the lawn but the signs of Spring are everywhere. Melting ice, the smell of skunk in the night, and Canadian teenagers in shorts and T-shirts (it is above freezing, after all). And soon, the birds will be back. Last evening I heard a flock of Canada geese heading for the river, and they aren’t the only avian adventurers heading our way.

If you are interested in the when and where of bird migrations, you’re in luck. From now through the end of May you can track migration forecasts, get location-based alerts, and learn more about what’s happening in Birdlandia. 

BirdCast – Bird migration forecasts in real-time

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And as for those eagles, and other birds of prey? Check out this story about a suffragist and bird lover who established Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. It’s an incredible place, and is why I am lucky enough to know what it’s like to watch from the edge of a stone outcropping while hawks ride the thermals mere feet away.

Breathtaking.

How Mrs. Edge Saved the Birds | Smithsonian Magazine

The abundance of raptors at North Lookout owes a great deal to topography and wind currents, both of which funnel birds toward the ridgeline. But it owes even more to an extraordinary activist named Rosalie Edge, a wealthy Manhattan suffragist who founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. Hawk Mountain, believed to be the world’s first refuge for birds of prey, is a testament to Edge’s passion for birds—and to her enthusiasm for challenging the conservation establishment. Bold and impossible to ignore, she was described by a close colleague as “the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation.”

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A story from that trip, with recipe:

Mrs. Shaw’s Chakchouka

(adapted from The New York Times Large Type Cookbook)

Notes from my father: Here’s the best story I have about this recipe; this happened at Hawk Mountain. We were there to see the raptor migrations in October. We were camping at a nearby state park and it was freezing, in fact it snowed. We were cooking chakchouka for 4 in a big pan over a Coleman stove. Right near the end of the cooking we picked up the pan to serve everyone and it tipped and spilled a large part of dinner into the dirt. You two were off running around in the woods somewhere, so we both looked at each other and then at dinner in the dirt, looked back at each other, then brushed the dirt off and put it all back in the pan. It was actually still pretty good. You know in statistics “robustness” means that you can violate the rules a lot and the results still hold, so you could say that this is a very robust recipe.

  • 3 links Italian sweet sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 2 potatoes, diced
  • 1 cup water
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  1. Sauté sausage pieces in a large skillet until browned.
  2. Add olive oil, onions and garlic and cook 3 minutes.
  3. Add green pepper, tomato and potatoes and cook 2 minutes longer.
  4. Add water and allow mixture to simmer, uncovered until potato is tender. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Stir in eggs and continue to cook, stirring, until eggs are done, about 2 minutes. Garnish as desired.

Serves 4.

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

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