20 January 2012 – no casualties

16 January 2012 – no casualties

12 January 2012 – no casualties

4 January 2012 – no casualties

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

1 January 2012 – no casualties

29 December 2011 – no casualties

20 December 2011 – no casualties

16 December 2011 – no casualties

12 December 2011 – no casualties

9 December 2011 – no casualties

1 December 2011 – no casualties

29 November 2011 – no casualties

American Bird Conservancy report on window collisions

Sheppard, C. 2011. Bird-Friendly Building Design. American Bird Conservancy, The Plains, VA, 58p

The ABC has just released a report that really focuses on architectural and materials solutions to reducing window collisions. For more information, check here.

BirdFriendlyBuildingDesign

25 November 2011 – no casualties

23 November 2011 – no casualties

22 November 2011 – no casualties

20 November 2011 – no casualties

18 November 2011 – no casualties

17 November 2011 – no casualties

16 November 2011 – no casualties

15 November 2011 – no casualties

14 November 2011 – no casualties

13 November 2011 – no casualties

11 November 2011 – no casualties

10 November 2011 – no casualties

9 November 2011 – no casualties

8 November 2011 – no casualties

Storms, tornadoes, and even an earthquake overnight but no new casualties this morning.

7 November 2011 – no casualties

6 November 2011 – no casualties

5 November 2011 – Lincoln’s Sparrow scavenged, and replaced

It hasn’t been a good few weeks for Lincoln’s Sparrows around the Noble Research Center lately.  The bird I found yesterday has been scavenged. So it lasted one day.  It was replaced by this new one I found this morning:

4 November 2011 – Grasshopper Sparrow and no net loss of Lincoln’s Sparrow

I found this AHY Grasshopper Sparrow (fat = 3) in one of the west alcoves this morning, after a night when temperatures in Stillwater dipped to 23 F.

As for the cryptic headline about Lincoln’s Sparrow, the individual I left in place on Oct. 27th was scavenged overnight.  Here’s what’s left:

So that bird lasted in situ for 9 days.

The “no net loss” comes from discovery of a new Lincoln’s this morning, and this is one I’ve missed for a few days.  How could I miss a dead bird in place for several days when I’m searching an area of lawn and sidewalk?  In this case, it comes down to the where the bird ended up.  It’s so close to the edge of the sidewalk that it’s only visible if approached from the south or east.  My normal walking route approaches this spot from the north, but occasionally I switch things around for exactly this reason.  Even something as simple as the direction of the route you take around a building can affect your ability to detect a bird carcass there.  (I’ll now leave this bird in place and see how long it lasts.)

3 November 2011 – no casualties

Lincoln’s Sparrow still in place.  (Almost got another one from the west alcove, but that guy made it out OK.)

 

 

2 November 2011 – no casualties

Lincoln’s Sparrow carcass still there.

1 November 2011 – Lincoln’s Sparrow

The Lincoln’s Sparrow from a few days ago remains; today I found this new one too.  AHY-U, fat  = 3.

31 October 2011 – no casualties

Lincoln’s Sparrow still in place.

30 October 2011 – no casualties

Lincoln’s Sparrow still there.

29 October 2011 – no casualties

Lincoln’s Sparrow still there.

28 October 2011 – two trapped sparrows

Opposite alcoves held a trapped Song Sparrow (west) and a beautiful female Spotted Towhee (east) this morning.  The Song Sparrow banged the window a few times and seemed to fly out unharmed once I got close to it.  The towhee might have been a bit stunned, but she flew up strongly into a tree on my arrival, and all signs were that she’d move on unharmed.

Yesterday’s Lincoln’s Sparrow is still there.

27 October 2011 – four sparrows hit the end of the road

The four sparrows I found this morning might mark the deadliest evening I’ve seen in three years of searches at the Noble Research Center.  I found birds on three sides of the building after a cool and rainy night.  The first was a bedraggled Lincoln’s Sparrow (fat = 2) that I left in place for a check on scavenging rate.  Elsewhere, I collected these three Grasshopper Sparrows.  The two dry ones on the left were a few feet from each other on the south side of the building, the wet one on the right was in one of the west alcoves.

I aged all three as AHY and all were fat: 3, 3, and 2 from left to right.  Interesting to see the variability in dimensions of these birds, however.  Numbered 1, 2, and 3 from left to right, check it out:

1: 20.5 g, bill 10.6, wing 60, tarsus 23.2

2: 16.5 g, bill 9.2, wing 58, tarsus 21.5

3: 18.0 g, bill 10.4, wing 64, tarsus 22.8

26 October 2011 – two sparrows

A fairly strong cold front moved through last night, with some gusty storms.  This morning I found a Song Sparrow (below, left: AHY, fat = 2) on the north side and a Lincoln’s Sparrow (HY, fat = 3) on the south side of the NRC.

25 October 2011 – no casualties

24 October 2011 – no casualties

22 October 2011 – 1 unknown

I found a small and dispersed pile of feathers (mostly undertail coverts) on the north side of the NRC today.  They were Passerine, most likely sparrow, and probably Lincoln’s Sparrow, but I am not confident enough in making that call so “unknown” it is.

20 October 2011 – Song Sparrow

AHY-U

Fat = 1

South windows.

19 October 2011 – Lincoln’s Sparrow

Fat = 1

AHY-U

18 October 2011 – no casualties

17 October 2011 – Lincoln’s Sparrow (scavenged)

I found a small pile of primaries and a tertial or two from a scavenged Lincoln’s Sparrow on the east side of the NRC today.

14 October 2011 – 1 trapped Lincoln’s Sparrow

This one was on the north side and seemed to be pretty active.

The Grasshopper Sparrow has been removed.

13 October 2011 – Clay-colored Sparrow and trapped Lincoln’s Sparrows

It was a busy morning at the NRC after a crisp and clear, moonlit night that must have supported a big local flight.

I first checked on the Grasshopper Sparrow carcass – still there.

Next, I noticed a trapped Lincoln’s Sparrow on the north side of the building. This bird was flying well and should be OK.  In the west alcoves, however, were three more Lincoln’s Sparrows.  One was moving fine, one I was able to herd away from the building, and one was stunned enough that I was able to catch it.  I carried that bird around for awhile and it seemed quite perky in the hand.  I released it in the dense cover on the south side of Ag Hall, and the bird flew strongly away from me.  I will assume that it will be OK, so the tally will be 4 trapped Lincoln’s Sparrows with no casualties among them.

A fifth sparrow was not so lucky: this Clay-colored Sparrow I found on the east side of the NRC.