More paintings

Here are a few of the new paintings I put up on put up on http://cargocollective.com/MercenaryOrnithology today

Painting Dump

Here's a couple of new paintings from the last week or two in no particular order. The images have been photographed by a non-functional camera, so quality is not high.

American Tree Sparrow

Bay-headed Tanager

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Andean Cock of the Rock

Scrub Tanager

Andean Cock of the Rock

Dear Diary,

Today I saw lekking Cock of the Rock. Due to drenching rain, there was no camera at the ready to document this experience, but I hardly need a camera to remeber such a spectacle of evolutionary insanity. The birds can be heard from a couple hundred meters away as they scream and hop about in their brilliant red-orange plumage. They chicken sized and dazzlingly colored, yet hard to find amidst the dense foliage. Once you find them, however, it's hard to lose them. They are simply, strikingly impressive.

Less Blogging More Painting

Paintings can be viewed here http://cargocollective.com/MercenaryOrnithology/

Lincoln's Sparrow

Not feeling verbose - but here is the next in the sparrow series.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

The Golden-crowned Sparrow is the symbol of the west coast for me.  It's good to be home.

Grasshopper Sparrow

The grasshopper sparrow was the last bird I saw upon leaving Veracruz, and this painting is based off of sketches I did at the time.  They are another secretive grassland species, but nothing in comparison to the Botteri’s Sparrow.  They are more associated with species of bunchgrass, so can be seen a little more easily as they skitter around. 

 

On the whole, the Grasshopper Sparrow is pretty common, although like most grassland specialists declining.  There does exists an endangered resident subspecies of Grasshopper Sparrow that lives in Florida.  It is interesting to note that this Florida population has a large degree of genetic variability (according to Bulgin et al’s paper Ancestral polymorphisms in genetic markers obscure detection of evolutionarily distinct populations in the endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow,) and the group’s genetic distinctness is muddy at best.  This means that their status as a subspecies is based on (admittedly well-defined) morphological and behavioral characteristics.  This is a departure from the current standard of a purely genetic standpoint of what makes a distinct population, and it pleases me to see this.  In my mind, there is more that makes a species that genetic markers.

Botteri's Sparrow

The Botteri’s Sparrow seems to be another largely overlooked bird.  The literature doesn’t even make it clear if this species should be placed in the genus Aimphilia alongside species like the Rufous-crowned Sparrow or Peucaea along with things like Cassin’s Sparrow.  The current standing is Peucaea, but it seem tenious.  A rather old, but somewhat lovely taxonomic paper on the species by J. Dan Webster A Revision of the Botteri Sparrow, explains why this might be: “The birds are such late migrants, especially the Mexican races, that many collectors have left the field before the birds begin breeding…. [and] the species has eluded fall and early winter collection almost entirely.”

Although this was written in 1959, it seems to remain the case.  This species continues to fly under the radar of many Mexican birders (that is to say, birders in Mexico.)  Although their distribution extends from the southern US to Central America, and their chosen tall-grass habitat is (relatively speaking) ample, few of my friends have ever heard of this species.  Looking at eBird data shows the same - sightings are few and scattered.  There is no reason to believe that this bird is particularly threatened, as they are able to thrive in non-native grasslands according to Jones and Bock’s paper The Botteri’s Sparrow and Exotic Arizona Grasslands: An Ecological Trap or Habitat Regained?  They are simply hard to find.  It is solitary and shy species that rarely emerges from low in the grass except to sing.  As such, it’s a species that draws my personal attention.

Song Sparrow

If you take a quick look at the song sparrow range map (the one that shows all of North America, not just the supposed North America that only includes the US and Canada,) you will notice something interesting.  There is a contiguous population across the bird-guide version of North America and then a little island of sparrows alone down in Mexico.   Geographic isolation usually means genetic isolation, and so it happens to be.  Sometimes it’s nice to have different parts of my life connecting, and it was nice to find that the sparrows I was pondering down in Veracruz happen to be the same birds my professor, Bob Zink, from the U of M published about many years before. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2410178

Worthen's Sparrow

In a birding guide to Veracruz, I came across the casual mention of a bird called the Worthen’s Sparrow.  The guide said that Worthen’s Sparrows were known to have been seen in the far eastern edge of Veracruz in an area called Perote.  This part of Veracruz features a succession of increasingly arid habitats as it nears the state of Puebla – prairie, scrub, mala pais, and eventually desert.

I had never heard of this bird before, but I attributed it to the fact that I’m a terrible birder who doesn’t even own a field guide.  I wanted to see a Worthen’s Sparrow, since I have never seen one, but I didn’t think too hard about it.  That is, until we discovered this is actually one of the rarest species on earth.  They are an almost completely unstudied group that once ranged from New Mexico to Veracruz, but is now restricted three tiny groups in north-eastern Mexico.  The total population of this species is estimated to be no more than 500 individuals, and is likely closer to about 200.

Why has nobody heard of this bird, then?  I suppose because it’s ugly, and it’s in Mexico.  Although, rare, ugly, and in Mexico is about all it takes for me to become very excited.  I have spent some time trying to find the probably extirpated Worthen’s Sparrows of Veracruz, but have turned up nothing.  I want another chance to look.  Something seems romantic to me to be the champion of an ugly bird in an ugly habitat, and another reservoir of genetic diversity would be invaluable to a minute population of slowly dwindling birds.  

The almost endemic bird of Veracruz

The Veracruz Rufous-naped Wren is an endemic subspecies to the coastal dry forests of central Veracruz.  This population happens to be it's own disjunct population and may well be considered it's own species in the future.  Thusly, when considering a bird to paint that would be representative of where I have been living, this was the (sub)species we came up with.

The RAREST bird

Lately I’ve been playing the role of the hawk-watcher in place of bander.  This has been a pretty good chance to learn, and my bird-watching in general has improved more in the past two months than it has in years.  Seeing hundreds of thousands of migratory birds is equally exciting as handling a few.  Still, there is something awesome about having a little bit of “hawk in hand.”  Here is the cool hawk I have to brag about.  (Yeah, I'm not *that* ego-less.)

 

Veracruzano Highlands

Veracruz has existed in my mind as the humid costal plains around Chichicaxtle, Cardel and San Isidro for as long as I’ve known it years that I have had to know it.  Around here, a person gets so accustomed to the wilting heat that any temperature below about 24 degrees C is cause for putting on a jacket.  On clear days, however, it is still possible to see snow on top of the Pico de Orizaba about sixty miles to the west.  There are altitudes in Veracruz that rival and then surpass those of the western US.  This year I’ve had the pleasure of discovering this side of Veracruz, which is probably the most beautiful part of this state.

One of the sites I have come to know best is La Joya, a favorite birding spots among the VRR crew.  The town itself is charming on it’s own.  It is composed of a lot of wooden building and is bifurcated by the highway to Mexico city where vests and hats are always being sold.  It features a lot of restaurants that serve rabbit, a freakishly high concentration of cheese shops, and a lot of homes heated by wood stoves.  It’s the kind of aesthetic that I appreciate.

 The main attraction however, is a gravel pit surrounded by second-growth pine forest just outside of the town of La Joya.  Sentiments about private property are somewhat different in Mexico, so a person can freely walk into the gravel pit and around the trucks and start birding, but we usually ask for permission at the office anyhow.  Usually the response is a mixture of warm welcome and total confusion as to why gringos with binoculars chose here as a tourist destination. 

For a Californian birder, the mixture of species in La Joya is a strange amalgamation of familiar birds, seemingly familiar birds, and stuff you have never seen before.  There are Stellar’s Jays and Acorn Woodpeckers occupying the soundscape just like in the Sierra Nevadas, and many things such as the Mountain Chickadees and the Dark-eyed Juncos have just been replaced by their equivalents the Mexican Chickadees and Yellow-eyed Juncos.  Then there are things like Gray-silky flycatchers, trogons, and the fabled Red Warbler that have no parallel in California.  It is a pleasantly surreal feeling to be amongst the familiar and the strange, to be in Mexico wearing a coat and battling the wind and rain rather than the heat and humidity.  It is a beautiful place with a little bit of both of the places I love.

Sorry I don’t have a camera to share photos.  Soon!

Pesticide

Back in 2009, while living in San Isidro, Teresa and myself woke up from an afternoon nap to a man in a spacesuit wandering around in our house.  My Spanish was much worse back then, so confusion set in.  Eventually we realized, after being chased out of our house, that they were fumigating the place for pests.  The store below us had apparently arranged this without our knowing.  As we stood outside of our now toxic house, we watched as swarms of swallows started to gather to eat the moribund insects collecting around the property.  Mostly they were feasting on non-target bugs that had been affected such as butterflies and dragonflies.  We were certain that the birds must have been suffering as a result as well, but we didn’t find out one way or the other.

Well, people are spraying nearby now, and I can now say for sure what the results are.  I have pictures for this blog post, but I’ve decided they are just gratuitous.  They are of dead and dying birds found around town in the past couple of days.  The dead are lying out in the open, and the dying are struggling to breathe.  In total there have been about eight of these birds found, mostly blackbirds and inca doves, and there are certainly more.

I guess there is a moral to all of this, but I don’t feel like pushing it one way or the other.  There is just a long way to go towards environmental awareness.

A couple of entries for my eventual video field guide to birds of prey

Since raptor ID is mostly based on in-flight gestalt, it is very hard to identify anything based on field marks.  Regular bird guides are of little help, because you actually have to see the bird to get a feel for it's behavior and flight style.  I thought it would be useful to have a video field guide to birds of prey somewhere online, so I'm going to slowly start one.  I don't have much for equipment in order to make this, but I'm doing what I can for now.  I am getting video faster than I am capable of uploading it, but bit by bit I will have it up.

Mississippi Kite

Cooper's Hawk

A Blast From the Past

I've posted this doodle before, but since I took everything down from my blog awhile back, I think I should re-post it. It explains (kind of) the name of this blog.

Also, I've just been missing the other members of the raptor squad.

Recent Painting

In honor of the Aplomado Falcons living on the dunes of Cansaburro who taunt the banders endlessly.

Rescue Mission

The other day we received a call from Suffield Base range control. They called to provide us with the UTM coordinates of a injured hawk that was found on the base. From their very vague description it sounded like a Swainson’s Hawk, and it sounded bad. I immediately went to go look for him.

Scheduled to pass through Veracruz October 29

When I got there, this is who I found below the flare stack of a gas plant. I was so relieved to see that the sum total of the Swainson’s injuries were just a set of badly burned flight feathers. After hanging out in my garage for several days sharing Cecil’s food, the little guy was delivered to the Edmonton Wildlife Rehab Center six hours away for a new set of feathers.

Replacing flight feathers is surprisingly easy, and falconers have been doing it for well over a thousand years. Rather than waiting a full year for new feathers to grown in or risking a total alteration in the bird’s molt cycle by pulling the damaged feathers out, a person can do what is called imping. You simply cut the damaged feather low along the shaft, leaving a little bit at the bottom, and then find a corresponding flight feather from a dead bird or a previous molt and cut it at the same point as the old feather. Using a small piece of bamboo placed in the hollow tube of the feather shafts, you can connect the old and ‘new’ feathers with a dab of five minute epoxy. This new imped feather will work just as the old one did, and it will molt just as the old one would have, because technically it is still there.

That means that this Swainson’s can be released before the migration season starts, and he can make through Veracruz and down to Argentina with all the others.

Relatively Speaking

As a prompt to get some people to visit, here is a video that demonstrates a poor view of what is considered a "small" kettle of raptors moving over - and it is still awe-inspiring to the perspective of a midwesterner such as myself.

These guys are Mississippi Kites, and they are only the first wave of migratory raptors that comes through Veracruz. They nest relatively far south in areas such as Texas and along the gulf coast so they are done with breeding and ready to go south long before most other raptors. Soon broadwings, and then later Swainson's Hawks will be joining in, and they will be coming in much greater numbers. Get your clickers ready.

Swallow Tailed Kite

Swallow-tailed Kites are an early season migrant that can be seen in small numbers, often migrating alongside the far more common Mississippi Kite. Usually one or two will be seen accompanying a flock of thousands of Mississippis. They will sometimes be seen flying lower near the coast, where I took this short bit of video.

I have a personal fascination with the Swallow-tailed kite, because it is the very first diorama you seen when you enter the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis. I went to that museum as a child and later on worked there for many years. I have spent many hours admiring that diorama thinking I would never see this birds in life. In the early days of the Bell Museum, swallow tails were often seen along the Mississippi river, but they have long since been extirpated from their historical nesting sights along the river valleys of Minnesota. I'm glad I can still see them somewhere, and maybe one day they will return to their historical range.