Voice of the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society

January 1999 Vol. 9 No. 1

Upcoming Meetings

< January 7th, local artist Alan Campbell will present a program entitled Art and Science in the Rainforest. Alan Campbell, whose work was recently exhibited at the State Botanical Garde n of Georgia, combines an interest in science with his superb artistic skills to create works of art that interpret both the beauty of nature and the ecological impact that mankinds activities have on the natural world. The motivation behind much of his a rt is to draw attention to global problems or art not just for arts sake, but for the environments sake.

< We meet at the Princeton United Methodist Church at 7:00 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month. The church is located at 2390 S. Lumpkin St., where Lumpkin meets the Macon Hwy (US441/GA15).

A Note of Thanks to... Owen Kinney and Jim Richardson for their informative program on identifying by sight, sound, and habit our resident winter birds.

Bird Walks, Field Trips, and Events

< December 19^th, Annual Christmas Bird Count. Bird enthusiasts of all skill levels are welcome to participate in the Athens-Clarke County annual Christmas Bird Count. A count-down covered dish supper will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Princeton United Methodist Church following the count. Contact Eugenia Thompson (549-7318) or Mary Case (548-3848) for more details.

< February 13^th, Wings Over The Swamp (formerly 'Crane Awareness Day') is a celebration of birds to be held from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Okefenokee National Wildli fe Refuge in Folkston, Georgia. Sponsored by the Okefenokee Wildlife League, the Suwannee Canal Recreation Concession, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the event will include field trips, live birds of prey presentations, birding workshops and sem inars, children's nature activities, special swamp boat tours, and guided birding canoe trips. This is a

great way for birders and wildlifers to get up-close and personal with swamp's unique ecosystem. There is a charge of $5/vehicle. For more information call (912) 496-7836.

< February 12-15^th, Salton Sea International Bird Festival, Imperial Valley, California. The 380-square mile Salton Sea is a desert lake and a premier wintering ground for waterfowl with more than 380 sighted species. The program includes guided tours, speakers and workshops, a nature and gift fair, and childrens programs. Registration materials and information can be obtained through ORAS, online at

<http://www.imperialcounty.com/birdfest/>,

or at 760-344-5FLY.

New Bird Book Available:

Common Birds of Atlanta: Identification and Photographs of Sixty Bird Species Found in Backyards of Georgias Piedmont Region has recently been published by Atlanta Audubon ers Jim Wilson (former president) and Ansel Atkins (former newsletter editor). Sixty species common to the whole Piedmont region (and frequently beyond) each receive a page of sharp color photos and a page of text. Birds are arranged by size for easy find ing. The book is meant for beginners, casual backyard watchers, and youths. Price is $10 from our Education Committee, or $12 postpaid from: Ansel Atkins, 2525 McKinnon Dr., Decatur, GA 30030.

Sightings

Reported at the December 4 Meeting

<Karla O’Grady—2 Fox Sparrows—backyard, 11/25.

<David Galewski & Owen Kinney—Red-breasted

Mergansers, Pied-billed Grebes, Scaup—Lake

Chapman, 11/25.

<Maggie Nettles—Wood Ducks—North Oconee

<Tom Shelton—Hooded Merganser—his pond, 11/1.

FeederWatchers Help Track El Niño's Effects on Birds

Everyone knows what last winter's El Niño meant to people living in North America-exceptionally wet weather on the West Coast, warmer-than-average conditions in the Midwest and Northeast. But what did it mean to the birds? Projec t FeederWatch, a winter-long study of feeder birds conducted by volunteers across the country, is already helping researchers find the answers to that and other important bird-related questions. FeederWatchers tell scientists how certain bird populations are growing or declining and how their continent-wide distributions are changing. FeederWatch results are published in scientific and popular journals.

Last winter, Project FeederWatch data showed that northern finches came south from Canada into the United States and invaded southerly areas where they had not been reported in decades. FeederWatch monitored this spectacle through BirdS ource

<http://birdsource.cornell.edu>, an online project developed and maintained with the National Audubon Society. Data from FeederWatch support the idea that invasions are not random events. For example, several invading species move south in unison roughly every second year. The fact that several species make appearances during the same year suggests an underlying event is responsible. Some biologists hypothesize that this cycle is based on low food supplies in the bird's northern r ange. However, not all of these species rely on the same kinds of trees for food. FeederWatch data suggest that different types of boreal trees may synchronously produce low numbers of seeds every other year.

If you enjoy feeding and watching birds, you can easily have your feeder bird observations count for science by becoming a FeederWatcher. The participation fee is only $15 and participants will receive useful information and tips to enh ance their bird-watching experience, including a full-color feeder bird calendar and poster, and the newsletter, Birdscope, covering the latest FeederWatch results, articles on bird behavior, and more. Best of all, you can put your interest in feed ing birds to use for conservation and science. For more information or to enroll call: 800-843-BIRD; or send a check for $15 to "Project FeederWatch/BC, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, P.O. Box 11, Ithaca, NY 14851-0011".

Discriminating Chickadees (from BirdSource)

The chickadee is a familiar backyard bird in the United States and Canada. It's also one of the most- frequently observed birds in Project FeederWatch. Although there are seven chickadee species that breed in North America, all have a c haracteristic dark cap and bib with white cheeks, making them easy to distinguish as a chickadee. Correctly identifying a chickadee to species, however, can be far more challenging. Two species in particular, the Black-capped Chickadee and the Carolina Ch ickadee, overlap not only in appearance but also in geographic distribution. This often leads to misidentification. Before assuming a chickadee is one species or another, it is important to learn where each species occurs and how to tell them apart. Of th e seven North American chickadee species, five are commonly reported by Project Feeder Watchers. These are the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), Carolina Chickadee (P. carolinensis), Mountain Chickadee (P. gambeli), Borea l Chickadee (P. hudsonicus), and Chestnut-backed Chickadee (P. rufescens). The geographic ranges of the five species of chickadee overlap, particularly in the North and West. But specific habitat preferences and behavioral characteristics se parate them.

Boreal Chickadee: This chickadee is one of the few passerines whose range is almost totally limited to the northern boreal forests, where it prefers dense conifer stands, particularly black spruce and balsam.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee: These chickadees prefer mature conifers particularly along the coastal rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. It is typically found in edge habitat, alongside a stream, for example. The species is current ly undergoing a range expansion to the south and to the east.

Mountain Chickadee: These chickadees prefer mixed-forest habitat in the western half of the United States. Even in winter, they are seldom found at elevations less than 3,000 feet, although they will occasionally irrupt into lowe r elevations.

Carolina Chickadee: These chickadees prefer deciduous woods, especially along edges of streams or clearings. A lowland species of the Southeast, Carolina Chickadees are replaced by Black-capped Chickadees at higher elevations in the Appalachian Mountains.

Black-capped Chickadee: These chickadees prefer a variety of habitats and are found across the northern United States and into Canada. Generally a lowland species, Black-capped Chickadees prefer deciduous or mixed forests, except for the northern and Appalachian parts of its range, where it prefers conifers. In the southeastern portion of its range, it is primarily montane, replacing the Carolina Chickadee at elevations above 1,800 feet in winter and 3,600 feet in summer.

All chickadees are diminutive in size, ranging from 4.5 inches (Carolina Chickadee) to 5.5 inches (Boreal Chickadee). They all have a small, sharp beak; bare parts are black or dark gray. All chickadees exhibit a dark crown and bib, whi tish cheeks, gray or brownish upperparts, and dirty white underparts, with a variable amount of buff on the flanks. As previously mentioned, the most difficult chickadee identification is between the Black-capped Chickadee and the Carolina Chickadee. The two species, which are similar in appearance, are known to hybridize where their ranges overlap. Furthermore, in winter, when Black-capped Chickadees disperse southward, this area of overlap becomes even more widespread. In this zone, which can range betw een 15 and 30 km in width and extends from New Jersey west through Kansas, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the two species. Unless viewing conditions are optimal, it is best to leave the chickadee identification as chickadee sp. within th is zone. When they are in fresh plumage (fall and winter), visual characteristics are sufficient in discriminating between the two. The bib is smaller and better defined in a Carolina Chickadee. In fresh plumage, the Black-capped Chickadee has broad white edges on its inner greater coverts, whereas the greater coverts on the Carolina are uniformly gray. Thus, a white patch on the wing of a Black-capped Chickadee is broader than it is on a Carolina Chickadee. Also, the outer tail feathers are more broadly edged with white on a Black- capped Chickadee. Finally, the cinnamon-buff coloring of the underparts is less extensive on a Carolina Chickadee. In the Appalachian Mountains, a chickadee found higher than 1,800 feet in elevation is usually a Black-capped C hickadee, whereas a chickadee below that elevation should be a Carolina Chickadee. In the zone of overlap, extreme care should be taken in making an identification, as the two species are similar in appearance, and they commonly hybridize.

Thirty years ago, bluebirds were in decline. Thanks to the grassroots efforts of concerned citizens who took the simple step of putting up nest boxes around their homes and farms, bluebirds are now among the most rapidly increas ing birds in North America.

Your nest boxes will always be important. Scientists at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology need your help to ensure the continued success of bluebirds and other species that use nest boxes.

As a CNBN nest-box monitor, you can: learn how and where to put up nest boxes that will attract species that may use the habitat around your property, gather useful information on cavity-nesting birds by learning how to safely c heck your nest box without harming the birds., have fun participating in a hands-on science project that benefits cavity-nesting birds.

You can help by: counting the eggs in your nest box for clutch size study, offering feathers to swallows for their nest, estimating the number of feathers in your swallow nests, measuring nest-box characteristics such as (entrance hole size, box height, and direction), offering calcium to you feathered neighbors to learn if birds need extra calcium for healthy egg production.

For only $20, we’ll send you species accounts about all the cavity nesters you can help us study, a useful list of references, a glossary of practical terms, tips to deal with non-native species, and much more—everything but the nest bo x itself. (The CNBN materials show you how to make your own and how to select a good nest box from your local store or favorite catalogue!)

To sign up for more information, call us toll-free at 1-800-843-BIRD (2473), e-mail us at

<cornellbirds@cornell.edu>, or write us at Cornell Nest Box network / ABA, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850. Visit our web site at <http://birds.cornell.edu>.
 
 

Oconee Audubon Society

P.O. Box 48132

Athens, Georgia 30604-8132