Insight: Flocks of flickers

December 29: Today Kimberly and I took part in the Christmas Bird Count centered on Fremont, Ohio.  We saw only ten Northern Flickers for the day, but eight of those were together in a flock.  

Flickers aren't usually considered to be very sociable, so when we saw three fly across the road within a few yards of each other, we were surprised and we stopped to look.  Within the next few moments, another five flickers followed.  For a minute, all eight of the birds were visible.  They were perched in three adjacent trees, and all the birds were several yards apart.  But since we hadn't seen any other flickers within miles of this spot, it was clear that they really were associating with each other, and that as loose as their grouping was, it qualified as a flock.  The eight flickers soon left these trees, and they left one by one, but they all flew in the same direction, going toward a particular spot on the edge of a nearby woodlot.  

I've often seen loose flocks of eastern (Yellow-shafted) flickers flying together in migration.  When I lived in Arizona, I would sometimes find loose groups of western (Red-shafted) flickers foraging together on the ground during migration seasons.  A winter flock like the one we saw today is something I've encountered only a few times.  The Birds of North America account (Wiebe and Moore 2008) says that the species is "Not social but may forage in loosely structured groups at any time of year."  If more birders were specifically watching for this behavior, we might learn more about the situations in which it occurs. 

Question: value of phragmites?

Phragmites (Common Reed) - Often a damaging, invasive weed in Ohio marshes, but potentially also a food source for some wintering birds

December 24: Today I was reminded of a question that first occurred to me a couple of years ago.  I was birding along the edge of a marsh north of Oak Harbor, and I flushed a flock of about 30 American Tree Sparrows from a big patch of phragmites.  I've found flocks of these sparrows in this habitat before; are they mainly using it for cover, or are they actively feeding on the phragmites seeds?  

Phragmites australis itself is a problematic plant.  The species is native to North America, but in recent decades it has become dangerously invasive in many regions.  Here in northern Ohio, marshes that used to be varied and full of life have turned into solid stands of phragmites, crowding out other plants and supporting relatively little wildlife.  Research has shown that the invasive phragmites is actually an alien strain, introduced here from other continents.  Managers of some wildlife areas in Ohio have gone to great effort and expense to control phragmites, to maintain some room for other species.  

Of course, some species of birds will find a way to take advantage of almost any plant.  Tall, dense stands of phragmites provide a certain amount of shelter for birds in winter.  I've often found flocks of American Tree Sparrows in such places.  Once when I had time to watch such a flock for a while, I saw that the birds were actually perching on the tops of the swaying stalks and evidently feeding on the seeds of the phragmites.  Today I watched the birds to see if they would do the same thing, but apparently I had approached them too closely; they would not go back to feeding while I watched, and eventually they flew farther away to an area where I could not follow.  So this will be a question for future observation.  American Tree Sparrows are very common near Lake Erie in northern Ohio in winter; how important are the stands of phragmites as a food source for them?  

Question: Celebrating the wind?

December 21:  Continuing the streak of bizarre weather we've had so far this "winter" - temperatures are still above normal, but the most notable thing about today was the powerful wind.  It seemed to be shifting somewhat but it was mostly out of the northwest; for at least part of the day, sustained winds were at least 30 miles per hour, with gusts above 40 mph.

Most of my "birding" today was done from inside, except for forays out to look around briefly and to fill the feeders on the leeward side of the house.  But in my time outside, and in watching out the windows, I saw surprising numbers of birds flying around - seemingly more than I would on a day of normal weather.  Canada Geese and Tundra Swans were up flying around, Rock Pigeons (usually not around here) and Mourning Doves were flying, Red-tailed Hawks came by repeatedly, and flocks of blackbirds and starlings were flying around all day.  Flocks of House Finches and American Goldfinches were arriving in the yard and then departing again repeatedly, even though leaving here means flying a considerable distance across open fields to the next likely feeding spot.  

If I hadn't been watching, I would have assumed that such a windy day would have kept bird activity down.  It almost seemed as if the birds were flaunting their ability to handle these powerful, gusty winds, and perhaps flying even more than usual. 

Insight: staging cormorants

A tiny fraction of the clouds of cormorants crowding upper Sandusky  Bay today.

November 1:  The remains of Hurricane Sandy pushed inland just a couple of days ago.  Kimberly and I were driving back to Ohio from New England during the height of the storm, but today I got out to check some local spots along the Lake Erie shoreline in n.w. Ohio, to see if the storm had brought in any out-of-place birds. 

One of the most notable things that I saw involved a common bird, however, not a rarity.  Out on the open Lake Erie shoreline, where the northwest wind was whipping the waves into a frenzy, I saw very few Double-crested Cormorants.  But on the more protected waters of Sandusky Bay, huge flocks were floating on the water, crowding onto exposed islands, flying back and forth constantly.  From one vantage point on the north side of the bay, the old Yetter Road fishing access, I made a conservative estimate of eight thousand cormorants.  

The majority of the cormorants that nest around the Great Lakes move farther south for the winter, and these flocks most likely were staging prior to their southward migration.  Their concentrated numbers on the bay, rather than on the open waters of Lake Erie, may have been partly a consequence of the very strong winds and high waves of the last couple of days.  The western basin of Lake Erie is quite shallow, so strong waves will stir up the silty bottom of the lake, making the water quite muddy and opaque; this would present a challenge for birds that pursue small fish underwater, such as cormorants.  

Whether or not this was a factor, today's huge numbers on a small area of the bay certainly made for a spectacle.  

Question: Flocks of Pied-billed Grebes?

This is just part of a flock of 97 Pied-billed Grebes seen at Metzger Marsh on September 21. The species is common here, but I haven't noticed this flocking behavior before. Photo by Kenn Kaufman.

September 21: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area was loaded with Pied-billed Grebes during this nesting season, and I frequently saw and heard good numbers when I visited in May and June.  But today I was surprised to see a flock of Pied-billeds.  They were near the outer dike of the marsh, concentrated in one straggling string, and I carefully counted 97 individuals in this group.

I'm accustomed to seeing flocks of some other kinds of grebes.  Out in western North America, Eared Grebes regularly gather in large flocks on lakes, and Western and Clark's grebes will flock up on lakes or on coastal bays.  But with a marsh-dweller like the Pied-billed Grebe, I don't recall ever seeing such a concentration. 

It's possible that recent activity by anglers and hunters in the marsh has spooked the grebes out into this more open area of the impoundment, but I don't know that.  In addition to the flock of 97, I did see other scattered singles closer to the areas of dense vegetation, so at least some of the birds were acting the way I "expected" them to.

Insight: the blackbird divide

July 5:  This evening I happened to be outside at two different spots during the time that blackbirds were flying to roost.  Even though these two spots were not far apart, the birds were flying in completely different directions, revealing something of their behavior.  

In the town of Oak Harbor, I watched flock after flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and European Starlings flying over, all headed south or south-southeast.  It was near sunset, and these birds undoubtedly were all flying to a communal roosting site where they would spend the night: possibly in marshes or dense thickets along the Portage River on the south side of town.  

Leaving Oak Harbor, we drove to a farmhouse about three miles north of the town.  Flocks of blackbirds and starlings were flying over here as well - but here, they were all flying north, or north-northeast.  Clearly they were headed to a different communal roosting site than the birds seen just a few minutes earlier.  

At this time of year, it's normal for these birds to forage widely in the countryside during the day, and then fly to these communal roosts at night.  They may fly a considerable distance to a good roosting site.  But somewhere within the first three miles north of Oak Harbor, evidently, there was some kind of divide between birds going to two different roosts.  

Something that I don't know, to look into in the future: would these birds always go to the same roost every night, or might some individuals go to alternate sites on different nights?  

Insight: Birds don't read the weather maps

April 30: Last night, after carefully studying all the weather maps, I predicted that the next big flight of migrants would arrive in NW Ohio no earlier than May 2.  The weather last night didn't look favorable for migration here: winds were from the east, or even the northeast, with some rain in the latter part of the night.  But despite that, people who were out early this morning reported an excellent arrival of migrants, with numbers of Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and a big increase in the variety of warblers present in the area. 

So why was the prediction so far off?  One possibility is that we're reaching the point in the spring at which birds will go ahead and move without waiting for ideal conditions.  Especially these mid-sized songbirds, like orioles, grosbeaks, Gray Catbirds, and Great Crested Flycatchers, all of which arrived in numbers today, may be able to migrate as long as they're not battling strong headwinds.  It's also quite possible that the winds above 1000 feet were different from what we experienced on the ground - those winds may have been southerly, like the prevailing winds in areas to the south of us last night.  Whatever the reason, today was a good reminder of the fact that we can't always predict what will happen with the migration.