The finch's dodder

This morning, once again, I was at construction sitting there waiting to escort another construction vehicle when I heard the song of a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) only very close. I looked around and didn't see him. He sang. I looked. Nothing; until I looked over top of my truck's passenger mirror then I saw right there less than five feet from the truck singing away! It's nice to have company.



Another odd thing you'll see growing on the ground in various spots on the airfield is what looks like someone let loose with a can of orange silly string. It's actually a parasitic plant of the species Cuscuta, also known as Dodder or Witch's Hair. Here's some more information from UC Davis's integrated pest management program: Dodder Management Guidelines

No Hola...

There's typically no work in the construction site on Sundays, but today I had to escort a water truck for a couple of hours. So naturally what am I going to do while out there? That's right, I'm going to check-up on my little Horned Lark family! I looked around and didn't see the parents. I figured that I had probably caught them while they were both out -- not the first time. However, as I got closer to the nest I saw nothing. All four nestlings were gone and they hadn't all grown up that quickly! Somebody had got to them. The list of potential suspects is fairly long; a luck coyote that happens on to the nest, ravens which are frequently around (I saw two in the vicinity of the nest on Wednesday), there's our red-tails, gopher snakes, and heck I wouldn't put it past a kestrel either. The fact is the nest is empty.

juvenile Horned Lark

I am reminded that this is the nature of things, even here on this airport, animals will fall prey to predators. But don't you fret because I saw several juvenile Horned-Larks flying about with their parents.





Another fascinating thing to witness was a male lark jumping to reach grass seeds above him!

Hmmmm

Got it!

Hola little nestlings

From one egg to three, to four, and now there are four little nestlings in our Horned Lark nest! If you look closely you will notice that one is even trying to open it's eyes!

Now the mother and father are busy flying back and forth with bugs to feed their young, they also take turns sitting on the nest -- although it's the mother who spends most of the time. They also seem to disturbed by the presence of my truck parking less than twelve feet from the nest, nor my occasional visits.

female on the left, male on the right

Dad checking up on the kids

HOLA part deux

Do you see the nest?

Going out the construction site today I was a little curious to see what had happened to the nest, but not to fret it was still there with mom sitting on it. When she left I hopped out of the truck to check up on the condition of the nest and low and behold there was a single egg! After looking it up on the Cornell site I learned that their clutch size is typically two - five eggs per brood.

Additionally while I was sitting waiting to escort water trucks back and forth I got a couple of lucky once in a lifetime shots of the male almost hovering not far from my truck.

Hola Senor y Senora HOLA

Construction escorts are arguably about as exciting as watching cheese mold, but today I had some company --  a pair of Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris). The male stood watch and occasionally helped as the female scurried about collect material for their nest. On a couple of occasions the female walked right up to my truck!

A little explanation about the term "HOLA". This is the four letter alpha code given by bird banders to identify the species HOrned LArk, it's also what the biologist and I use for short-hand.
If you're curious to learn more of these codes you can go here: 
USGS Bird Banding Laboratory 
you may find this one a little more user friendly here.

female Horned Lark

male Horned Lark

You're killin' me...

Maybe you know this one. Maybe you don't. But even if you do, have you ever actually seen it? Seen what you say. How a Killdeer protect its nest? Do you know what it does to protect its nest?
First of all do you see her on her nest?

Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) on nest

Hints:

• her back is to you
• she's looking over her left while sitting on the nest
• she's near the center of the frame

Alright, so now we're going to approach and get too close to see what she'll do.

 

 There it is! The famous broken-wing distraction technique. When a predator, or in this case me in my work truck, gets too close the Killdeer flies off the nest and begins its performance. It cries out making as much noise as it can and begins to flutter around as if its wings are broken. Of course it's all a ploy to get you follow it away from its nest and just when you get too close it flies away.

I'm not skylarkin'

Honest!
To the contrary I've been quite busy and also a little bummed, enough to where I've not felt inclined to post much of anything here. I'm bummed because we lost all four of the little sparrow chicks. When we lost the first and even to a slight degree when we lost the second one I chalked it up to natural selection, as they were both on the small side despite our attention; but the last two came as a shock. I had checked on them that morning before going to work --  they were fine. A few hours later my daughter called frantically exclaiming that both birds were dead. I asked her to put my wife on and she confirmed it. My heart sank and I've been analyzing their short little lives every private moment my mind has gotten since. In the end I tell myself that "we did the best we could", "that my wife, daughter, and I aren't professional rescuers." My wife especially shouldered much of the effort, in fact she had invested so much and had seen how attached the kids had gotten to them -- my Autistic son even exclaims "baby birds" to this day when he sees pictures of them, that she asked me not to do that again. I know... I know... Nobody can say that those little birds weren't loved.

I've been busy, that too is true. We've been busy at work -- construction escorts every weekday eight hours or better. I've been busy with Scouts, CSMR, and of course family is always busy. And I continue to press on through school, in fact my first semester back is almost at an end. I am overjoyed to announce after having recently met with a counselor that all the past credits that I've earned over the years at the community college I attend still count! This means that I am closer to transfer to state college and finishing a degree in organismal biology. I did say closer. I have a lot of math to finish and specific lower division courses to do, but 75% of general education classes are done and when I do transfer I'm leaving with a double associates of science in both biological sciences and fire science. Oh, and I guess I haven't mentioned this yet -- the reason for going back to school. I have have had a goal since before I started this blog of becoming an airport wildlife biologist and working for either USDA or directly for an airport with biologist on staff like Portland.