Archive for July, 2007
Greenwich Time, CT - Jul 6, 2007
By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer
Published July 6 2007
Brian O’Toole stepped over a guardrail at East Putnam Avenue yesterday morning and skidded down a worn path toward the Mianus River. He came to the edge of a concrete embankment, lifted his binoculars and peered into the steel underbelly of the Post Road overpass, cars rumbling overhead.
“There’s a barn swallow that’s just picked up some nesting material, picked up some mud,” O’Toole said as the small bird darted toward a nest of grass, mud and fishing line, stuck high to a steel beam beneath the bridge. “And there’s a cliff swallow. This is the only place in Greenwich you see them now.”
Drawn to the Mianus River dam area by an unusual combination of natural feeding and manmade nesting areas, four species of swallows that originate in Central and South America can be seen hovering above the estuary through the spring and early summer.
Tree, barn, cliff and rough-winged swallows feed on tasty insects that hover over Mianus Pond, and build nests in nearby trees, on the side of the bridge and in dry culverts carved into the river’s retaining wall.
It’s very rare to see those four species within 100 feet of each other, and if conservationists get their way, a fifth type of swallow will join them, said Joe Zeranski, a lifelong resident and birder for 40 years who co-wrote “Birds of Connecticut” in 1990. Zeranski has initiated an effort to purchase and install in the dam area a house for purple martins, the largest North American swallow species.
“We’re at the northern range of the purple martin. There aren’t that many colonies in the state of Connecticut,” said Zeranski, formerly a vice president of Audubon Greenwich and member of the Conservation Commission who edits and compiles summer bird counts for the Connecticut Ornithological Association.
“They like farm land and open meadows, and much of their habitat is no longer available in the state, and without that they’re not inclined to nest,” Zeranski said.
A purple martin colony this year abandoned its house at Byram Beach for the first time in memory, O’Toole said, probably because the house wasn’t properly cleaned. The species eats massive quantities of insects every day, so people often put up houses to attract the birds. Set high up on poles, manmade purple martin houses consist either of a single structure with a dozen holes that a group of birds use to make their nests, or a cluster of gourd-shaped structures that each have a hole. Once the birds migrate for the winter, the houses have to be cleaned out to make them attractive to the birds again in the spring.
Whereas barn swallows build their nests beneath the East Putnam Avenue overpass, cliff swallows build theirs on the side of the bridge. Cliff swallows used to breed at a pump station at Putnam Reservoir, O’Toole said, but appeared to have abandoned that facility when it was remodeled.
There are dozens of martin and swallow species in the world, but the five that birders hope to see at the dam will represent all but two species seen in this area, O’Toole said. Cave swallows sometimes turn up in the fall at Greenwich Point, he said, and bank swallows typically build their homes in abandoned kingfisher nests along river fronts.
Michael Aurelia, a member of Audubon Greenwich’s science committee who voluntarily manages the dam’s fishway for the Greenwich Conservation Commission, is an active birder who often visits the area in summer to watch the swallows. Herons and egrets also regularly visit the estuary to feed on the alewives crossing in and out of the freshwater pond.
Concerned that the rough-winged swallow’s nests may be wiped out by a storm that brings a coastal surge, Aurelia said he’s planning to hang pipes higher along the retaining wall, to imitate the dried-out culverts that the birds use now. “If the nests did get wiped out, then they may not return, and I’d hate to see that happen,” Aurelia said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
July 13th, 2007
TheDay, CT - Jul 9, 2007
By Robert Tougias
Published on 7/9/2007
I recently made a visit to the Bozrah Hardware Store, and when I stepped out of the car, a barn swallow was seen perching conspicuously on the roof. The sight of this bird brought back a flood of memories. I went back to a simpler time, as a child on summer vacation
We vacationed on a lake, surrounded by cottages and long green lawns. It was a barn swallows’ paradise because of this setting, plus a large, abandoned casino house, full of interior, protected nesting sites. Apparently, back in the 1930s, the old white structure was a busy place, where fortunes were made and lost in an instant.
But time caught up with the old building and the roof yielded to the harsh New England winters. Eventually the windows shattered, and the elements were free to work the building from every angle. Some of the contents remained, stacked up in what was once a kitchen.
By the time I discovered this old casino, it was in rather bad shape, but the curious child within drove me to explore. There were old museum glass cases upstairs, and below a large piano. I can still hear the off-key notes echoing through the mysterious musty smelling casino, as we would bang on it with every visit.
While the outside stairs and porch were rotted and unsafe, the inside stairs were OK. Since my enthusiasm for birds had taken off years earlier, I was amazed at what I found the first time those grand stairs were ascended. The swallows! Coming in and out in all directions, with their ruddy breasts, and swooping flights, they slipped through the shattered glass windows that overlooked the calm lake. There were dozens and dozens of them, their call notes reverberating off the walls of the empty building.
I was dazzled by the discovery; amazed by their speed and agility. I didn’t know much about these birds then, having grown up miles from any significant pond or lake, but I did know that they were long-distance migrants and fed on aerial insects. Over the years, with each subsequent vacation, my passion for and knowledge of these birds grew.
One of the most remarkable habits barn swallows have is their unique style of skimming the surface of a lake by dragging their lower beak through the water while speeding over the surface. I can never forget that. I remember that the female never left the nest for long and her forays averaged about seven minutes. She also seemed to turn her eggs each time she returned. I don’t remember much more than that, and at age 9 my observational skills were limited.
I went back two more times to that hardware store and each time I stopped to appreciate that barn swallow and his familiar colors, postures, and call notes. Watching it fly off was so pleasantly familiar, that those old memories seem to grow more vivid each time. I remembered fishing in the evening with my dad and brothers. During the late evening, the swallows would venture over the still surface and fly all around our boat. At times they would be attracted to our jitter-bug lures. Just past dusk, the swallows were indistinguishable and their dark forms seemed to change behavior.
They seemingly became bolder and their flights more moth-like, but our attention was mainly on our fishing lines. We didn’t notice that they had ceased being swallows, but rather had been eloquently replaced by their nocturnal equivalents, the furry winged bats. The swallows were safely roosting in the casino, but the bats were becoming brazen. Eventually they would fly within inches of my father’s face. My brothers and I, not knowing what they were, would laugh. Sweet memories.
Like music and art, our natural resources are more than just scientific and ecological treasures, they are a part of our world; the continuity of our experiences, and the subtle source of our moods, memories, and sweet appreciation for different times and places.
July 12th, 2007
The Japan Times, Japan - 2 hours ago
By ROWAN HOOPER
* Japanese name: Iwa tsubame
* Scientific name: Delichon dasypus
* Description: The translation of the Chinese name for this bird is smoky-bellied hair-leg swallow.
It is also known as the Asian housemartin. It’s a small bird, some 12-cm long, and is colored a dark steel-blue above and is white — not smoky — underneath. The throat is gray, and the underwings are gray-brown. Young birds are duller. Perhaps it’s the wings that give the smoky name. Males give a “za-za-za” call. It has white feathers covering the legs and toes, hence the “hair-leg” part of the name.
* Where to find them: On cliffs and large buildings or bridges. Temples are also popular nesting sites. They build a cone-shaped nest of mud mixed with a special gluelike saliva, and line the nest with grass and feathers. It’s considered auspicious if a swallow or housemartin builds a nest on your house — although given that this bird likes to nest on large buildings, you are already quite auspicious if one nests on your house.
* Food: Insects. Birds in this family — housemartins and swallows — like to skim low over the ground and water catching flies. They are highly maneuverable, with a fork-shaped tail and tapered wings, enabling them to twist and turn with speed and agility. Rock swallows will take pretty much any insect they can, including dragonflies, small beetles, mayflies and even moths and butterflies.
* Special features: Asian housemartins lay a clutch of three or four white eggs, usually twice a year. The male and the female both help build the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Much of the life of the housemartin is spent in the air, and the bird is adapted to this lifestyle with its streamlined shape, large eyes to help with catching small prey at high speed, and small legs to reduce drag while flying. They are a migratory species, flying sometimes thousands of kilometers to spend the winter in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Micronesia. It is a common bird, but there have been slight declines in numbers recently and that has meant it is classified as “amber” on the endangered list.
July 11th, 2007
Akron Beacon Journal, OH - Jul 3, 2007
Portage Lakes group hangs up homes for insect eaters
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
COVENTRY TWP. - Until Sunday afternoon, Alyce Duncan had never flung scrambled eggs catapult-style at purple martins in mid-flight with a black plastic spoon.
Duncan’s niece, Heidi Pitts and her husband, Dennis, belong to the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, which has a sanctuary for the birds near the State Mill Road boat launch in Portage Lakes.
They were among about a dozen who came out Sunday to witness what was described in the association’s newsletter as “the greatest spectacle in bird watching.'’
Shortly after 2 p.m., the assembled feeders loaded black bendable spoons with scrambled (chicken) egg bits fortified with powdered egg shell (for calcium).
The association, which has about 30 members, has erected seven poles near the boat launch with a dozen white gourd-shaped bird houses on each pole modified to ward off predators, such as hawks and owls.
Purple martins weigh about 2 ounces and are the largest member of the North American swallow family, according to the Purple Martin Conservation Association.
The white-breasted females and the dark purple-breasted mature males floated like kites on the strong breeze off the lake in anticipation of the feeding frenzy.
Their human feeders bent back their spoons, aimed for the sky near the nesting poles and launched the eggs.
Martins swooped and dived, snatching many, but not all of the snacks in mid-flight. The rest rained down on the flingers.
“There’s eggs everywhere,'’ Duncan said, laughing. “I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. I could have saved some.'’
She felt some errant egg bits thump her head.
“They’re going to dive down and get in my hair. That’s where the eggs are,'’ she said.
After the feeding, Larry R. Hunter, president of the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, lowered the gourd-shaped bird houses on one of the poles to check for invader sparrow nests and to take a peek at the baby martins nesting inside.
The plastic bird houses — which the privately funded association purchases and modifies — are arranged on a structure like a candelabra that can be raised and lowered. The association has 27 poles in the Portage Lakes area and 278 houses for martins.
Volunteers feed the birds eggs and eggshells regularly as soon as the first scout shows up sometime in April until the birds head to South America for the winter.
The association was founded in 2000 as a project with the Portage Lakes Advisory Council to boost the returning population of the insect-gobbling martins. It started with one nesting pair that year, which had five babies, known as fledglings.
Last year, 90 pairs produced 363 fledglings; this year, 103 pairs are expected to fledge 450 babies. Hunter said the group is on track to have 1,000 fledglings in Portage Lakes in 2010.
Typically, about half of purple martins return to the nests they made the previous year, but the return rate is much higher in Portage Lakes, Hunter said.
This year, 92 percent of the males and 66 percent of the females returned. Hunter suspects the rich egg diet has something to do with that.
“The reason is all this calcium they get,'’ Hunter said. “They’re in super shape when they leave here.'’
July 10th, 2007
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Greenwich Time, CT - Jul 6, 2007
By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer
Published July 6 2007
Brian O’Toole stepped over a guardrail at East Putnam Avenue yesterday morning and skidded down a worn path toward the Mianus River. He came to the edge of a concrete embankment, lifted his binoculars and peered into the steel underbelly of the Post Road overpass, cars rumbling overhead.
“There’s a barn swallow that’s just picked up some nesting material, picked up some mud,” O’Toole said as the small bird darted toward a nest of grass, mud and fishing line, stuck high to a steel beam beneath the bridge. “And there’s a cliff swallow. This is the only place in Greenwich you see them now.”
the purple martin. There aren’t that many colonies in the state of Connecticut,” said Zeranski, formerly a vice president of Audubon Greenwich and member of the Conservation Commission who edits and compiles summer bird counts for the Connecticut Ornithological Association.
“They like farm land and open meadows, and much of their habitat is no longer available in the state, and without that they’re not inclined to nest,” Zeranski said.
A purple martin colony this year abandoned its house at Byram Beach for the first time in memory, O’Toole said, probably because the house wasn’t properly cleaned. The species eats massive quantities of insects every day, so people often put up houses to attract the birds. Set high up on poles, manmade purple martin houses consist either of a single structure with a dozen holes that a group of birds use to make their nests, or a cluster of gourd-shaped structures that each have a hole. Once the birds migrate for the winter, the houses have to be cleaned out to make them attractive to the birds again in the spring.
Whereas barn swallows build their nests beneath the East Putnam Avenue overpass, cliff swallows build theirs on the side of the bridge. Cliff swallows used to breed at a pump station at Putnam Reservoir, O’Toole said, but appeared to have abandoned that facility when it was remodeled.
There are dozens of martin and swallow species in the world, but the five that birders hope to see at the dam will represent all but two species seen in this area, O’Toole said. Cave swallows sometimes turn up in the fall at Greenwich Point, he said, and bank swallows typically build their homes in abandoned kingfisher nests along river fronts.
Michael Aurelia, a member of Audubon Greenwich’s science committee who voluntarily manages the dam’s fishway for the Greenwich Conservation Commission, is an active birder who often visits the area in summer to watch the swallows. Herons and egrets also regularly visit the estuary to feed on the alewives crossing in and out of the freshwater pond.
Concerned that the rough-winged swallow’s nests may be wiped out by a storm that brings a coastal surge, Aurelia said he’s planning to hang pipes higher along the retaining wall, to imitate the dried-out culverts that the birds use now. “If the nests did get wiped out, then they may not return, and I’d hate to see that happen,” Aurelia said.
July 9th, 2007
Miami Poetry Review, FL - 20 hours ag
Post a comment
STACEY MURRAY
The Truro Daily News
TRURO – A group of scouts who built homes for the local blue bird population got some unexpected visitors singing their thanks recently.
Five local scouts have been working on a conservation project since February as the final requirement for the top scout badge.
The group built bird boxes, which serve as a habitat for blue birds and give them a safe place to nest.
“Blue birds are threatened and we’re trying to bring them back to Nova Scotia,” said Patrick Mahoney, one of the scouts.
Sixteen boxes were placed in various locations in the area and while they have attracted birds, it was the local tree swallow population that took the bait.
Tia Roode, another scout working on the project, said they’ve found eggs and other signs birds have been nesting in the boxes. Even though they aren’t blue birds, she’s still happy with the result.
“It was good finding out we helped some birds find a home.”
At this point the main project has been completed, although scouts will continue to monitor the boxes for the next couple of years.
Each of the senior scouts are now eligible for the top scout badge, which is one of the most important badges a scout can receive.
To qualify for the award, scouts have to complete 30 hours community service, take a first aid course and earn various badges.
July 5th, 2007
gregladen.com/wordpress
Published by Greg February 10th, 2007 in Commentary, Blogging, Popular Science, Health
According to Chinese historians, the consumption of bird’s nests began as a “thing to do” among the wealthy. But after a century or so (beginning during the Ming Dynasty) the medicinal and nutritional value was recognized and the bird nest was incorporated into a less frivolous life model.
While the value of the bird nest in Chinese diet and health is not disputed today (by the Chinese) when this became important and how that occurred is a complicated story.
For example, there is a document from 1596 stating that bird nest was merely a food of the rich, and there is a document from 1694 (Ben Cao Feng Yuan” or “The Medicinal Herbs in the Wild” by Zhang) stating that the bird nest has clear medicinal properties. The question scholars have is when during this period did the transition occur.
The next century or two involved a discussion of how, when, and under what conditions the bird nest become recognized as a medicinally and nutritionally important thing. It seems that this discussion settled down during the last quarter of the 19th century, but more recent work (100 years later during the last quarter of tEfe people
Ituri Foresthe 20th century) saw Chinese scientists/medical experts running the bird nest through laboratory experiments to ascertain details of their medicinal properties. (Or to test the properties’ validity?)
What are the properties? Don’t ask me. Perhaps there are none, perhaps there a many. As to what is said about the properties, I could give you a list (I have one) and Wikipedia probably could to, but since I don’t understand bird nests it would just be passing on information that I cant’ verify.
I bring this up only because of what it says about tradition.
If you are a more or less “typical” North American or European, or whatever, you may actually have fewer traditions than your grandparents or parents did, but you have some, and you probably have more than you think. Over the last few decades in America, we have managed to show our deep disrespect for tradition, for women, and for the elderly by linking the three together into the phrase “Old Wives’s Tale” and then declaring all the “Old Wive’s Tales” to be wrong. You can tell they are wrong because call them “Old Wive’s Tale” and define this as a thing that is said that is wrong. (Oh, don’t misinterpret me. I’m NOT saying ANYTHING here about what stories and beliefs are wrong and not wrong, at this time.) The center of the Reactionary Liberal Universe is the metro sexual medium BrownBlack and OffWhiteOff urban boundary EdgeLand of places like … oh never mind, you know where they are. But it is always urban, so we of the central fringe have swapped “Old Wives Tale” out and replaced it with “Urban Myth.”
It is funny for me to hear the phrase “Urban Myth” when applied to beliefs that emerge from, say, the Ozarks or the Central African rain forest . Do these people know that there is a place outside of the urban area? Do these people (the studded, the black-clad, the bobbed, and the Birkenstocked) KNOW that if you keep going in a straight line from the coffee shop you WILL eventually run into a farm, eventually a forest or something, and sooner or later you will be in the middle of nowhere surrounded by people who you wish thought like you but guess what, they don’t, and you think they want to hurt you but all they want is to make you go away, or if not at least buy something, or at least stop looking at their women and children like you were going to kill and eat them….? (Oh, sorry, have not taken my Gonzo Go-Away pill this morning … I’ll get on track right now..)
My point is that in our efforts to reject one thing, we have made ourselves stupid, as usual. In Chinese culture, historiography is critically important. It is not sufficient to say that the bird nest confers certain properties. It is also important to know when those properties were discovered and how. Beyond this it is important to know how perceptions of these medicinal values have changed, and what various different historians have said … historians that themselves were writing many hundreds of years ago … historians in history … about the process of assimilation of the bird nest into traditional Chinese Medicine. And so on.
Historiography is like a blog that you been writing for a thousand years, so every single thing you say has already been said, more or less, many times, and there is a “Hist.Oriog.Raphi.fi.Me” button you press and all the old posts that could link to your current post do link to it and become phrases of different point size and degree of transparency in the background of your text. So you have to rewrite the new text because some of it becomes illegible because the background is too dense and shows through strongly, obscuring what you are writing. Historiography is like a spouse or a sib or parent or offspring who remembers EVERYTHING you’ve ever said or done and cannot stop reminding you of it when ever anything you say or do reminds THEM of it, causing you to restate, re-justify, re-describe, re-explain and re-plan everything in the context of your past and of previous reactions you and others have had to your past. What a pain it must be to live in a culture that is based on history as opposed to one that is based on now.
This is also why the only non-boring way to learn history is to read novels.
You can never get AWAY from your past. All you can do is create MORE of it.
Your job for this weekend, for during your spare time: Take that thought (”You can never get AWAY from … etc. etc.”) and find out all the ways you can that this thought has been expressed before by other people. Extra points for the number of different cultures you can find it in.
By the way, this is not an endorsement of bird nests as thing to eat. Or not eat. I have no opinion on it, other than that I’m not doing it.
July 4th, 2007
Akron Beacon Journal, OH - 20 hours ago
Portage Lakes group hangs up homes for insect eaters
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
COVENTRY TWP. - Until Sunday afternoon, Alyce Duncan had never flung scrambled eggs catapult-style at purple martins in mid-flight with a black plastic spoon.
Duncan’s niece, Heidi Pitts and her husband, Dennis, belong to the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, which has a sanctuary for the birds near the State Mill Road boat launch in Portage Lakes.
They were among about a dozen who came out Sunday to witness what was described in the association’s newsletter as “the greatest spectacle in bird watching.'’
Shortly after 2 p.m., the assembled feeders loaded black bendable spoons with scrambled (chicken) egg bits fortified with powdered egg shell (for calcium).
The association, which has about 30 members, has erected seven poles near the boat launch with a dozen white gourd-shaped bird houses on each pole modified to ward off predators, such as hawks and owls.
Purple martins weigh about 2 ounces and are the largest member of the North American swallow family, according to the Purple Martin Conservation Association.
The white-breasted females and the dark purple-breasted mature males floated like kites on the strong breeze off the lake in anticipation of the feeding frenzy.
Their human feeders bent back their spoons, aimed for the sky near the nesting poles and launched the eggs.
Martins swooped and dived, snatching many, but not all of the snacks in mid-flight. The rest rained down on the flingers.
“There’s eggs everywhere,'’ Duncan said, laughing. “I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. I could have saved some.'’
She felt some errant egg bits thump her head.
“They’re going to dive down and get in my hair. That’s where the eggs are,'’ she said.
After the feeding, Larry R. Hunter, president of the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, lowered the gourd-shaped bird houses on one of the poles to check for invader sparrow nests and to take a peek at the baby martins nesting inside.
The plastic bird houses — which the privately funded association purchases and modifies — are arranged on a structure like a candelabra that can be raised and lowered. The association has 27 poles in the Portage Lakes area and 278 houses for martins.
Volunteers feed the birds eggs and eggshells regularly as soon as the first scout shows up sometime in April until the birds head to South America for the winter.
The association was founded in 2000 as a project with the Portage Lakes Advisory Council to boost the returning population of the insect-gobbling martins. It started with one nesting pair that year, which had five babies, known as fledglings.
Last year, 90 pairs produced 363 fledglings; this year, 103 pairs are expected to fledge 450 babies. Hunter said the group is on track to have 1,000 fledglings in Portage Lakes in 2010.
Typically, about half of purple martins return to the nests they made the previous year, but the return rate is much higher in Portage Lakes, Hunter said.
This year, 92 percent of the males and 66 percent of the females returned. Hunter suspects the rich egg diet has something to do with that.
“The reason is all this calcium they get,'’ Hunter said. “They’re in super shape when they leave here.'’
July 3rd, 2007
commercialappeal.com (subscription), TN - Jun 28, 2007
Talented volunteers have created many houses for a variety of birds at Marsh Haven Nature center.
The largest is a picnic shelter which is no longer used as such because it now provides shelter for 20 mud nests built by barn swallows and cliff swallows. At least 82 young barn swallows are on their way to fledging and many young cliff swallow are developing in their mud gourds.
A nest box trail has been set up on the center’s grounds by Jack Bartholmai of Beaver Dam. These have been monitored this year by Larry Vine, director of Marsh Haven Nature Center. The 16 boxes have been used by four pairs of eastern bluebirds, eight pairs of tree swallows and one pair of house wrens. A total of 20 young bluebirds have fledged and as many as 40 tree swallows have or are expected to fledge. The house wrens are raising seven young.
Eight wood duck boxes have also been placed on the center’s pond and in the woods. This year five of the boxes produced a total of 55 wood ducks, two of the boxes were abandoned after 30 eggs were laid and one box was occupied by European starlings which was predated by a raccoon.
Two new purple martin souses were built and donated by Tony Oechsner of LeRoy. These large houses are called T-14 houses and have 14 separate nest sites in each. Oechsner found the plans at a special web site listed as www.purplemartin.org. This affords adequate space for rearing the young martins, and allows the nest to be far enough back from the entrance to prevent predation by hawks or owls which may reach into the nest box for its prey. The entrance is also unique in that it has a scalloped bottom which excludes the European Starling, one of the major competitors for nesting cavities. The entire housing unit can be raised and lowered with a cable and pulley system which allows easy monitoring of the progress of the nesting activity or problems which might arise within the cavities. Tony counted 112 rapidly growing Martin nestlings in his houses this year.
So far this year, an impressive 320 native birds of various species have been raised and added to the state’s bird population with the help of dedicated volunteers and many busy bird parents.
Marsh haven Nature Center is located 3.5 miles east of Waupun on Highway 49. It is open from noon to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Live TV monitoring of the in box nesting activity can be seen in the center’s gift shop. Many members of the swallow fa
July 2nd, 2007
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