THE FISH HAWK
HERALD
Coeur
d’Alene Chapter of the National Audubon Society
January
2007
Volume 16 Issue 5
The annual subscription fee for a hard copy of The Fish
Hawk Herald is $15 for one year, or
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COEUR
D'ALENE AUDUBON CHAPTER,
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P.O.
Box 361
Coeur
d'Alene, ID 83816
CdA Housing Shortage Hits Area Birds
Dick Cripe, CdA Audubon
For several years I have put up bird houses around our property
without much effect. Although birds
have nested in our dead snag (since fallen), they have snubbed our finely built
bird houses. This spring I moved each house to a slightly different
location in a generally random manner.
I was surprised and pleased to find both birdhouses in front of our
house quickly occupied, one by a pygmy nuthatch couple, and the other by
Violet-green Swallows. The house in our
back yard also showed Violet-Green Swallow activity, so we were
encouraged. The parents in the two
boxes in front successfully fledged chicks.
After the Pygmy Nuthatches fledged their chicks from their house they
sublet it to another pair of violet-green swallows who successfully raised a
brood. So three broods of chicks came
from the two houses in the front yard.
In the meantime, however, the bird house in back had become
inactive. The reason became clear one
day when I found a flying squirrel sleeping there. I observed him (or her) several times over the summer, so he had
adopted the house as a motel for use when he was in the vicinity.
I placed three houses in the undeveloped property across
the street from our place. One remained
unoccupied throughout the summer, one was taken over permanently by a flying squirrel
who slept on top of a wren nest, and the third house was occupied by House
Wrens. The wrens raised four chicks
successfully during the summer.
Roger Young and I placed four houses on the Johnson Farm on
the north side of Best Hill above our place.
One house was immediately occupied by a pair of Western Bluebirds before
we had even finished placing the fourth house.
They were successful with one brood of chicks and laid another clutch of
eggs, but abandoned the nest before the second clutch hatched. Wrens occupied two of the other houses and
successfully hatched chicks. The fourth
house showed evidence of nest building, but eggs were never laid.
Roger and I also placed six houses on Ponderosa Springs
Golf Course on French Gulch Road. We checked
periodically throughout the summer and found five of the six houses occupied by
either swallows or chickadees, though we did not determine how successful they
were at fledging chicks.
Of the 16 houses we put out, 11 were occupied with eggs
laid; two houses had nesting birds ejected by flying squirrels. Only three houses never had eggs laid in
them. We are looking forward to placing
a few more houses in the area next year to help keep up with the demands of the
busy CdA bird housing market.
GREEN TIP
Green tip is a monthly feature in our newsletter. It is designed to give you ideas for taking
personal conservation action to improve the environmental health and habitat
quality of our yards and neighborhoods.
(Members are encouraged to send
tips to the editor for inclusion in future.
WHAT WILL YOU BE DRIVING IN 2010?
Lisa Hardy
All of us have, at one time or another,
been stuck in traffic behind a stinky diesel truck or car, and the adjective
"environmentally-friendly" does not immediately spring to mind when
we hear the word diesel. But today's diesel engines are equivalent to gasoline
engines in the green balance because their better fuel economy negates their
higher particulate emissions. In other words, diesels produce more
particulates, but less greenhouse gases per mile driven. (You're off the hook,
Roland.) Fifty percent of new cars in Europe have diesel engines compared with
about four percent in the United States.
Tomorrow's
diesel engines are another story. Mercedes-Benz is developing the Bluetec
process which will cut emissions even further, and they expect to have cars
with this technology on the road in 2008. A prototype Bluetec engine was
featured on Marketplace last month, where the reporter noted that there was
almost no odor from the tailpipe with the car running. The emissions from this
new crop of diesels will be lower than that from gasoline engines, making
diesels the "green" choice, along with gasoline-electric hybrids.
Unfortunately, the cost of the advanced technology for both these green
automotive choices is higher than the costs saved by increased mileage.
I
am waiting for the advent of the diesel-electric hybrid, which will probably
get 80 or more miles per gallon. Until then, we have a few other green choices:
More
information can be found on the internet, starting with:
http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center-article_110/
Trumpeter
Swan Observations
Idaho
Department of Fish and Game
Date: 10/20/2006
(editor's note: 99% of the swans that come through North Idaho are Tundra but one
never knows)
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is once again asking for your help in
looking for collared swans. Budget cuts have reduced the Department's ability
to hire personnel designated to look for collared swans. Federal and other
state agencies have experienced similar cutbacks, therefore routine swan
surveys will be greatly reduced this year.
Almost 400 Trumpeter Swans in southeastern Idaho were collared during the
winters of 2001-2004. Trumpeters have also been collared in surrounding states
and in several Canadian provinces. The survival and movements of these collared
swans provide 
biologists with information critical to
the management and conservation of Trumpeters range wide.
Neck collars are 3-4” tall and can be green, yellow, red, white, or many other
colors depending on collar age and color fading. All collars have an alpha
numeric code. Some collars may also have a radio and antenna attached.
Project cooperators are asking that all collared Trumpeter Swans be reported to
the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, phone: 208-525-7290, or by e-mail to
Lauri Hanauska-Brown at lhanausk@idfg.idaho.gov . Please be sure to include
in your report: collar color, alpha numeric code if possible, location of
observation, date and your contact information.
Your cooperation is greatly appreciated!
Lauri Hanauska-Brown
BROWN BAG BIRDING
- . Lynn Sheridan
December 19
The day was cold and clear. There were just Roland Craft and I but we talked to strollers along the way. One asked if it is possible to see robins in
winter and another didn't know there were different kinds of gulls One woman had visited Wild Birds Unlimited
to check the identification of a yellow headed bird. Roland thought it
would be good if we had a "business card" to hand out with our
address and website. Yeah!
On the sand at Independence Point we noted 3 California Gull among a small group of
Ring-billed Gull, a few Canada Goose, Mallard and 5 Rock Dove. On the
rippling water were 2 grebe species, diving.
We drove to the far end of Rosenberry Drive and scanned for
"unusuals": Bufflehead 4, Mew Gull 2, and 20 American Crow
were among the hordes of Canada Goose,
Mallard and Ring-billed Gull. Out on
the pilings in the lake were 15 Double-Crested Cormorant. Sadly, there
were no Bald Eagle or Great Blue Heron or chirping of small birds.
Thank you Roland.
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS
Coeur d'Alene CBC - December 14 - in its 16th year
Shirley
Sturts, Compiler
We had 20 field participants divided into 6 teams, plus 6 feeder
watchers. We counted 65 species plus
another 12 during count week, and 8265 individual birds. The highest number of species we've had for this
count was 80 in 2001. The highest
individual count was 8808 in 2004. Part
of the reason for the low species number this year was the rain. It started sprinkling on us before noon and increased in intensity as
the day went along.
Even with the rain, nine species had the highest number seen over the 16 year
period: Lesser Scaup 64, Bufflehead
1023 (previous high was 562 in 2004), Red-breasted Merganser 3, Common Loon 3,
Pied-billed Grebe 57, Horned Grebe 146,
Eared Grebe 2, Double-crested Cormorant
38, Pygmy Nuthatch 177 (previous record was 110 in 2001,2002, and 2004). The Double-Crested Cormorant was first seen in 2001 (5 birds) and has increased every year since
(5,8,17,18,32,38). New to the count, or
should I say almost new, was the Long-eared Owl during count week. Count week is 3 days 
before
or 3 days after the actual count day.
Noticeably, the
record for low count numbers goes to the Pine Siskin with only 4 being
counted. The high for this species was
346 in 1999. Pygmy Nuthatch numbers have varied a lot. From 1991-2006, count numbers are as follows: 306, 285, 4, 4,
6, 16, 163,
11, 346, 50, 147, 14, 103, 53, 2, 4.
Species seen by all teams: Mallard, Ring-billed Gull,
Northern Flicker, American Crow, Common Raven, Black-capped Chickadee, European
Starling, Song Sparrow, and House
Finch.
Species
seen by one team only: American Wigeon, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Long-tailed
Duck, Barrow's Goldeneye, Hooded
Merganser, Eared Grebe, Sharp-shinned Hawk,
Killdeer, California Gull, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Belted Kingfisher,
Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Shrike, Gray Jay, Townsend's Solitaire, Varied
Thrush, Bohemian Waxwing, Pine Siskin,
and Evening Grosbeak.
Total party hours (6
teams added together) of birding: 4 hours on foot, 44 hours by car and 11
feeder hours. Total party miles: 3 miles on foot and 368 miles by car. We birded from 7:15 a.m. to the last team
quitting at 4:14 p.m..
Field Participants
were: Johnathan Breneke, Kris Buchler, Janet Callen, Roland Craft, Dick Cripe,
Bill Gundlach, Lisa Hardy, Jerry Hanson, Wes Hanson, Stephen Johnson, Nancy
Mertz, Theresa Potts, Kate Rau, Don and Mary Ann Scoggin, Jan and Herb
Severtson, Lynn Sheridan, Shirley Sturts, Juday Waring.
Feeder Watchers were:
Laura Bayless, Jack and Zella Bloxom, Corinne Cameron, Mary Vanderbilt, Phil
Waring
See the count list for December 2007
See chart chart for counts 1991-2007
Coeur
d'Alene Birders Help Bring Off Bonners Ferry Christmas Bird
Count
Lisa
Hardy, Compiler
With
only one team being stopped by police, the revivified Bonners Ferry CBC on
December 30 was judged a success. This Christmas Bird Count had not been run
for the last 3 years due to lack of participation, but this year the count was
resuscitated by nine enthusiastic
birders from Coeur d'Alene, Priest Lake and Sandpoint. Jenny Taylor and I drove
up from Coeur d'Alene, and headed up two teams, while Paul Sieracki and his son
Eric made up a third team, and Earl Chapin brought with him from the Sandpoint
area his wife, daughter, son, and a friend, Barry Kendall. Perhaps the count
should be renamed the "Earl Chapin & Family" count.
Despite the 8" of snow on the
ground, we tallied 58 species, including 5 species new to the count. One of
these, Pygmy Nuthatch, is also a first county record as far as I am aware. The
pygmies were found in a mixed flock by Jenny and Barry. Other species new to
the count are Blue Jay, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Varied Thrush and Pine Grosbeak.
Talking
statistics, we came up with high counts for 25 species, which might be due in
part to concentration of birds by the snow cover. There were no feeder
counters, and we had 13 species reported by all 4 teams, while 17 species were
reported by only a single team.
Carol
Cressey (Earl's daughter) and I worked the northwest quadrant below a gray sky.
Off to the west, we could see that the sun was shining on the crest of the
Selkirks, and later in the day, we could see that the sun was shining in
Canada, too. Although our team was the only team that did not find a "new
to the count" species, we had a great time, driving the snow-covered dikes
along the Kootenai River, with good looks at White-breasted Nuthatch,
Townsend's Solitaire and Common Redpoll.
Jenny
and Barry were not actually pulled over by the police, but by an Idaho Fish
& Game conservation officer who fortunately knows Jenny from her days when
she worked at the Bonners Ferry Ranger Station. Concerned residents had
reported the odd behavior of the birders who appeared to be poachers hunting
from a Subaru wagon. After chatting with the team, the officer offered to help
with next year's count.
Altogether, it was a very good day of
birding, even though we could not produce a Boreal Chickadee. Earl Chapin has
pointed out that the Boreals come down into the valleys in winter, and Bonners
is the only count in the state likely to produce a Boreal. Maybe next year...
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OBSERVATION POST
From the Journal of
Janet Callen
BIRDIE
November 30 was a cold day with some snow on the ground,
but the birds were very active at my feeders with a small flock of Mourning
Doves busy cleaning up underneath. Shortly
before noon I noticed a different dove sitting on one of the feeders with its
buffy-colored feathers fluffed. With its back to me I could see a black ring
around the neck. Eureka!!! I had an
Eurasian Collared Dove.
Certain of my identification, but also certain I needed
another person to confirm, I called Kris Buchler and Shirley Sturts but neither
one was home. About two hours later
Shirley called and said she’d be over right away. The bird was sitting on another feeder and I was becoming rather
concerned as it seemed rather lethargic.
Was it sick, or injured?
When Shirley arrived we went into the back yard to get a
closer look and the bird wasn’t frightened as we got within six feet of
it. It was then that I got a major
lesson in bird identification when Shirley mentioned a Ringed Turtle-Dove. Both
birds are similar but a primary diagnostic difference is white undertail
coverts on the Turtle Dove and gray on the Eurasian. The bird flew to a branch of a tree, and we could verify the
color of the undertail coverts and they were white. When the bird flew down to food within a foot of me, we knew we
had a tame Ringed Turtle-Dove.
According to Sibley, the Turtle-Dove is a domestic variety which fares
poorly in the wild.
We attempted to catch it, but it stayed just outside our
reach. I called Duncan’s Pet Store to
see if they knew of anyone who could help us and they didn’t, but they did say
they would take the bird if we caught it.
We put some bird seed in a shallow cardboard box, the bird flew into it,
we threw a cloth over it and had the
bird-in-hand! A quick transfer
to a cat carrier and Shirley took “Birdie” to Duncan’s. She reported the bird calmly accepted being
put into a cage and would be isolated for a few days to make certain it didn’t
have a contagious disease.
I stopped by Duncan’s the next day and one of the employees
said Birdie was doing much better. The
bird had been dehydrated and hungry but now was eating and drinking and
appeared comfortable. In a couple of
days it would join a pair of Ringed Turtle-Doves up front.
From the Journal of Shirley Sturts
We ended the Kootenai County Big Year with 205 species. On
December 30th, Bill Gundlach added our last bird species with his
observation of 20 Common Redpoll on
Higgens Point.
During a Feeder Watch session on November 18 and again on
December 2, I enjoyed watching the feeding behavior of a Steller's Jay. This is a species that I see only
occasionally in my yard. I had put out
some peanuts in their shells on the ground and on a feeding tray just outside
my window. The jay would pick up and drop some dozen or so peanuts before
selecting one to carry off to an unknown location. . Sometimes it would work
one down its throat and then pick up another before flying off. Each time it would only be gone a few
minutes before
returning to select more peanuts. Each time it went through this pick up and drop routine. All corvids, including the jay, store extra
food by burying it in the ground or hiding it in a tree. Why it spent time with picking up and dropping peanuts in this process is a
puzzle. I only saw it shell and eat a
peanut on one occasion. It held the
peanut down with one foot and pounded the shell open with its beak.
Another species I enjoy watching at my feeder is the
Morning Dove. One morning I noticed one
dove
was spending all its time chasing other doves away from the
food. It was so busy protecting its
food supply that it didn't have time to eat.
What a waste of time and energy, I thought. There was plenty of seed and cracked corn for all the doves
present.
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