Oregon Birding - Day Seven

American Crow

Today was a by-opportunity kind of birding day. When we had finished helping our son and daughter-in-law, along with our grand kids, paint the front of their house, it was time to grab the camera and walk down the street to get some closer shots of a couple of American Crows resting at the top of some sort of spruce tree. After greeting some of their neighbors a few houses down, and clicking off a few shots of the crows, I noticed a flock of small birds chattering in some shrubs across the street. I started taking some shots of them, and then the dozen or so of them together flew back across the street into a small tree. I took more shots until they went back back to where they came from - more shots. All the

Bushtit

time I was checking them out, they kept up a constant stream of chatter among themselves, and all the time the crows were keeping up their watch far above us - silent, not a peep. I took my camera up to Salem today, hoping to get a shot of the crows that are residents of the neighborhood. Occasionally while painting,  I looked up and noticed the trek of crows carrying various objects in their beaks: an orange peal, small twig, other things; along their path over the spruce tree and beyond to the stand of oak trees next to Wendy Kroger City Park at the end of 2nd Street. Given that the Bushtits came out in a chorus line - swarming as they sang in a choir, bringing the camera was timely for a little birding fit in at the end of the day, taking in a couple of big birds in the tree tops, and lots little ones in the bush.

Sam's Club Family - Eastern Kingbird

Parking lot habitat

Jan and I went to Sam's Club yesterday to pick up her new sets of contact lenses. When walking back through the parking lot looking for our car, I spotted a bird I hadn't seen before circling and then landing in the upper branches of a crepe myrtle tree. I walked up closer and spotted a nest about five feet above me with a female perched on the brim looking down on several naked chicks, with the male close by - I thought maybe a Martin. The air was heavy with humidity and the temperature was in the 90's°, so Jan wanted to get the car going with the air conditioner on. Later last evening after doing yard work and eating dinner on the patio, I asked if she wanted to take a quick drive back to Sam's to take a photograph of the birds - a nicely said "No" was the reply. I still wanted to figure out what the birds were, so this morning after church we drove straight to Sam's Club to get a picture. The male wasn't around, but I could get a decent view of the female on the nest. After getting home I got out my Stokes Field Guide to Birds - Eastern Region and figured out the birds were Eastern Kingbirds. From their vantage point at the top of the tree looking down on the cars and shoppers coming and going, the Tyrannus tyrannus family have earned the title, tyrants of the Sam's Club parking lot.⁽¹⁾
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(1) It is interesting, after making this post I did a Web search and found a posting for Eastern Kingbirds at Sam's Club on a laurel oak tree - and it looks like the photographer lives in Riva area around Annapolis. Click here to check out the photograph - maybe it's the same family, or at least the parents.

New Carrollton Station Parking

For the last eight months I have been commuting to Downtown Washington, D.C. (see the earlier blog.) I typically park in the structure at New Carrollton Station, and then catch the Metro for a 30 minute ride to work. The first step to an uneventful commute back to Annapolis - remember where I parked my car. The eight-level parking structure is made up of multiple ascending and descending ramps that are wide enough to park cars on the left and right sides of the driving lane. There are breaks mid-way in the supporting walls that form passages for walking between levels, and that can serve as short-cuts for exits if cars are not parked in them. Not only do you have to remember what level you are parked on, but also which of the three lanes you parked in, and whether on the left or right side, and at the proximal or distal end of the level, relative to the elevator or stairs.

There have been four times in the last four years of using Metro that I walked to where I thought I had parked my car, only to not find it where I thought it was. When that happens, all you can do is try to think back and retrace your actions nine or ten hours earlier. It is easy to spot other commuters in the same situation by way they walk, stop, and then have that stair-ahead-in-space-look - you know they are thinking "where did I leave my car?" I have even seen people looking for their cars, while I walk in circles through the structure looking for mine. (It would be a good Twits sketch if Monty Python's Flying Circus was still active.) One of the technological saving graces of finding a lost car in the labyrinth is the electronic key fob. As long as there are no cars exiting so it is quiet, I can press the unlock-door button and then carefully listen for the distinctive Toyota sound. The unlock-door button is superior to lock-door button because you get two beeps instead of one - a kind of sonar beep that beings to give reassurance that I am close to finding my way back home. A car search typically adds an additional half-hour onto that evening's commute home. When I realize that I didn't remember where I parked my car, the last thing on my mind has been to time how long it takes to find. But my wife can tell because I always text her when I arrive at my Metro stop - she then times dinner being ready with my arrival home. When I don't show up in 40 minutes, its either bad traffic, or a lost car.
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This past week as I was exiting the parking structure, I saw this family of Canada Geese walking across the street. I stopped, unzipped my brief case, and dug out my camera to take a quick shot. I kept looking in my rear view mirror to be sure I wasn't holding up anyone - some drivers get impatient with the littlest things so honk their horns. No other cars were in sight, so I got this portrait of part of the proud family - not the greatest composition, but at least captured the moment.

It is amazing how wildlife adapt to the Washington, D.C. urban environment - just as commuters looking for their cars have to do so in multilevel parking structures, or they would never get home for dinner.

Sings So Sweet

I wake up early in the morning often these days - 3:00 AM - and I have found whether an upstairs window is open or not, I can hear the sounds of birds singing.

Right now it is 5:55 AM, and I have been browsing the morning news on the major city newspapers' Websites, and checking our youngest son's daily 100-day countdown blog. In the background from outside, I hear the coo, coo, coo of a mourning dove over the old-man ringing in my ears. There are other bird songs playing as well, but I am not all that good of a birder, because I don't know them: woo, woo, kaa, kaa, kaa.

On the front page of this morning's Washington Post, is an article all about the influences of urban sounds on bird songs - interesting.

The birds here on the East Coast are remarkable - they are remarkable also in the ways they adapt to their environments.

* Birds may be choosing to sing songs that contain higher notes, or are raising pitches to stand out above the noise.

* The regions of the birds' brains associated with song undergo partial renewal each spring, which may cement into the bird's head certain songs tailored for a noisy territory.

* Birds may learn modified songs, or may not be able to hear low notes, or they may simply drop low notes that aren't effective.

* Females may be more likely to choose males who sing in higher frequencies, and are known to select males that show a proficiency for learning.

* If birds sing more loudly in response to noise, they will use more energy, which could lead to either shorter, more efficient songs or diminished vigor.

Maybe it would be interesting to record how westerners from small college towns adapt to the hustle and bustle of the East Coast as well.