Crane Lake Nature Blog

It’s interesting to note that back in the 1800’s, ornithologists brought along their shotguns when going on birding expeditions. Specimens were “collected” for scientific research and eggs were gathered as well. Now, it is highly illegal to possess any wild bird, and outside of hunting season, any game bird. And only game birds that were legally hunted are allowed to be mounted. It is for good reason that feathers, eggs, and nests of wild birds are also prohibited possessions. It used to be a popular hobby to collect and catalog bird eggs. It is very understandable that a hobby like that could have a devastating effect on bird populations.

When the new world was settled by the Europeans, there was intense interest in all the new species being discovered, especially in the avian world where there were so many new birds. It was, and still is, a great honor to discover a new species and then have it named after you. There are many examples like: Swainson’s Thrush, Swainson’s Hawk, and Swainson’s Warbler all named after William Swainson (1789-1855) or Alexander Wilson (1766-1813): a Petrel, a Plover, a Warbler and a genus of Warblers bear his name. Ironically, John James Audubon, the famous naturalist who we associate the most with discovering and documenting birds, did not name any birds after himself. Later the sub-species of the Yellow-rumped Warbler that occurs out west was named after Audubon.

Blackburnian Warbler

The Warbler name that has always intrigued me is the Blackburnian Warbler. This spectacular little Warbler should have an equally special name, but the name Blackburnian confused me until I found out the real reason for the name. According to my Dictionary of American Bird Names: “Some time in the later eighteenth century, a specimen was sent from New York to England, and there described and named for a Mrs. Blackburn who collected stuffed birds and was a patron of ornithology.” Even the scientific name doesn’t do justice to the bird, Dendroica fuscus, which means “tree-dweller” and “dark”. I guess there’s a lot of black on the bird, but what about the flaming orange! Maybe Dendroica tigrina, which means “striped like a tiger”, would be a better name, but that is the name of the Cape May Warbler, another jewel of our northern forests. 

Cape May Warbler

Which brings up another conundrum, many birds were named after the place where the first “specimen” was “collected”. And that’s why we have names like Magnolia Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Nashville Warbler, and Philadelphia Vireo just to list a few. These birds all go to the northern parts of North America (including northern Minnesota) to breed and merely migrate through the places that they’re named after. Go figure…

Blue Jay, juvenile

Sometimes Blue Jays are considered the bullies of the backyard birdfeeder. They’ll many times approach the feeders trumpeting their alarm call and scattering little birds as they go.

Blue Jays, Cyanocitta cristata, are famous for mobbing Owls and Hawks and usually if they are making a lot of noise there is one of those predator birds in the vicinity. But there’s also a devious side to this bird, they will intentionally scream their alarm call to clear the other birds away from the feeder, even if there is no predator around. Blue Jays are also somewhat of a mimic. They can imitate a Broad-winged Hawk’s call perfectly.

Then there’s the “piggy” part. The pouch that Blue Jays have in their throat allows them to cache food. They’ll wolf down birdseed by the beakful and then they will carry the food back into the woods where they cough it up and deposit it into a hollow log, or something similar. Later they will return to the hidden stockpile and eat. But what if they don’t remember where it is? Blue Jays are members of the Corvidae family along with Crows and Ravens, and this family of birds is well-known for their intelligent ways. So it’s probably fairly likely that the Blue Jay does remember - and if they don’t, it’s just some added bounty for other little critters, or even other birds, that roam the woods in search of a meal. It’s true that this bird is a bully and a glutton, but they are a beautiful bird to behold.

The Corvidae family, which includes the Blue Jay, has been negatively affected by the West Nile virus. Crows have been particularly hard hit and their populations have dropped. Many people down south comment on the lack of Crows. Hmmm, that means that the Blue Jay population should have dropped too, but you wouldn’t know it by my backyard feeders. This fall I have a pack of 10 birds perusing the backyard and causing a ruckus. I’m sure that in past winter seasons the Blue Jay numbers were not what they are today, particularly up north here. I think with the advent of, and popularity, of bird feeding this has kept the Blue Jay here in the winter and perhaps has even helped their numbers by making the population stronger and healthier.

Alas, in the summer when you see a Blue Jay rob the nest of a Red-eyed Vireo you tend to hate the bird. It’s hard sometimes to see nature at work, but in the wild there is a reason for everything that happens, even if it appears cruel at times.

Thanks Phil Christensen for the phone call about the Snowy Owl sighting. The all white adult Owl was found by Moose Lake just outside of Orr. It’s been a long time since I have seen a Snowy Owl and I think I’ll take a drive around Orr today to see if I can find it. Snowy Owls like open areas, similar to their native Tundra, so a good place to search would be the Orr Airport. After I take a look around there, Phil suggested I try the Gusman Road just west of the airport.

This past week in Minnesota there have been some fantastic sightings, including two first state records: a Black Guillemot at Taconite Harbor on Lake Superior, and an Acorn Woodpecker at Crow Wing State Park just south of Brainerd. Great photos and an account of the experience can be found here: http://www.wildphotosphotography.com/WildPhotos/links/Acorn_woodpecker.htm

Wow, look at the website I found! All the paintings and sketchings of the famous wildlife artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/Fuertes2000/BirdView.asp?From=bbn&QY=g&Size=2&BirdID=2171

I recently purchased a book called “The Dictionary of American Bird Names” by Ernest A. Choate. I had to buy a used copy as the book is out of print, the one that I got was from the first printing in 1973. The book describes the Common Names for birds as well as the Scientific Names. It tells you what the name means and how the word came about.

English as a language is a blend of several languages, including Latin and French, and it is constantly evolving. Words and the English language have always fascinated me, one of my favorite classes in college was the course I took on linguistics. In that class we explored the roots of words and what language words came from. The oldest words in the English language are Anglo-Saxon and that language has Germanic roots. Then when the Roman empire came into existence and their expansion into northern Europe came about around 43 AD, some of their words started being used, many of the Latin words had Greek origins. Later when the French invaded England around 1100 AD, French words made their way into the English language. Thus there are many words in existence today that have Latin and French roots.

American English is a major dialect of the mother tongue. It is constantly adding new words and dropping old ones. And trying to spell the mish-mash of words coming from all those different origins is a challenge. English as a written language is not phonetically functional, meaning the spelling doesn’t necessarily follow the pronunciation, just ask any 5th grader as they prepare for a spelling bee.

Anyhow, this book has many little tales to tell. An example is the name for the bird that we call the Cormorant. That word has French origins: cormoran,  which in turn can be broken down into the Latin origins: corvus, “crow” and marinus “pertaining to the sea”. So I guess we could say that the Cormorant is the Crow of the Sea, or Sea Crow. Another interesting name is the Merganser. It has it’s roots in the Latin language and can be broken down as mergus, “a diver” and anser, “a goose”, hence “diving goose”.

Gray Jay

The book describes the Common names for birds and also has anecdotal stories about some of the birds. One that interested me was the story about the Gray Jay. So many legends surround this bird, I am finding new ones all the time. This book talks about the Camp Robber and why the name was used by the hunters, trappers, and the backwoodsman of the north. Here’s an excerpt from the book: “They do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martins and minks and by eating the trapped game: They will sit quietly and see you build a trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful “ca-ca-ca” as they glide down and peer into it”. 

I may have created a monster by buying this book, it makes a great armchair read! There will be many more word explorations and tales from this book in the coming weeks.

Peanut Butter Feeder

Here’s a great homemade birdfeeder that would be easy to make for Christmas gifts. I got this one a few years ago from my Dad. He simply used a drill with a auger bit or a regular spade bit to drill holes in a small log. I fill the holes with peanut butter, but you could also fill the holes with a homemade suet mixture.

The Chickadees and Nuthatches love Peanut Butter. Boreal Chickadees also like Peanut Butter, and three years ago the Yellow-rumped Warbler, that over wintered in my backyard, was a regular customer at the Peanut Butter feeder. There are no perches on the log, but the Peanut Butter is such a treat for the birds that they’ll find a way to hang onto the rough bark of the log.

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeaks arrived back in the Crane Lake area last Saturday, the 24th. I’d been listening for them as they usually come back into town around the 23rd of October. Last Saturday morning was a clear sunny day and completely calm, so it wasn’t hard to hear the unmistakable chirrpy warble of the Pine Grosbeak.

Pine Grosbeak

The last few years, I have been casually keeping track of the dates that Pine Grosbeak come and go from Crane Lake, and it’s almost as if you could set your clock, or your calendar, by their movement. Looking back at my records, they arrive in the area in the Fall around October 23rd, and then leave in the Spring about March 15th. According to the MOU (MN Ornithologists Union) website, the Fall arrival date in the north is October 19th and in the south it is November 10th. The Spring departure date is April 5th for the north and March 10th for the south.

Usually when the Pine Grosbeaks first get back from their breeding grounds in Canada, they stay up in the trees and forage for their natural foods before coming in to bird feeders. Then once they find the bounty of the sunflower feeder they come in droves. 

We are lucky here in northern Minnesota, as we can depend on the Pine Grosbeaks to grace our landscapes with their presence in the bleak winter months. In the summer this bird occurs in Canada, Alaska and in the mountainous western states of the US. Pine Grosbeaks also reside in the Old World from eastern Asia to Scandinavia. They are considered a permanent resident in most of their range and don’t migrate. The Pine Grosbeaks that do migrate in North America are from a population that breeds up by Hudson Bay. Those birds head south to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and upper Michigan in the winter. It’s interesting to note that in other parts of the US, like in New England, they will get some Pine Grosbeaks moving south, but only in irruptive years.

Snow Bunting

Also sighted last weekend were my first Snow Buntings of the Fall. It seems like they vary a bit in their seasonal movements. The MOU website says they can arrive anytime between Oct 5th to Oct 18th - it seems they’re a bit late this year. An old timer once told me that when you see the first Snow Buntings it means that snow is 3 weeks away. I’ve always remembered the old adage, but it has never rang true! This year it’s already snowed a couple times, and it feels like winter right now…Oh well, it’s fun seeing the Snow Buntings again and the flash of white as they fly from the roadsides.

Eastern Phoebe by Alice Hill

Alice took this photo on October 20th. That’s pretty late for this summertime resident. The MOU (Minnesota Ornithologists Union) has the northern departure date as October 14th, the southern departure date is October 31st.