SOME LOCAL BIRDERS brought a frozen bird in to the Nature Center (Battle Creek Cypress Swamp) yesterday. The bird had had an unfortunate collision with a window at their home and they had bagged, labeled and frozen it. The label read, "Northern Water Thrush. Window kill." (Northern Water Thrush by Trey Mitchell)
Having never held a Northern Water Thrush before, I unwrapped it and got out the first handy field guide ...it happened to be Peterson's. Of course, next to the Northern Water Thrush is pictured the Louisiana Water Thrush and I was immediately struck by the proverbial "bolt out of the blue." Here I am, holding this beautiful little, unfortunate bird in my hand and I can't be sure which of the two birds it is.
After enlisting the aid of my talented cohort, Tanya, (and this is always the wisest thing to do when you are confounded...call for help), we decided that we needed more field guides. Out came Stokes, National Geographic, both Sibley's and Audubon. The now thawing bird is on the desk, surrounded by all the field guides available to us. We smoothed the feathers around the eyes and beak and the throat for this seemed to be where the defining clue might be hidden.
We discussed eye-line and breast streaks, weight, size and the, (in one field guide), "buffy thighs." We discussed range and migration routes. The bottom line was...we could not say for sure what bird this was. Tanya mentioned that if we could hear it sing we could tell. Well, that, obviously was not going to happen. After an hour, the concensus was Northern...even though this was the least probable choice since the Louisiana is more often found in our area.
The moral of this story is a simple one. If I can't ID a Water Thrush from 4 inches, when I have the opportunity to turn it over and examine it, there is no chance whatever of me ever doing it at 50 or 60 yards through binoculars when the bird is moving...and I sure do admire the birder than can. From this point on a Water Thrush will be a Water Thrush.
Tale of the Foot Stomping Hawk
On Friday morning I noticed a pretty Sharp-shinned Hawk perched in one of my apple trees very intently watching one of the bluebird boxes. The bluebirds have nested in the box and apparently were aware of the hawks presence. In a couple of minutes, the "Sharpy" flew over and landed on top of the bluebird box. He gripped the front edge of the top of the box and bent forward and looked in the entrance hole. His next tactic was both amazing and comical...the hawk began to dance on the top of the box...first alternating "foot stomps." (Maybe talon stomps is more correct.) Then, using his wings, he tried a "two talon stomp" three or four times. Luckily for my resident bluebirds, they didn't fall for the scare tactic. The Sharp-shinned Hawk shortly flew on....in search of prey requiring a less ingenious, (and more productive), routine. Makes me wonder who came up with the epithet, "bird brained."
Jack Lewnes
Certified Master Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Port Republic, MD
Comments