year of irruption

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Red-breasted nuthatch. Wiki media.

If you have been paying any attention to your backyard bird-feeders, you already know that for whatever reason, this has been a good year for irruptive migrants.

As I first reported back in late October, Tiffiny & Warren Hamlin had red-breasted nuthatches and purple finches over a month ago. In time, they had pine siskins. 

I have had the first two, but not the third that I have noticed. To attract the irruptives, put out several feeders clustered together with different foods. Wild Birds Unlimited located at 7240 Kingston Pike can advise you on what works best. Several feeders will attract a host of birds and that camaraderie will garner the attention of the shy birds watching from nearby.

An irruptive migrant is a species that does not fly this far south every winter. A snowy owl is an irruptive migrant but do not get your hopes up. Irruptive migration is commonly caused by a lack of food in their normal wintering grounds. Also species that depend on certain tree seeds may venture south because these trees have produced poor crops farther to the north. 

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hometown eagle

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This could be historic.

Yesterday morning I received an email from fellow naturalist Shelley Conklin with a photo attached of an adult bald eagle. It was jaw-dropping. But it is the location that grabbed my attention...the once endangered species was in Gatlinburg, my hometown. It COULD be the first documentation of a bald eagle in that mountainous location. Bald eagles are found near still-water lakes and coastlines. The Little Pigeon River that flows through the resort town is not exactly still water. 

Shelley was surprised too. She emailed, it was "right passed the bypass to the park along the river. I was shocked to see it. I was able to pull into the picnic area and get pictures."

I know this location. Know it well as do most long time Gatlinburgians, it was close to where Tinkers Body Shop once stood.

Forty years ago, there were no bald eagles in this part of the state. None. They were in West Tennessee but historically, the mountains were golden eagle country. And because of the use of the pesticide DDT, there were no successful bald eagles hatched in West Tennessee during the late 1970s. 

Here I will paraphrase from my first UT Press book: Natural Histories.

 "An active eagle reintroduction program began in Tennessee in 1980 with TWRA, TVA and the Tennessee Conservation League working together on the project. The following year, young eagles were released at Land Between the Lakes (LBL) in West Tennessee’s Stewart County and at Reelfoot Lake.  

"In 1983, a mated pair of unknown origin successfully nested and raised one eaglet at Cross Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Dover also in Stewart County, and an eagle hacked [released] at LBL successfully nested at a second location at Cross Creek the following year. Bald eagles were returning to Tennessee.

“Tennessee wasn’t the first to release young bald eagles,” related the late Bob Hatcher, “but it’s now reintroduced more than any other state.” Until he retired, Hatcher was a man who had dedicated a large portion of his career to the eagles’ recovery, he spoke with great pride about their successful return.

"Between 1980 and 2004, 294 eaglets have been hacked at seven locations in Tennessee. Three of these, Chickamauga, South Holston and Douglas Lakes, are in East Tennessee. Douglas Lake, south of Dandridge has led the way. American Eagle Foundation released 69 bald eagles at the TVA reservoir between 1992 and 2003. [And the AEF program continues today, 15 years later.] In 1994, bald eagles were down listed in Tennessee, moving from the endangered list to the threatened."

So I am pleased to know that at least one eagle has found my hometown!!

Photos by Shelley Conklin.

Thank you, Shelley. 

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mindfulness moment 1

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Just a reminder to always stop once a day to be mindful of the moment. There is beauty all around us. So pause, take a deep breath, feel at peace and be mindful. 

This moment presented itself to me at 3:01 this afternoon. The Japanese red maple in my neighbor's yard lit by the sun in the west as clouds were rolling in. The rains forecast for tonight may bring most of those scarlet leaves tumbling, tumbling down.

Ephemeral all. 

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first wintering hummer of season

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Female rufous hummingbird banded by Mark Armstrong 
yesterday in Crossville

Right on schedule, the season for wintering hummingbirds has begun.

Licensed bander Mark Armstrong forwarded this photo of a female rufous hummingbird he banded yesterday at a home in Crossville.

The current recommended protocol is to keep at least one feeder out until Christmas just in case. Remember sugar water freezes at 27 degrees, so you have to make allowances for sudden drops in temperature. Positioning you feeder near a floodlight may be all it takes.

As of December 2017, a total of 238 wintering hummingbirds have been banded in Tennessee; six different western species: rufous, calliope, black-chinned, Anna’s, Allen’s and broad-tailed, plus our own ruby-throats that are caught after November 15. But by far, most of the wintering hummers have been rufouses.

For the complete history of wintering hummingbirds in our state look for my article in the current issue of The Tennessee Conservationist.

ALSO, be on the lookout for a buff-bellied hummingbird. They have been banded in the states around Tennessee, but never here.

If you have any hummingbird at your feeder, even a late-season rubythroat, please let me know through the comment section below and I will bounce your information on to Mark.

Be on the lookout for a buff-bellied hummingbird

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rufous hummingbirds

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Rufous hummingbird

Today is November 15. Between today and March 15, any hummingbird that shows up at your feeder here in Tennessee is considered a "Wintering" hummingbird and should be banded with a tiny leg-band with a number for scientific research.

The most common wintering hummingbirds other than our own late season rubythroats are rufous hummingbirds. But other western species may show up at your feeders too. 

Locally, Mark Armstrong is a federally-licensed winter hummingbird bander. Mark says to keep your feeders out at least until Christmas. Sugar-water doesn't freeze until the temps get down to 27 degrees. On colder nights, bring it in or for extra warmth position the feeder near an outdoor floodlight.

And if you get a wintering hummingbird get in touch with me.

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hummingbirds in winter?

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“There are only two ways to live your life,” wrote physicist Albert Einstein. “One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

If you buy into the latter, then hummingbirds should be high on your list of wonderments.

We all know hummingbirds, the rubythroats, the three-gram pixies. They breeze into our state in early April, really a trickle of adult males early on. Most are just passing through on their way to claim territories farther north. They pause for a day or two to visit Red Buckeyes and our sugar-water feeders. The adult females follow the males, but always keep in mind that both genders have survived an incredible nighttime migration across the Gulf of Mexico. That’s an eight to 18-hour non-stop flight.

Migration essentially ends by mid-May, so if you have hummers visiting your feeders then through July those are your ruby-throats, probably nesting in the trees nearby.

Activity at the feeders picks up in late July and lasts until October. The mothers teach their young ones the importance of feeders. Plus thousands of migrants begin in July to journey southward, back across the gulf to Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and other tropical locations. By the end of October they are all gone, a whirling dervish of activity then poof, it is over. Well, that was what we once believed.

But nature is no stranger to change. No one is quite sure when a different species of hummingbird started spending its winters, at least in part, in the Southeast including Tennessee....

For the rest of my article read the November/December issue of The Tennessee Conservationist.

By definition, any hummingbird that shows up at your home between November 15 and March 15 is a "wintering" hummingbird. If this happens, get in touch with me and I will let Mark Armstrong know. 

Thank you, Louise Zepp, the editor of the Tennessee Conservationist.



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salute

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I would be remiss this Veterans Day not to salute the serviceman nearest and dearest to my own heart: my late father Russell Bales, part of what journalist Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation." And who would argue with him?

Near the end of World War II, Dad served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific on the USS Yuma, an ocean-going tug.

The Yuma went to sea to tow damaged ships back to port that could not return under their own power. As my friend Dr. Guy Smoak points out, still a dangerous mission since Japanese submarines patrolled the Pacific as witnessed by the USS Indianapolis.

Dad was 16-years-old when this photo was taken; too young for service, too young for battle, too young to be so far from home. But wars are ignited by old men yet fought by the young. 

And for that, we salute all vets on this holiday that commemorates their courage and sacrifice.

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the raspberry finches are here

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I had been alerted! 

First, a text from fellow naturalist Nick Stahlman about purple finches at his feeder on the east side of town. And then an email from Tiffiny Hamlin with photos taken by her husband Warren on the west side.

And then this morning a purple finch showed up at my southside location. Could it be?

Often confused with house finches that are common and here year-round, purple finches are only here some winters and in much smaller numbers. In winter plumage, both species are duller in color than in spring breeding plumage. 

How do you tell them apart? One key is the shade of red. A male house finch is cherry red and the color is frontal as if a cherry pie blew up in his face. A purple finch is not Minnesota Viking purple. A better name would have been raspberry finch. And the color appears all over the top half of the body as if you had dunked the bird in a jar of Smucker's Red Raspberry Preserves. And with a name like Smucker's, it has to be good. Also look at Warren's photos and compare the purple finch's red to the cardinal's cherry red.

Also look at the streaks down the flanks under the folded wings. For a house finch these are brown, for the purple finch they are raspberry.

How do you attract them? Warren's photos hold the key. Several types of feeders offering several types of food. In winter, birds like the safety of being with other birds. So a migrant purple finch would see the activity from a distance and feel comfortable enough to fly in to eat. We always stop at the diner with the most cars parked in front. 

Why safety in numbers? Look at the photos again. There is always at least one bird on guard, watching for trouble.

To make your yard more bird-friendly, visit Wild Birds Unlimited, 7240 Kingston Pike, and they can help. 

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