Smoky Mountain Owl-ology

Thank you to the Great Smoky Mountains Association 

for inviting me to host an evening class on Owl-ology at the Sugarlands Visitor Center only a few miles from 

where I grew up in Gatlinburg.  

Indoors we learned about an owl's heightened senses, owl nest-boxes, the different species of owls that are found in the Great Smoky Mountains, their calls, and dissected owl pellets provided by a great horned owl. 

We also looked at barred owls. Their preferred habitat is woods near water. They actually eat a lot of cold-blooded stream-loving animals like crawdads, salamanders and frogs. After the indoor workshop, we walked along Fighting Creek to Cataract Falls in the dark. It was most pleasant. 

The young ones in the group got an opportunity to call an owl and we learned that one of our guests named Dan spoke excellent barred owl. So he attempted to initiate a dialogue. Some of our group heard a barred owl on the ridge behind the falls but not everyone did. Dan thinks he saw it fly from one tree to another. But ultimately, we think that the owl became suspicious that we were not, indeed, other owls cloistered in the dark.

It was a fun adventure in the dark.

Thank you Dana, Ruth Anne and "Barred Owl Dan." 

deep-fried salamander tails?

This one comes in from Lynne Davis. Apparently her local fast food eatery is trying something new this March. Or at least their sign reads, "Try Our Newt Enders."

Eastern red-spotted newts are a type of salamander. I cannot imagine what their deep-fried tails taste like, but if you try them let me know. 

Eastern red-spotted newt

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first snake of the year

We'll pull away from the birds for a bit with the first SSR (snake spotting report) of 2019.

Last weekend was truly spring-like weather so it stands to reason that ectothermic wildlife meant be out. 

"I saw three of these snakes in a pile of juniper branches I was cleaning up," emailed Tim Reeves from North Knox County. The snakes were small, about the size of a silver dollar coiled up, "no more than a foot long if that with a pinkish grey belly."

Tim IDed them to be DeKay's brown snakes named to honor American zoologist, James Ellsworth De Kay.

A DeKay's is a small snake with stripes down its length much like a garter snake and a spot on the top of the head like a toupée. They really never grow much longer than a foot in length and coiled would easily fit into the palm of your hand. Nothing to be afraid of here unless you are a snail, slug or earthworm which you are probably not. (I do not get many gastropods or annelidas reading this blog.) Although if you are, please let me know. 

Thanks, Tim!



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it's nesting season in Norris

Many thanks to the Norris Woman's Club for inviting me to speak at their March meeting. Our topic of discussion was "Bird Nesting Season" and some of the things you can do to help like nest boxes, nest platforms and nesting materials (bluebirds love pine needles, titmice love fur, goldfinches love thistledown).

Open-end nest box from 
Wild Birds Unlimited

There are also several secondary cavity nesters in our area that will look for an old woodpecker cavity but will use a wooden nest box. Chickadees, titmice, tree swallows, Carolina wrens and bluebirds all look for a hidey-hole cavity, i.e. box.   

We also have species like phoebes, robins, mourning doves and barn swallows that simply look for a solid substrate or an open-ended platform box. You could call it a room with a view. Osprey's like a solid substrate too, but you are probably not going to get them in your backyard unless you live on the lake.  

Thank you Loretta, May and Linda for your kindness.

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Backyard turkey?

And speaking of backyard birds, this post is a long time in the writing but all environmental news is not bad.

There was a time when wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were impossible to find or see in Tennessee. Growing up in Gatlinburg and the Great Smokies, you maybe could find one hiding in the shadows at Cades Cove. But, that was a big "maybe." They are native to the Americas, were highly revered by the Native Americans and highly over-eaten but our European ancestors once they arrived in the New World. 

The very wild version of our popular Thanksgiving entrée of choice has a remarkable history. In my first book, Natural Histories, I write about their saga from this side of the Atlantic to Spain on the opposite shoreline and their import into the country of Turkey where they were given their common name. Yes, a native bird that is named after a foreign country!

After our ancestors arrived and we essentially eat them all, (We did the same thing to passenger pigeons.) US Fish & Wildlife and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) rolled up their sleeves in an attempt to save the species. And, they succeeded although it took decades. Modern estimates indicate that there are probably as many wild turkeys alive in the woods of America today as there were when our ancestors arrived. So much so that it is possible to see one standing on your back patio as did Lynne and Bob Davis did recently. 

Lynne sent me the above photo.

"There is a big flock on our ridge," emailed Lynne. "I think it’s about time for them to be looking for nesting spots. We think there was a nest behind the house last year."

This is simple NOT a statement that could have been made 20- to 30-years ago. 

Thank you, Lynne. 

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Bird Vocalizations part 2 @ WBU

For the second time in a week a bird-icious thank you goes out to Liz and Tony Cutrone, Tiffiny Hamlin and all the other staff members at Wild Birds Unlimited for making room in their store for me to talk again about "Bird Song as Language."

Indigo bunting

This time we looked at the different types of vocalizations used by 12 additional species that can be found in your backyards. But we added a few of the summer species like the indigo bunting, gray catbird and wood thrush that will be returning to the Tennessee Valley next month. Plus we looked at a few species that are not songbirds but are nevertheless highly vocal.  

For a bird, being vocal is energy draining and reveals its location to possible predators. Every time a bird sings or calls it is putting itself in harms way. Yet, birds ARE highly vocal and communicative with each other! The risk is worth it.


And since this is the beginning of nesting season for many of the birds that nest in our backyards, they are being very vocal and starting to defend the territories surrounding their nest sites.

Wild Birds Unlimited is located in the Gallery Shopping Center at 7240 Kingston Pike Knoxville.

Liz Cutrone and Assistant Manager Tiffiny Hamlin

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Cooper's or Sharp-shinned?

It's an Accipiter, but is it a Cooper's hawk or a sharp-shinned hawk? It's one of the hardest bird IDs to make in our area. The mature birds have gray backs, the juveniles have brown backs, so there can be some confusion there.  

Cooper's are bigger but size is hard to determine and you usually do not get a good or close look. It's fleeting at best. These two Accipiters have extra long tails, that's the first thing you notice. Then quickly look at the end of the tail. A Cooper's is rounded, a sharpie's is blunt. 

Finally, if at all possible you note the back of the head and neck: the bird's nape. Like Barb Yoakum's photo clearly shows, the sharpie's nape is the same dark gray as the top of the head. The inset of the Cooper's illustrates that the nape is lighter than the top of the head. It looks like the Cooper's is wearing a cap or at least a toupée. 

Thanks for the photo, Barb. And thank you for attending my talk at Wild Birds Unlimited yesterday.



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the monarchs are coming home

 A here-comes-spring thank you to the ladies of the Farragut Garden Club for inviting me to speak at their March meeting. I have been talking about various natural history topics with this group for the past 18 years. Yes, that is no typo. 

This time we discussed monarch butterflies, the long-distance migrant lepidopterans that have started their journey back north from the mountain ranges in southern Mexico. I wrote about their incredible life, the importance of milkweed in their lives and their remarkable journey in my most recent University of Tennessee Press book Ephemeral by Nature. 

I even tagged a few migrating monarchs with identifying numbers last October. If you see YXM 153, that is one of mine. 

Thank you, Sandra Fuller for working out the arrangements and hosting the gathering.

To watch the monarchs progress north, go to: Journey North.

YXM 153

Sara Cate releasing a tagged female monarch 
in Adair Park last October. 

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titmice fighting

Well, boys will be boys!

This morning I had to break up this fight between two male tufted titmice raging with hormones, fighting to the death over territory.

The two scuffled on my deck as I watched through the window. They eventually came to a stop with each clutching the other's eye socket. I walked out the door over to them, took this photo, then picked them up. For a bit they remained still in my hand still determined to hang onto their rival, still locked in mortal combat, until I started stroking them. One began to whimper.  

Very soon, they realized something had changed, a larger presence was hanging over them. Then they let go of each other and flew away, too quickly for me to determine if there was any permanent damage.

It is just that time of the year. Two weeks ago they were probably buddies.

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"Bird song as language" @ Wild Birds

A bird-acious thank you to Liz and Tony Cutrone, Tiffiny Hamlin and all the other staff members at Wild Birds Unlimited for making room in their store for me to talk about "Bird Song as Language."

We looked at the different types of vocalizations used by 12 of the most common backyard birds. Everything from territorial songs to companion calls to alarm calls. Each species has its own unique form of communication, in this case, we called it a unique language. 

Being vocal is energy draining and reveals their location to possible predators. Every time a bird sings or calls it is putting itself in harms way. But birds ARE highly communicative!


And since this is the beginning of nesting season for many of the birds we looked at, they are being very vocal and starting to defend the territories surrounding their nest sites.

Wild Birds Unlimited also had a special Nesting Super Blend of bird seed on sale for the event. It's loaded with the protein and calcium that young mothers need to produce strong eggs and healthy clutches. Only a handful a day is all you need to provide. 

See you next week for Part 2 of this series at Wild Birds Unlimited: 7240 Kingston Pike Knoxville. 

Tony and Liz Cutrone

morning harrier

Photo by the great Dan Pancomo. Wiki media. 

I have said this before. I live on a ridge in the woods surrounded by trees. Yet, I am never really surprised by what I see outside. 

As Thor Hanson wrote in his book Feathers. "I'm never at a loss for things to study or topics to write about: everything in the natural world is fair game. If I'm not intrigued and excited every time I step outside, it just means I'm not paying attention." 

Indeed. That's basic naturalist ideology.  

The past month I have had oodles of meadow-loving Eastern bluebirds coming to my suet feeders and heated birdbath. Yes, I said oodles. It means a surprising number considering again that I live in the woods but have five different kinds of feeders out, so I attract attention. The more different kinds of birds you can attract, the more different kinds of birds you WILL attract. That's, Stephen Lyn doublespeak.   

But this morning I stepped out on my second-floor deck to find a female Northern harrier perched in a tree overhead. I spooked her, so she quickly flew, but it was just wonderful to watch as she dipped low passing at eye-level.

Harriers are only here in the winter, and are founded over open meadows like Seven Islands State Birding Park or Cades Cove. This one must have stopped by for the night on her journey back north. Harriers are also one bird-of-prey with sexual dimorphism like cardinals. The females are brown, the males gray but both have the very easy to identify white band around the rump. 

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