Dead trees are home to "cavity nesting" birds

A dead tree is somebody's home

The term "cavity nesters" is used for bird species that nest in old, probably-dead, trees. In north Texas that includes Chickadees, Titmice, Wrens and Bluebirds. These arborial homes were, probably, originally made by Woodpeckers, who lived there and raised a family. But all these birds are having a harder and harder time finding homes, because of humans' proclivity for cutting down all dead trees, and trees that just look sick.

 

 

 

 

                                    A dead tree left in place boosts the number of creatures dramatically. Watch this video.

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Why don't birds fall off their perches?

Belted Kingfisher

When birds sleep or rest, they may perch on a branch and remain there, motionless, for a long time. But, even in sleep, they won't lose their grip and fall off.

You see, their legs are not constructed the same as ours. The arrangement of the leg bones, muscles, tendons and feet is roughly opposite of ours, having sort of a ratchet-type operation. When awake, birds can adjust the leg/foot movement, but when asleep the feet clench tightly, like they're glued to the perch. This happens automatically.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

All fall migration flights aren't to the south. Actually, most north Texas birds don't migrate at all. The Grey Bat, however, is a tiny harmless creature that flies north. It lives in warm, dark caves, like south Texas and Florida. But when it wants a place to hibernate each winter, it seeks out relatively cooler areas, perhaps Arkansas or Tennessee.

During this wintertime hibernation in cool areas, its heart rate drops from several hundred beats per minute to twenty or thirty.

 

You have bats in your neighborhood. Really!!!

Whether you've seen them or not, it's almost certain that bats are in your neighborhood. Which is a very good thing, despite what old Hollywood fables proclaimed.

Mexican Freetail Bat

One healthy adult bat can catch and eat about 5000 flying insects per night. Pretty good for an animal about an inch-and-half long. We were just in Austin, and visited their urban bat colony; didn't see a single mosquito.

Bats hunt within a radius of about 40 miles. So a bat roosting in your neighborhood could be eating mosquitoes in Gainesville, Frisco, Graham or your back yard.

Actually bats are not rabies vectors. They don't carry rabies without getting very sick themselves. And if they're sick they can't fly or hunt food, and usually die in about a day.  Not much time to bite a human and transmit rabies. There is no plausible evidence of airborne rabies transmission by bats. To the contrary, they eat a lot of insects that do carry disease - like West Nile Virus.

Yes, bats have an image problem. If a colony of bats gets wiped out (for whatever reason) it's slow to repopulate. That's because each female has only one "pup" per year.

Bats like to be near water. That's because one can lose up to half its body weight through evaporation in a day. A dangerously dehydrated bat isn't able to catch many insects - if it's a female, she and her pups may die.

Austin's bats generate roughly $10-million a year. Does your neighborhood or city have a potential place for a bat colony? Bridge, tunnel, old overpass? Now's the time to start planning for next year.



     You may have noticed lots of activity at Hummingbird feeders too!  There's a lot more eating and sharing and a lot less fighting. It's working together toward the common goal of a successful migratory flight around the end of the month.  (maybe humans could learn something from this behavior)

The only bird here that does a good job of smelling

Turkey Vulture

Almost all birds have a very weak or no sense of smell. The one exception in north Texas is the Turkey Vulture. Through evolution it developed a good sense of smell in order to survive.

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture's purpose in life is to get rid of carcasses (roadkill, dead animals etc.)    It locates them by smell. Turkey Vultures are so good it that they can locate leaks in natural gas lines (The chemical mercaptan, added to gas, smells similar to rotting flesh). By the way, no kind of vulture has ever been known to attack or kill a healthy animal.


Another evolutionary modification helps it pick apart dead animals. It developed its featherless, macabre-looking, head and neck so it could probe into rotting carcasses without picking up bits of flesh and blood.


 Birds here talk Texan.   In a 'birdy' way.   Identical kinds of birds often sing differently, depending on where they were raised.  For instance a Blue Jay here in north Texas sounds a bit different from one (for instance) from Connecticut.

Luckily we have Cardinals almost everywhere now

Northern Cardinals (female, male)

Several decades ago Cardinals were very, very rare in north Texas. In the 1800s the Northern Cardinal (its full name) lived in North America only as far north as southern New York, and west only to wooded portions of the Great Plains.

Times change!!   In the 21st Century, the Cardinal is almost everywhere in this country (except chunks west of the Rocky Mountains). This is largely due to their adaptability, and the large number of people who feed birds and provide habitat (you're probably one), so Cardinals can survive hot summers and freezing winters. Today their range extends into southern Canada, and from the Rockies east to the Atlantic coast. And north Texas!

Cardinals live naturally only in forest edges. However, as man cleared millions of small areas for homesites, more and more 'forest edge' was created. We even grew and stored lots of Cardinal-food such as corn and wheat.

Cardinals are easy to attract to your yard. All you'll need are well-stocked feeders and the appropriate habitat - some dense vegetation including trees. Adult Cardinals will escort their fledglings to the vicinity of a birdfeeder. Then the parents will bring seeds to the fledglings from the feeder. The fledglings soon catch on, and will visit the feeders themselves. This "teaching  by example" often happens at backyard birdbaths too - throughout the year.

Black oil sunflower seeds are their favorite, but they'll often eat other seeds. They actually like suet too, especially if it contains sunflower seeds.


 

This is "goodbye" month for hummingbirds

Costa's Hummingbird

It's as if the birds and the plants planned it this way!     In a way, they did. The hummingbirds will be here in north Texas only 'til the end of this month.  Just when hummingbirds need a lot of extra nectar for the upcoming migration, nectar-laden plants (such as Lantana and Turks-cap) burst into spectacular bloom. Coincidence?

All during the month, thousands and thousands of north Texas' hummingbirds (including the ones born this year) are trying to pack on extra weight and stockpile extra energy for the long, draining migration flight to Central America. They know instinctively that they'll need all their energy for the trip. So you'll see them crowding around nectar feeders and blooming flowers.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Birds couldn't do much without help from north Texas' native plants.  Over the ages they've coordinated their needs and production; it's mutually beneficial. If you want to plant the right "birdscape" plants, you're in luck. Beginning with the start of Ocober (not spring like up north) is the very best time to plant things to attract next year's hummingbirds. If they like what you've planted, they'll probably return to your yard the following year.

This year, make sure the nectar in your feeder(s) is clean, clear and plentiful, up until the start of October.


The accidental release of radiation at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear plants in 2011 has damaged the genetic makeup of local wildlife. Butterflies are the first to be studied (due to their short life cycle) but others may come later.

Researchers from the University of Ryukyus, as reported in "The Week" magazine, found that 12 percent of the pale grass blue butterfly larvae collected from Fukushima developed mutations as adults. Mutations include damaged wings, eyes, legs etc. Then, 18 percent of their offspring also had mutations, even though they had never been exposed to radiation themselves.

Cattle Egrets are here to stay

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egrets came to this country through totally natural means, but it took an incredibly long time - possibly beginning in the 1500s.

The large, white bird is a species of Heron, and originally came from Africa.  Nobody knows for sure, but a combination of strong winds and adventurous flying brought a few of them to northeastern South America - modernday Brazil. Very gradually they expanded their range, fitting in well with the wide distribution of large herbivores and the warming climate.

The first documented Cattle Egret in North America was 1952.  In 1959 a few had reached Texas. Now they're a common sight around here, feeding in insects in very efficient groups called 'stampedes'.