Terra Explorer Volume 1 The Terra Explorer series is copyrighted © 2009 by William James Davis. All rights reserved. Copyrights of individual stories in- cluded in the last section of the book, “Adventures in the field,” belong to their respective authors. (see following page for more details) William James Davis, Ph.D. Copyright © 2009 by Wm. James Davis ISBN 978-0-9822654-0-6 0-9822654-0-9 Also available as an eBook. To order, visit: http://www.TerraNat.com The Terra Explorer series is copyrighted © 2009 by William James Davis. All rights reserved. Copyrights of individual stories included in the last section of the book, “Adventures in the field,” belong to their respective authors. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher and respective authors, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews. Contact the publisher to request permis- sion by visiting www.terranat.com. Photos on the front and back covers (Black Skimmer and Cuban Anole, respec- tively) by Karen Anthonisen Finch. For Linda Jeanne Mealey, who inspired my dreams to explore the natural world. Also by William James Davis Australian Birds: A guide and resource for interpreting behavior TableTable of of contents contents Introduction Evolution of a concept The challenge Book’s organization and video projects Participating in the Terra Explorer Project Behavioral profiles 8 Common Loon 11 American White Pelican 14 Anhinga 17 Cattle Egret 20 Mallard 23 Bald Eagle 26 Wild Turkey 29 Common Moorhen 32 Killdeer 35 Ring-billed Gull 38 Feral Pigeon 41 Mourning Dove 44 Greater Roadrunner 48 Burrowing Owl 51 Downy Woodpecker 54 Northern Flicker 57 Pinyon Jay 60 Blue Jay 63 Northern Mockingbird 66 Red-winged Blackbird 69 Brown-headed Cowbird Movie scripts 73 Description 74 Communal roosting 78 Ground-roosting crows 81 Follow a raven if you are hungry 86 Aerial and arboreal roosting by swifts 87 Why birds join flocks 93 Coordinated vigilance and sentinels 97 Pishing 103 Follow the flash marks 105 Hoarding food (caching) 109 Sublingual pouch facilitates caching 114 It takes a thief to know a thief 116 Food for sex 119 Why birds play 127 Evolutionary and developmental trends 129 To care or not to care (crèching) 133 Examples of crèching 135 Crèching in Great Spotted Cuckoos 137 There’s more than one way to catch a meal 151 List of birds known to dunk items into water 157 Cooperative hunting in birds of prey 159 Tails 163 Some like it short―tails, that is 167 Nesting and all of its ramifications 168 Learning how and where to build a nest 173 Types of nest associations 180 Fresh greens keep parasites away Adventures in the field 184 Diving pelicans 186 Synchronized begging 187 Naturalist beware 188 Stirring the pot 189 Brightly colored feet 190 Florida otters 191 Rattlesnake and birds 192 Limpkins 193 Formation of a crèche 195 Cattle Egrets 197 The right choice of materials 199 Red-shouldered Hawk 200 Magpie-larks and Willy Wagtails 201 Manatees 202 Large Yellow Jacket hive 203 Winter roosts of Fish Crows 204 Bone crushing Javelina 204 Versatile grackles 205 Black Vultures 206 Leafcutter Ants 207 White-winged Doves 207 Foraging cormorants 208 Dancing Reddish Egrets 209 What’s wrong with this scene? 210 Boat-tailed Grackles 211 Caching peanuts 212 Playing the drum 212 Flitting redstarts 213 Calls of the Belted Kingfisher 214 Vermilion Flycatcher 215 Black-chinned Hummingbird 216 Wild Turkeys 217 Cooing roadrunner 218 Northern Mockingbirds 220 Scissor-grinding calls 222 Armadillo and Fire Ants 222 Courting Pied-billed Grebes 223 Acorn Woodpeckers 224 Red-bellied Woodpeckers 228 Flexible foraging 229 Taking a bath 230 A Potter Wasp’s tragedy 231 Encounters with grebes 232 Adaptations of Black Skimmers 235 American Coot 236 Anhingas 238 The Green Flash 239 Migrating flocks 241 Courtship in Royal Terns 243 Black-necked Stilts 244 Florida alligators 245 Extracting grubs 245 Roost of Gambel’s Quail 246 Combative anoles 247 White Ibis eating toad 247 Displays of nighthawks 248 Do gossamer-wings deceive predators? 250 Appendix A: Using a camcorder 253 Appendix B: Nature video journaling 255 References 265 Acknowledgements 266 Index 278 About author / Making a difference Introduction “On our next vacation I hope to pick up these two.” Evolution of a concept Initially, I bought a camcorder so I could document the behaviors of birds I encountered in the field. Subsequently, I discovered how easy and enjoyable it was to share recorded observations with friends. Also, it became clear that showing a video is a good way to elicit thoughtful discussions. For various reasons, a few naturalist friends have also pur- chased camcorders, and now we frequently share stories and video clips of our best discoveries. From this humble beginning, the concept of nature video journalism emerged, along with the idea of publishing a series of books—the Terra Explorer series you are now reading—to support naturalists who use camcorders. Soon to follow was the crea- tion of the online Terra Explorer Project where nature video journalists can upload video-annotated stories that highlight their personal obser- vations and discoveries. The challenge Discoveries and insights of naturalists continue to provide essential information about the natural world. This is particularly true in an age when information is freely exchanged over the internet and when Both the Terra Explorer book series and our companion website are designed to encourage naturalists and biologists to adopt digital technology to document their field experiences and discoveries. Details for submitting stories to the Terra Explorer Project can be found Appendix B. -1- Though I have often watched male Boat-tailed Grackles displaying to one another, it was not until after I videotaped their displays that I noticed the prominence of eye-flashing. Indeed, one perk of capturing observations on videotape is the opportunity to review your observations more carefully. digital devices such as cameras, camcorders and computers are avail- able to record and store observations. Yet, the greatest challenge for aspiring nature video journalists is not mastery of new digital tools, but in deciding what to videotape and how to present their observations as engaging stories. This is why the content of the Terra Explorer series concentrates on natural history as opposed to the technical issues of videotaping (see appendix A). In this volume*, the primary focus is on birds, with a few intriguing entries on insects, reptiles, and mammals. Book’s organization and video projects Active creatures such as birds are exciting to study. Though much of their behavior has been described in the scientific literature, very few activities of birds have actually been filmed. Naturalists who use cam- corders can help fill this void. To this end, the first section of this book titled, Behavioral Profiles, contains information on 21 North American birds. Each profile includes drawings and descriptions of a species’ most prominent behaviors. * Future volumes in the series will cover different topics and contain a selection of the latest and best stories posted to the online Terra Explorer Project. -2- For those naturalists intrigued by interpreting the function of behav- iors, I refer you to the second section of the book titled Movie Scripts. Each of the eight scripts presented are accented with drawings and photos to complement the action described in the script’s text, which is essentially a review of the latest information available on the topic being discussed. Recognizing what birds are doing and why provides a framework for organizing your time in the field and helps nature video journalists piece together their observations into a coherent story. Needless to say, following a script is the gold standard for producing nature documentaries. The third section of the book titled, Adventures in the field, repre- sents the core of nature video journaling. Normally, naturalists record observations and ideas in their natural history journals. In mine, I record where I have been, what I witnessed, and my insights and inter- pretations. Since I keep my journal on a computer, I am able to link digital images and video clips to specific entries. This arrangement lends itself to composing short video annotated stories that I can later share with other enthusiasts. Many examples are included in the last section of this book. Since all of the stories printed here are part of the Terra Explorer Project, you can vie w the supporting video by visiting our companion website at www.terranat.com. When it comes to birds, there are many topics to explore—so many, in fact, it is unlikely that you will run out of material to observe. Ironi- cally, it is easy to collect so much footage when videotaping that it becomes burdensome to log and edit. A solution to overshooting is to Robin Siuzdak Rebeck Karen A. Finch The author observes and videotapes a “dancing” Reddish Egret which he later includes in a story submitted to the Terra Explorer Project. -3- have specific objectives in mind when using a camcorder. This is why the material in this book is organized into mini-projects. The objective of the first two sections, for example, is to document specific behaviors. Even in the third section, you will notice that many of the stories combine short clips that share a specific theme, such as novel foraging techniques of birds, different ways birds take a bath, courtship displays, and interactions between young birds and their parents. Also, when you have well defined objectives, you open up the possi- bility of collaborating with other naturalists. In fact, it is my hope that readers will be able to videotape many of the behaviors mentioned in this book, particularly those listed in the species profiles (first section).