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THE HOOT www.illinoisyoungbirders.org The Hoot Volume 2, Issue 4 American Redstart by Nandu Dubey Spring 2012 A PUBLICATION OF THE ILLINOIS YOUNG BIRDERS, A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE IOS IN THIS ISSUE Brotherly Love by Matthew Cvetas, ILYB Parent and Editor of The Hoot I can still remember the day my brother A good relationship with a family member – declared he’d had enough with me and brother, sister, parent or other ‐ can be an moved his bed out of our bedroom and into unique and special thing. In my current the hallway. It was odd to see his bed out family role as referee…errr, parent, it’s there, not just because there wasn’t really something I constantly try to impress upon room for it in the hallway, but because of the my children, not just each time they raise Graham and Henrey Deese by Jeff Reiter hole it left in our cramped little room. “Heh,” their voices at each other. I’m hoping one day I thought, “maybe I could get a desk?” All the message gets through to them. Bloomingdale Birding Brothers kidding aside ‐ I don’t know that I knew it Jeff Reiter tells us why the future of birding is in good then, but something I treasured, my brother, Since I seriously started birding in my adult hands with ILYB members, Graham and Henrey Deese. was now missing from my life – well, from years, I haven’t had the opportunity to take Page 2 my bedroom anyway. my dbrother an his son birding with Jake and me. I think they’d like it. My brother recently While the bed may have stayed in its new told me of screech‐owls that live in his location for awhile, the rift didn’t last too neighborhood. Sometimes, the owls call long and soon we were back at it, doing right from a tree in his backyard. Who things brothers do – playing baseball and knows? Maybe, he’ll be the one to take us football together, catching toads, frogs, and birding. snakes (To be honest, he caught most of the snakes!), fishing, swimming, and playing While my brother and I have never officially more baseball. birded together, the spring issue of The Hoot features not one or two, but three sets of Though we have lived in different cities since brothers who have – Graham and Henery I went to college, I never forgot the good Deese, Eddie and Brett Kasper, and Ethan times we spent growing up together. In fact, and Aaron Gyllenhaal. I think you’ll enjoy it was because of those times, I asked him to their stories, which were all originally Presbyornis by Connor Ross be the best man at my wedding some published elsewhere. fourteen years ago this nJuly. Eve now, Birds of Prehistory, Part 2 Presbyornis, Flamingo Duck? Connor Ross continues his though we don’t talk as often as we should, avian history lesson with stories of strange birds that when we do, it seems we pick up right where existed before man. we left off. Page 9 THE HOOT | Issue 2.4 2 Bloomingdale Brothers Part of Youth Birding Movement by Jeff Reiter Locally, Graham and I’d arranged to interview the Deese brothers Henrey go birding once or at Mallard Lake. It was near their home in twice a week. Favorite Bloomingdale, and the name of the place places, all part of the seemed appropriate given the purpose of our DuPage County Forest meeting. Preserve system, include Mallard Lake, Elsen’s Hill, But while the Mallard is a common species, it Waterfall Glen and McKee Graham and Henrey Deese by Jeff Reiter is rare indeed to find two teenagers who are Marsh. nuts about birds and birding. Graham, 17, “I asked Graham and Henrey to help lead a and Henrey, 14, fit that description. Given The boys also are active with Illinois Young series of spring bird walks this year and from the choice of watching warblers or TV, these Birders, a club founded in 2010 by the Illinois the very first walk the participants loved kids will take the birds every time. Ornithology Society. ILYB conducts adult‐ interacting with them. They were a big hit supervised field trips all around the state, with the Willowbrook birding regulars.” “Nature‐deficit disorder” in the Deese leading the young members to exceptional household? Not a chance. Their mom, Suzy birding locations. Graham and Henrey At Mallard Lake I learned that the Deese Deese, home schools Graham and Henrey agreed their favorite ILYB trip so far was to boys are dedicated to more than just birding. and a healthy part of their education takes downstate Prairie Ridge State Natural Area They perform in the West Suburban Home place outdoors. Family vacations generally where they observed state‐endangered School Band and after our meeting rushed revolve around nature and birding in Greater Prairie Chickens on their mating off to a rehearsal for their spring concert. particular. grounds. (For information about ILYB, visit Henrey plays the trumpet and Graham the illinoisyoungbirders.org.) clarinet. “This is our journey together and it’s been a lot of fun,” said Suzy, who also finds time for Additional birding takes place at Their other key activity is Chicago Charge, a a nursing career with Cadence Health Care. Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn, speech and debate club for Christian where the boys serve as volunteers. They homeschoolers. Through the club, both boys Home schooling definitely creates more have a long connection with Willowbrook are competing this month in a national opportunities for birding. When I met with because of Kevin Luby, a naturalist at the tournament in Colorado Springs. the boys they had recently returned from center. Graham says it was nature hike led by birding in the Texas hill country. For the Of course, the Colorado trip will involve some Luby at Wayne Grove almost 10 years ago record, they spotted a Black‐capped Vireo birding. Graham, Henrey and Suzy are that triggered his interest in birds. The but missed the region’s other specialty, the heading west early to see if they can find a brothers attended monthly walks for the Golden‐cheeked Warbler. However, thanks Lewis’s Woodpecker, Lucy’s Warbler, next five years with Luby, who encouraged to excellent timing, the trip yielded the rarest MacGillivray’s Warbler and other goodies. their newfound passion. bird either boy had ever seen, a Tropical Dang, there go my twitchy fingers again. I Mockingbird! The mocker, native to southern Graham and Henrey began sharing that envy these guys! But mainly I just admire Mexico, was discovered by other birders passion with others in 2009 by leading a them—for their birding skills, of course, and before the Deese’s arrival and is potentially family bird walk on International Migratory also for their uncommon maturity. the first‐ever documented in the United Bird Day at Willowbrook. They’ve been States. helping out at the center ever since, first With any luck, you’ll soon meet Graham and through its Junior Naturalist program and Graham and Henrey are fortunate to have an Henrey Deese on a local birding trail. They now its Ambassador program. The latter aunt in Houston. Better yet, a birder aunt. belong to a small but growing fraternity of includes volunteer work and more She guided them to the rare mockingbird in young birders in the Chicago area who make opportunities to learn from resident April (near High Island) and in 2007 took the hobby even better for all of us. naturalists like Luby and Ron Skleney. them to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, home of wintering Whooping Cranes. In “Their bird identification skills are top‐ MORE ON THE AUTHOR 2010, the family birded the Rio Grande notch,” Skleney said. “More importantly, This article originally appeared in the Daily Valley. they are excellent interpreters and have a Herald on June 7, 2012. knack for sharing their enthusiasm about I confess that hearing about these Texas birds.” adventures made my binocular fingers Jeff Reiter’s column appears monthly in the Daily Herald. You can reach him via his blog, twitch. I’ve still never birded the Lone Star They may be the youngest birding guides in Words on Birds State, a place considered by many to be the DuPage County but that is definitely not held (http://wordsonbirds.blogspot.com/). hottest U.S. hot spot of all. against them. Just the opposite, according to Skleney. THE HOOT | Issue 2.4 3 AT THE EAGLE OPTICS STORE Budding Birder Brothers by Nina Cheney Watch out, world. If the Kasper brothers of Eddie got photos of an American Robin and Western Springs, Illinois have anything to do Brown‐headed Cowbird: with it, the future of birding is in good hands. Accompanied by their parents, Ed and Kelly, Passing the Test these two young men visited the Eagle Eddie and Brett show off their identification skills with Optics store in June. At first glance, they Eagle Optics staff. resembled any ordinary young store visitors. Except, instead of looking bored, (or checking their phones), they were the ones keenly interested in optics. And, the older one, I noted, carried binoculars of his own. Noses pressed against the glass cases, Eddie and Brett searched, absorbed, while their mom explained: they were shopping for a Then, 7‐year‐old Brett snapped one of this spotting scope. Downy Woodpecker: I brought some scopes out of the case, set them up on tripods, and handed Brett a Future ILYBer binocular like his older brother’s.
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  • (Aves: Palaeognathae) from the Paleocene (Tiffanian) of Southern California

    (Aves: Palaeognathae) from the Paleocene (Tiffanian) of Southern California

    PaleoBios 31(1):1–7, May 13, 2014 A lithornithid (Aves: Palaeognathae) from the Paleocene (Tiffanian) of southern California THOMAS A. STIDHAM,1* DON LOFGREN,2 ANDREW A. FARKE,2 MICHAEL PAIK,3 and RACHEL CHOI3 1Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; e-mail: [email protected], corresponding author. 2Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, California 91711, USA. 3 The Webb Schools, Claremont, California 91711, USA The proximal end of a bird humerus recovered from the Paleocene Goler Formation of southern California is the oldest Cenozoic record of this clade from the west coast of North America. The fossil is characterized by a relatively large, dorsally-positioned head of the humerus and a subcircular opening to the pneumotricipital fossa, consistent with the Lithornithidae among known North American Paleocene birds, and is similar in size to Lithornis celetius. This specimen from the Tiffanian NALMA extends the known geographic range of lithornithids outside of the Rocky Mountains region in the United States. The inferred coastal depositional environment of the Goler Formation is consistent with a broad ecological niche of lithornithids. The age and geographic distribution of lithornithids in North America and Europe suggests these birds dispersed from North America to Europe in the Paleocene or by the early Eocene. During the Paleogene the intercontinental dispersal of lithornithids likely occurred alongside other known bird and mammalian movements that were facilitated by climatic and sea level changes. Keywords: bird humerus, fossil, Lithornithidae, Goler Formation, Tiffanian, California INTRODUCTION largely unknown in North America.