Summer '01 "Hummingbird Celebration

Friends of the Kern River Preserve Vol. Five, No. Two AUDUBON-CALIFORNIA 2001 Hummingbird Celebration Features Banding & Latest Research By Betsy Steele hose little sprites of the bird world—hummingbirds—are reliable charmers at the T preserve, especially in mid-summer. Darting around the feeders, dive-bombing interlopers, perching and preening, the hummingbirds go about their business within close range of quiet, delighted observers. Hummingbird photo & art by Alison Sheehey And for the past two years, the preserve has hosted special weekends to celebrate these tiny birds—six species of which can be seen here. This summer, the celebration will be on July 27-29 and August 3-5, with classes, slide shows, lectures, field trips and hummingbird banding. Donald Mitchell, a hummingbird specialist from the University of Minnesota, has been conducting research in the Kern Valley and surrounding mountains for several years. He is particularly interested in finding out how feeders may have affected the distribution and migratory habits of of hummingbirds. And he’s especially knowledgeable about Allen’s, having written the Birds of North America’s account on this species, which so closely resembles the rufous. See HUMMINGBIRD on page 2 “Birds of a Feather” Enjoyed Field Trip at This Year’s Bioregions Festival By Betsy Steele Feather sleuthing was the focus of a workshop held during the Bioregions Festival. Led by John Schmitt, Feathers in the Field was a fascinating foray into the chief characteristic that defines birds. And Schmitt, as the lead detective, provided clues and insights about these marvelous structures and the species they come from in our area. A superb birder, taxidermist and world-renowned artist, whose work is featured in a number of bird field guides (including National Geographic’s Birds of North America), Schmitt has been a naturalist “since I was about seven-years-old,” he said. And feathers were one of his favorite things to collect. “I’d see a feather and just could not leave it on the ground.” During the field trip, neither could we. Picking up a few gray feathers clinging to a shrub along the road to the preserve, Schmitt helped us reveal the story they told. They were from a mourning dove that had been caught by an accipiter probably just a few days earlier. We saw where the raptor had perched, plucked its meal and “white-washed” a log. We examined the plumage details that labeled the prey as a dove. See FEATHER on page 7 The Friends of the Kern River Preserve 2001 Friends of the Kern River Preserve Woodducks Find Friends P.O. Box 833 in Habitat Club: Weldon, CA 93283 Volunteers work hard to provide nest shelters (760) 378-3044 for these beautiful waterfowl Web Site: http://frontpage.lightspeed.net/KRP/ By Betsy Steele The Kern River Preserve is managed by Audubon-California for the preservation of California’s largest contiguous Kern Valley Fish and Game Habitat Club members have cottonwood-willow riparian forest and the wildlife it supports. The Friends of the Kern River preserve is a membership been wading the South Fork shallows, climbing shaky organization that provides financial support for the Preserve. ladders placed against trees, paddling equipment-laden Your support is critical to the success of the Kern River boats and forging their way through nettle thickets in Preserve. Please consider making a donation by filling out order to put up nesting boxes for wood ducks at the Kern the attached form and mailing it to the Friends. River Preserve. Preserve Manager . Reed Tollefson Director of Kern Valley Outreach. Bob Barnes Nesting success has risen and fallen over the years since Newsletter Editor . Bob Barnes monitoring of the boxes began, in 1996. Newsletter Production . Wendy Higa Webmaster . Alison Sheehey “Last year was a pretty good one, but the two previous Masthead Art Work . Keith Hansen ones were pretty lousy,” said Don Tolle, a dedicated habitat club member. In January, all 38 boxes (in various locations around the Kern Valley) were checked and maintained in HUMMINGBIRD: Continued from page 1 advance of the breeding season. Last year, Mitchell’s banding stations were a highlight of the festival— About 24 of the boxes held signs of successful nesting— especially when peak numbers of migrating wood duck egg shells and lots of fluffy down. rufous hummingbirds started to show up. Two of the boxes in the Brown Mill Pond area have been With practiced reflexes, Mitchell and his taken over by screech owls and honey bees. “When we assistants drop the trap door on a cage when enough of the went back this year, we thought ‘will they be here again’ hummers have swarmed inside for nectar. Gently capturing — and they sure were,” Tolle said. “But that’s okay; and placing the little birds in mesh bags, the researchers they’re acceptable tenants too.” take measurements, affix minuscule bands and mark the birds with dabs of pigment for future reference. The previous year, 1999, there appeared to be a high incidence of bad eggs and evidence of double clutches, Mitchell will be leading an Advanced Hummingbird I.D. in which more than one female lays eggs that are then and Natural History Field Workshop August 3-5. It’s an abandoned. According to wildlife biologists, this opportunity to learn more about plumages, calls, flight commonly indicates insufficient nest sites for the displays, status and distribution of black-chinned, Anna’s, Costa’s, calliope, rufous and Allen’s hummingbirds. population. Participants will venture afield to favorite hummer When the Habitat Club put up more next boxes, the foraging sites and feeding stations in Mitchell’s hatching success seemed to improve greatly—especially research zone. along the Sierra Way bridge trail. Eggshells were noted in Although the celebration weekends pay special homage all 12 boxes now located there, where most had failed to hummers, anytime from mid-March through mid- before—often due to double clutching. October visitors are welcome to become enthralled by Thanks to the club’s efforts, these beautiful waterfowl may the hummingbirds at the preserve’s very active feeding be seen—and heard—more often in the Kern Valley in stations! future years. ❖ For current Hummingbird Celebration information, visit the Kern River Preserve website. ❖ 2 The Friends of the Kern River Preserve 2001 Thanksgiving in Costa Rica: Natural History and Birdwatching MURRELET HALTERMAN presents a natural history and general birding field trip to Costa Rica to benefit Audubon-California’s Friends of the Kern River Preserve and the Southern Sierra Research Station Costa Rica has been called the jewel of the tropics—well at the birds. On November 17 we will begin in the upper known for its great birding, friendly people, and conservation rainforest, just a few hours form the San Jose Airport. We of natural resources. will spend several days in the mountains here, then head to San Gereado de Dota for two nights. We will then bird our We will visit three of the most incredible places in Costa way down to the Pacific coast, for three nights near Carara, Rica, and sample a variety of habitats. Habitats will one of the most incredible of Costa Rica’s National Parks. include: mid-elevation tropical rainforest, high mountain We will spend our last night near San Jose, and fly out on cloud and elfin forests, and coastal rainforest. We will Sunday, November 25. begin the trip in Tapanti, one of Costa Rica’s most recent National Parks. One of the wettest places in the country, Day 1, November 17: Arrive in San Jose by noon. We will we look for Black-bellied Hummingbirds, Prong-billed have lunch, then head up to Kiri Lodge, one mile outside Barbets, and mixed tanager flocks. Next we will move on of the mid-elevation Atlantic-slope habitat of Tapanti to San Gerardo de Dota. This area, fast becoming one of National Park. After a few hours of rest, we will go into the most popular birding locations in Costa Rica, is well the park and look for Black-bellied Hummingbirds, known for Resplendent Quetzals, Long-tailed Silky Emerald Toucanet, Red-headed Barbet, and Prong-billed Flycatchers, and many species of Hummingbird. We will Barbet. Night at Kiri Lodge. end the trip in Carara National Park, an incredible place Day 2, November 18: We will drive to Tapanti for a picnic with Scarlet Macaws, Chestnut-collared Antbirds, and breakfast at the entrance to the park. Afterwards we will fabulous mixed-species flocks of tanagers, honeycreepers, walk up into the park, looking for mixed flocks of warblers and warblers. Although birds will provide the focal point, and tanagers including White-winged Tanager and this trip to Costa Rica will offer a wide range of natural Spangle-cheeked Tanager. In the afternoon, we will return history and cultural experiences. to Kiri Lodge. We will take a late-afternoon walk down the DATES: Saturday, November 17 – Sunday, November road birding the second-growth habitat for spinetails, 25, 2001 (Detailed background and complete trip itinerary Yellow-faced Grassquit, Montezuma Oropendula, and is found below) Brown Jay. Night at Kiri Lodge. LEADER: Murrelet Halterman (assisted by Bob Barnes) Day 3, November 19: We will leave Kiri Lodge after breakfast, and bird our way to San Gerardo de Dota where Murrelet Halterman is Project Director with the Southern we will spend two nights. I call this cool cloud forest Sierra Research Station with a MS degree from California “Quetzal City”. In addition to Resplendent Quetzals we State University, Chico where she conducted her masters may see White-winged Tanager, Long-tailed Silky- thesis research on habitat use of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

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