Archive for Rants
Shrike Feet
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Surely I’m not the only one to have grown up with the notion that shrikes impale their prey because their toes are too weak to hold it. This old chestnut persists, repeated even in BNA:
“[I]mpaling behavior represents a unique adaptation to the problem of eating large prey without benefit of the stronger feet and talons of raptors.”
I’ve been a skeptic ever since I saw my very first Northern Shrike, thirty or so years ago, carrying a hapless American Tree Sparrow in its feet. And today I saw another Northern, a first-winter bird, effortlessly hauling a Song Sparrow through the air–again, holding its prey clenched in its little talons as it flew 100 yards or so against the wind into a thicket.
Clearly, shrikes’ feet are plenty strong to hold even large and potentially squirmy edibles. So why do they impale their lunch?
It’s probably obvious to everybody but me. The shrike I watched this morning wedged his emberizid snack into the crotch of two branchlets, then hopped off to take a position beside the sparrow before plucking it. Aha. The masked bandit’s feet aren’t too weak: they’re too short, and probably set too far back on the body, for the bill to reach an object they hold.
No time to make a model laniid and experiment with the insertion point of the legs, delightful as that sounds, but I’m betting that I’m right. What do you think?
Can't remember ever seeing a Loggerhead Shrike carry prey in its feet, though.
The Season for Saw-whets
Posted by: | CommentsAll across the mid-latitudes of North America, silent flights of Northern Saw-whet Owls are arriving to roost in cedars and greenbrier thickets. The unfortunate among them are hitting mist nets along the way–to judge by the notes on my Facebook page, it seems like recreational banding has gone nocturnal.
I haven’t seen one of the little guys yet this autumn, at least not a living one. This individual had probably hit a wire in Ladner, British Columbia, Thursday night, and was lying on the roadside Friday morning.
I don’t have a salvage permit any more, so the staff at Reifel Refuge went out and picked it up for their collection. A better fate perhaps than being passed around like a live plush toy, the way so many banded birds are this time of year.
Peru: A Mountain Stream
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The rushing streams of Peru’s Andes are about as different as can be from the sluggish rivers of Amazonia. And naturally enough, the birds are different, too. In the lowlands at Cachuela, we were excited to see a pair of very rare Brazilian Teal, while the mountain rivers produced the aptly named Torrent Duck. And where we’d enjoyed watching Capped Herons and Rufescent Tiger-Herons on quiet jungle ponds, this noisy Andean freshet gave me my first look ever at Fasciated Tiger-Heron, a bird I’d long wanted to see if for nothing more than its strange name.
Stocky, secretive, and weird, tiger-herons are among my favorite ardeids. The genus Tigrisoma is named for the heavily barred plumage of juveniles; the species name fasciatum refers to the same character.
“Fasciated” is a word nearly as strange as the animal itself. When used in description of animals, it usually means “banded” or “barred.” The word occurs in the English or scientific names of everything from Pale-browed Tinamou to Black-bellied Wren; but in a number of avian cases, it’s not at all clear just what fasciation is being referred to. I certainly don’t think of Wrentit as heavily barred, or Band-tailed Pigeon. In some instances, the word appears to be used instead in the rather diluted sense of “striped,” which explains such names as trifasciatus for the Three-banded Warbler, a modest Basileuterus with three crown stripes. I suppose that it refers to the big pigeon’s tailband, but I’m at a complete loss as to what is fasciated about Wrentits, if anything–and without access to Gambel’s original description, I may never know. Help, anyone?
One thing I do know is how to pronounce the word. This isn’t a plover/plover or pileated/pileated matter; there is actually a correct pronunciation of “fasciated,” and the vowel of the first syllable is the same as that in “fasces,” “fascia,” “fascicle.” It’s not hard.
What I’m Hoping For in the Next ABA President
Posted by: | CommentsI know exactly what I’m hoping for from the next president (or executive director, or whatever the title becomes) of the American Birding Association: a near-miracle.
I’ve given some thought over the past few days, too, to what I’m hoping for in the next occupant of that musical chair, that is to say, what type of person with what types of qualities I’d like to see representing the ABA to the birding community. I haven’t seen the formal job description prepared by the ABA board, and it’s possible (it’s almost certain) that their preferences are not identical to mine, but that said, as a simple ABA member with no influence over the decisions reached by this latest hiring committee, I can think of several qualifications that I, as a simple ABA member with no influence over the decisions reached by this latest hiring committee, would think of as sine quibus non:
Our new president must be a birder, and a birder of a certain kind. It’s absurd to hire someone who knows nothing about the sport that is the focus of the organization, but it’s important to hire someone with a great deal of sympathy for new and beginning birders; the ideal president would be an elite birder without the least tendency to elitism, someone who while entirely at home in American birding culture also has a thorough understanding of the “outsiders” not yet part of that culture. It’s important to remember that what attracts potential birders is not necessarily a mentor’s expertise but the kindness, generosity, and pedagogic sensitivity with which s/he communicates that expertise. I would love to see a president who can lead a group of beginners, talk to a class of children, and write clearly and precisely about, say, molt or geographic variation or any of the other “cutting edge” topics that interest intermediate and advanced birders. To my mind, we need a person who can bring something to everyone, not just to the experts and not just to the wealthy traveling set. Only in that way would the ABA overcome its undeserved reputation as an organization for the hotshots, and only in that way will the membership grow and diversify.
I believe, too, that our new president should have a history with the organization and a familiarity with its workings. A healthy and well functioning organization might not need that sort of a priori knowledge, but the ABA has reached the point that whoever comes on board needs to hit the ground running (to mix a metaphor or two). There is no time to bring someone entirely innocent up to speed. Ideally, the successful candidate would not only be a long-time member, but would also have experience over the years as a volunteer or even as a member of the ABA staff.
I also think it important that the new president know–and enjoy the confidence of–the current staff and those members of the board of directors who stay on after the hiring. Very little has been said of this in public, but it is the professional ABA staff, hard-working and underpaid, who have suffered most day to day from the poor hiring decisions of the board, and I would want to know that the new president would understand and have the intellectual capacity to support the staff’s efforts when he or she finds them meritorious.
Nearly as important is the relationship between the president and the board. I would hope for a president whose confidence and sense of right would be strong enough to resist poor ideas and unsound advice; that confidence is likely found only in someone who already has experience in working with the board of a non-profit organization. I suspect that anyone with that sort of experience will also have dealt with fundraising, an important part of any president’s portfolio given the state of the ABA’s finances.
All of these skills and qualities, of course, are no good if they’re hidden under the institutional bushel. An occasional half page in Winging It just doesn’t cut it when it comes to inspiring enthusiasm among the membership. The new president must be someone with experience, expertise, and a sense of excitement about “new media.” It is no overstatement to say, as others have time and again, that most of the newest crop of birders finds a greater and more satisfying sense of community on the internet than in a club or organization. One of the ways the ABA can regain the position of leadership in that community is to establish a strong and consistent online voice that is distinctly and distinctively ABA; the organization, through its president, should seem like something everyone would want to be part of.
Whoever takes this job on is going to be walking uphill for a long time–but if she or he can save an organization so dear to my heart, it’ll be more than worth it. Here’s wishing the hiring committee a healthy dose of wisdom!
Something Positive
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s devastatingly clear that there are structural problems at the ABA, and I think it’s almost equally obvious what the tendency of the changes needs to be. I’ve put together a couple of proposals for alterations to the bylaws–not intending those proposals to be exhaustive or anything like definitive, but simply in the hope that they will provide some basis for positive discussion as we move to save, or not to save, the American Birding Association.
The proposals can be read here. If you think it helpful, please pass the link on to your friends and colleagues so that any proposals ultimately laid before the membership have benefited from the scrutiny and the contributions of as many of us as possible.
Meanwhile, be sure to keep up with the discussion proceeding at Kenn and Kim Kaufman’s blog, where excellent ideas and explanations continue to appear in the “comments” section.
One striking thing among many other striking things to have come to light is just how many really fine candidates for office in the organization have been rejected by the board–it’s almost as if the board didn’t want anything to change, didn’t want to work with someone competent and honest.
