The Birders Report

Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) Female photos by Larry Jordan (click for full sized images)

We have six large hummingbird feeders surrounding our house in Northern California but we also have several flower beds and native plants that the hummingbirds enjoy.

As I sat on my back porch last weekend, contemplating mowing the native grasses surrounding the house and having some breakfast and my morning coffee, the hummers were all around.

Four of the six feeders hang below the roof of the covered porch so there is always hummingbird activity there but some of the birds were also visiting the Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria Saturne) next to the water feature.

Since the sun was at a good angle for catching this little explosion of color, I decided to grab my camera and take a photo break before tackling the mowing.

These images were all shot with my Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G lens with a 1.7 teleconverter. They were all shot at f/6.7 with the ISO set at 640. The first four images were taken at 1/1600 seconds while these last two were a little slower at 1/1250 seconds. Notice how much more blurred the wings are with the slower shutter speed.

I enjoyed my photography break so much that I never got around to the mowing duties! Oh well, C’est la vie, such is life!

If you enjoy birds as much as I do, check out Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D’pot and share your own bird photos.

Pacific Coast Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) Female photos by Larry Jordan

The Pacific Coast population of the Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) is federally listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as threatened. They are a Bird Species of Special Concern in California and were listed as endangered under the Washington Department of Game Policy No. 402 in 1981, and as threatened by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in 1975. The threatened status in Oregon was reaffirmed in 1989 under the Oregon Endangered Species Act¹.

Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) Female on Alert (click photos for full sized images)

In June of 2012, the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) designated approximately 24,527 acres of dune ecosystem habitat along the Pacific Coast essential to the survival and recovery of the plover. The Pacific Coast Western Snowy Plover nest on the mainland coast, peninsulas, offshore islands, bays, estuaries, salt ponds, and rivers of the Pacific Coast from southern Washington to southern Baja California, Mexico. They are distinct from Western Snowy Plovers that breed inland².

Designated critical habitat includes unique and increasingly rare coastal beach-dune ecosystem habitat along the Pacific Coast essential to the survival and recovery of the plover. A total of 47 units have been designated in California, nine in Oregon, and four in Washington. Below are the designated area maps for Northern and Southern California.

This is what the habitat looked like at Clam Beach where I took these photos. Note the tall grasses on the dunes in the upper right side of the photo. This is one of the most significant causes of habitat loss for coastal breeding Western Snowy Plovers, the encroachment of introduced European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) and American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata). Introduced beachgrass contributes to habitat loss by reducing the amount of open, sandy habitat, steepening the beaches, and increasing habitat for predators.

The sparsely covered sandy area in the photo above has had the beachgrass removed and is roped off with signage to help protect the plover’s breeding grounds. With miles of beaches open to the public, this small area (about the size of a football field) seemed like an insignificantly small contribution to the conservation of this threatened species.

It took me awhile to find this section of beach where I was hoping to spot some Western Snowy Plovers. At the Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival I had signed up for a trip to the South Spit of Humboldt Bay hoping to see some of these threatened birds but the excursion only took us to a the location of a Snowy Plover restoration area which had not actually been occupied yet. On that trip I met Drew who was also hoping to find the elusive plover. We made plans to meet at Clam Beach where I was told the Western Snowy Plover could be found.

We walked a long way before spotting the roped off area. Once we found it we surveyed the area (from outside the ropes of course). I was thinking we’d be lucky to spot one of the birds way out in the middle of the sandy landscape, but alas, I spotted one within thirty feet of the ropes! He was laying quietly atop one of the sand dunes. Drew and I were so excited to find our quarry that we both took several photos of our first sighting from all angles.

As we retreated from that location, we almost literally stumbled upon a pair of  Western Snowy Plovers that were roaming outside of the roped off area. The photo of the male above and this female below are the pair that we cautiously photographed to our hearts content.

I’m not sure what they were doing but they walked among the small sand hills, unprotected on the open beach as we observed from a safe distance.

The female following the male with no obvious purpose that I could discern. According to Birds of North America Online, Pacific Coast Western Snowy Plovers begin egg laying in Humboldt County in March. They typically lay 3 eggs during all hours of the day and night with an average interval of 60 hours between eggs.

During this egg laying period, the adults may be away from their territory for more than a third of daylight hours³, so maybe this pair was simply resting.

Once they begin incubation, after the last egg is laid, both parents incubate the eggs, the female during the day and the male at night. The chicks hatch about 30 days later. They are precocial and leave the nest usually within one to three hours after hatching.

The wind was blowing pretty good and they would occasionally close their eyes to avoid the sand storm.

At one point, an off leash dog came running toward the birds unintentionally, not even seeing them, as the female plover stood up in an alert pose (top). We quickly chased that dog off as his owners casually strode along the beach several hundred yards away.

This is another huge problem for these little shorebirds, sharing the beaches with humans and off-leash dogs.

This guy however was comfortable enough to stop and preen as his mate looked on.

References: ¹US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) Arcata Office, ²US Fish & Wildlife Service, ³Birds of North America Online

Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) photos by Larry Jordan

I recently attended the Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival located in Arcata and the surrounding areas of Northern California. One of the reasons I wanted to attend this magnificent seventeen year old festival was because of the diversity of birds and wildlife located in the area. Confirmation of my attendance was made when I read this description of the Spotted Owl Field Trip.

“Leader: Green Diamond Resource Company: Visit excellent spots to observe Northern Spotted Owls in their nesting habitat. This trip offers superb photographic opportunities, as the owls have become accustomed to human presence over the years they have been studied. The owls may be seen roadside, but more likely will require a hike along a short but possibly steep forest trail.” Click on photos for full sized images.

The Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is one of three subspecies which include the California Spotted Owl (S. o. occidentalis), and the Mexican Spotted Owl (S. o. lucida). The distribution of these subspecies can be seen on this map courtesy of Birds of North America Online¹.Since the Northern Spotted Owl is nonmigratory, its home range remains the same year round. You would think this would make this owl an easy species to study, but since the early 1980’s, there has been much controversy surrounding this bird. You see, the Spotted Owl is associated with late stage conifer forests of high commercial value. In June of 1990 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officially listed the Northern Spotted Owl as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

I have always been an environmentalist, a person who is concerned with the maintenance of ecological balance and the conservation of the environment. In 1990 I was working at a mill in Northern California. As timber harvests were decreased or halted in some areas, the tensions increased.

The debate over the spotted owl played out in newspapers across the country and led to hostilities in many of the Pacific Northwest’s small towns. Though the issues were in fact far more complex, many reports pitched the controversy as a struggle between loggers’ jobs and protection of the owls’ ancient forest habitat². I sided with the owls.

You can see a US Forest Service chronological survey of the northern spotted owl controversy in a Spotted Owl timeline here.

The overall spotted owl population is declining at a rate of 2.9 percent per year – leading to an estimated 40% decline in numbers over the last 25 years³. Looking to the future, the FWS published a Revised Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl in June of 2011. This plan identified three main priorities for achieving spotted owl recovery: reducing competition from barred owls, actively managing forests to improve forest health, and protecting the best of the spotted owl’s remaining habitat.

One of the problems is that private timber companies hold large swaths of forest and don’t have enough staff biologists to monitor these huge forests. I asked the biologists leading our excursion on Green Diamond land how many biologists worked for the company. Are you ready for this? Eight! Green Diamond had eight biologists to discover and monitor Northern Spotted Owls on 400,000 acres of forest!

This pair of breeding owls we saw on the Spotted Owl Field Trip had been nesting in this location for seven years. That’s the reason we were able to get so close to them. Biologists had been monitoring them all this time so they were used to interacting with people.

However, researching for this post led me to controversy regarding Green Diamond and their practices. I believe the biologists working for Green Diamond were doing the best they could to protect the Northern Spotted Owls on that land but according to the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Green Diamond and Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) joined forces to implement a very detrimental Timber Harvest Plan (THP) for a section of forest owned by SPI. Green Diamond bought the timber rights and using their Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) they invoke their Incidental Take Permit which allows them to take, I believe it was 58 Northern Spotted Owls over the next 30 years. Does that seem reasonable for a threatened species? It doesn’t to me.

I’m grateful that I was able to observe these beautiful birds for about thirty minutes in the forest where they live and I hope every birder is able to spot a Northern Spotted Owl while they still fly silently through the deep dark forests of the West.

I just want to thank the Northern Spotted Owl for getting me out of that mill twenty some years ago and allowing me to be retrained for a job in the medical field where I now am gainfully employed. I will do whatever I can to allow them to remain in their ancestral homes.

To see more great bird photos from around the world, check out The Bird D’pot and Wild Bird Wednesday.

References: ¹Birds of North America Online, ²The Forest History Society, ³US Fish & Wildlife Press Release,