The Birders Report

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) photo by Larry Jordan

You can see my latest West Coast Beat Writer post on the Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) over at 10000 Birds! It includes a cool video of this bird taking a bath at Arcata Marsh. I think you will enjoy it!

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) photos by Larry Jordan

I came across a mixed flock of American and Lesser Goldfinches a couple of weeks ago foraging in the pastures along the roadside. They were feeding on the Yellow Star Thistle and other weeds that dot the pastures in the fall. Click on photos for full sized images.

It looks like the two birds in non-breeding plumage at the bottom of the photo above are a female, on the left, and a male, on the right. Both sexes look similar to the female in breeding plumage this time of year, except their bills are dark rather than the bright orange during breeding months.

The American Goldfinch is almost exclusively a seed eater, even when feeding nestlings, suggesting that they are well adapted to obtaining all their protein requirements from a seed diet¹.

As you can see, they are very adept at foraging for seeds of many varieties.

The difference in breeding and non-breeding plumage of the American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) is striking. The bright yellow plumage and orange beak coloration are derived from carotenoid pigments acquired from their diet¹.

This is the male American Goldfinch on my Nyjer seed feeder in April.

As with other finches, the female American Goldfinch prefers to mate with the most brightly colored males, helping to ensure that they have the best foraging partners. A month later in May, you can see the bright orange bills have been attained by both the male and female.

If you want to see more great bird photos from around the world, go check out Springman’s World Bird Wednesday! And while you’re here, if you use Google Friend Connect, please consider joining my website via the widget in the right hand column of my blog and I will join yours in return.  Thanks for the visit!

References: ¹Birds of North America Online

Ison Rock Ridge (click on photos for full sized images)

Please save a mountain from being blown to bits for coal. Ison Rock Ridge, a mountain in Virginia, is slated to be destroyed for a 1,200-acre mountaintop-removal coal mine. Mountaintop-removal mining is a process that blasts the top third of a mountain off with explosives, then pushes the waste directly into streams. This kills aquatic life and poisons everything downstream, wildlife and human alike. More than 500 Appalachian mountains and 2,000 miles of streams have already been lost.

Ison Rock Ridge sits above five small communities of 1,800 people. The proposed mine boundary calls for mining only 300 feet from some of these people’s homes (see photo below). If the permit is approved, their quality of life will be destroyed. The mine will bury headwater streams that feed the creeks running through their communities and pollute some of the most biologically diverse rivers on the planet.

Here is the overlay of the proposed mine site

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to deny the permit for mining on Ison Rock Ridge but has indicated it intends to grant the permit. Please join me by using the form here to tell the EPA and the White House to save Ison Rock Ridge and ban mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia now and forever!

For more information on mountaintop removal mining go to iLoveMountains.org and to see more devastating photos of what has already been destroyed, check out their Flickr page here.