HART BEAT: SNOW GOOSE!

Snow Goose!

“There’s a white goose with all the Canada Geese down on our lower pond, you ought to go check it out.”

Our grandson, who lives in the old original farmhouse on our property and looks after our home all winter while we are in Florida keeps an eye out for any different birds that might show up anywhere on the farm. He was not aware of how significant his report was. Within minutes we were down at the lower pond photographing the first ever Snow Goose (top) that we have ever seen on the farm. Jewel was born and raised on the farm and has been a birder most of her life and had never seen a Snow Goose on the property even though we have had winters when between 4,000 and 5,000 Canada Geese would virtually cover the entire lower pond and spend entire days in the fallow corn fields surrounding it.

Snow Geese are certainly not rare and, in fact, can be seen in amazing numbers in the right locations. At Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware they gather in the fields by the thousands (photo 2, including a blue morph Snow Goose and several juveniles) and when they take flight they fill the sky in a form of blizzard (photo 3). A few also can be found along the seashore in New Jersey, but Delaware is where they truly congregate in enormous flocks. During migration there are some large lakes in Pennsylvania such as Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area where they also can be found, but none of them are anywhere near our farm.

Occasionally wintering Snow Geese can be found in with the numerous Canada Geese on two of the larger nearby lakes just a few miles away, Nockamixon and Peace Valley, but they typically do not linger for long, and have never wandered over to our property before. (Of course, we are in Florida all winter and therefore not here to watch for them, but our grandson who is present all winter, assures us he has never seen one here before.) Snow Geese are slightly smaller than Canada Geese, and have a somewhat different structure. (Photos 4 and 5)

The Snow Goose visiting us stayed for only three days hanging out with a small group of Canada Geese, but always seeming to stay on the outer fringes of the group. We have a floating contraption on the pond called “Away With Geese” which is solar operated and emits a circulating light 360 degrees all night long right at the level of geese eyes. This device apparently spooks the geese and, after a night or two of suffering with it, the geese eventually abandon the pond.

It has worked well for us and has ended the problem of goose excrement (note: I have not referred to the goose droppings in the vernacular) all over the entire area surrounding the pond including the long lane to our home. Whenever we walked down the lane to pick up our mail or simply walk for exercise we had to do the goose dropping slalom up and down the lane. While we no longer have a general goose problem, one small group of about 10 Canada Geese have seemed to adjust to the “Away With Geese” machine, and simply continue to hang around our pond unfazed by the machine. I suspect they now spend their nights on the bank of the pond below the level of the water so that they can’t even see the machine.

Whenever a new unexpected bird shows up in an unexpected location it generates excitement. Just think of all the rare birds that show up at different locations in Florida, or anywhere else for that matter. Birders are quick to spread the news on hotlines, rare bird alert computer sites, and rush to check out the sighting. The same is true to a lesser extent when it occurs close to home on our own property. It’s amazing how birds can invade our entire psyche and give us joy and pleasure. And small discoveries like this Snow Goose can even heighten that joy and pleasure. Almost like discovering a new romance. Well, maybe that is a stretch. Still, very exciting and heart-warming.

For a video of Snow Geese at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, see: video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=bombay+hook+national+wildlife+refuge&type=E210US885G91507#id=40&vid=85849c7c57152d0897be0b2277169617&action=view. 

For more on Snow Geese migration at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, see:uncoveringpa.com/middle-creek-snow-geese-migration.

For more about the “Away With Geese” machine, see: www.awaywithgeese.com/how-it-works/.

HART BEAT: AMERICAN KESTREL

“You said there are two species that are very difficult to photograph, but only showed photos of Belted Kingfishers. Where are the American Kestrel photos?” The comment came from a Hart Beat Reader after the most recent column. (“Serendipity”  www.stlucieaudubon.org/hart-beat-2021 ) Oh, my goodness, photos of American Kestrels, what an excellent idea for this month’s Hart Beat column. I certainly was glad to receive that question and the implied suggestion.

Like Kingfishers, American Kestrels seem to sense when one wants to take their picture, and camera shy to the utmost, they quickly vacate the area. But just like Belted Kingfishers, American Kestrels love to perch and pose on distant posts as this male did for me. (top of page) Male Kestrels are easily distinguishable from their female counterparts, by their distinctive charcoal gray wings. But as we see in this young male Kestrel, with the lighter, just changing into full deep gray wings, males also will find a snag to sit upon, albeit, hanging on precariously (photo 2).

Female Kestrels with their all brown wings also perch precariously on snags, just as this female does while giving the viewer a questioning look seeming to say, “So what do you think you are looking at?” (photo 3) Then again, they also sit on signs, just like Kingfishers, here perusing the area where she is informed that it is legal for her to go hunting (photo 4).

I have the good fortune to have two close friends who are actively engaged in promoting the welfare of American Kestrels. They both have built and maintain a considerable number of breeding boxes, strategically placed where Kestrels are most likely to find them and nest in them, and during the breeding season monitor them regularly so that they know when eggs are laid and when the young hatch.

When the young are old enough they then return to the boxes and band the young so that they can learn where the birds migrate to and where they subsequently as adults, mate, breed and raise young of their own. (For an earlier Hart Beat column covering this procedure, see: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b9bd1b9697a984c75661b0f/t/5bb7c78e24a694e796d8b790/1538770836282/hb180501Banding.pdf )

When the adult female is sitting on the eggs in the box, the banders can readily lift them off the nest and simply check the Federal bands that either they or other banders have placed on the birds when they were young. In that manner they can see whether the nesting adults are birds they have previously banded or find out from the Federal banding register where and when the birds were banded by other banders.

Needless to say, it is very exciting for them to find that a bird they have banded years earlier has now found another one of their boxes, sometimes in another location many miles away, and also sometimes year after year the same bird in the same box. They also both have had the interesting experience of one of their banded birds having been recaptured by another bander using the same process, nesting years later in a similar nest box, and their previously banded bird thus reported recaptured over a thousand miles away.

When a bander is in the process of collecting the young birds for the banding process, the female Kestrel will fly quite nearby loudly squawking as she protests the bander’s actions (photo 5). From time to time she will actually turn and dive close by the bander’s head in attack mode as she continues her protest (photo 6).

Kestrels also love to perch on wires. In Florida that is where they are most commonly seen when they have migrated south for the winter. While calmly sitting on wires they are sometimes subject to attack by other bird species which may be nesting nearby and deem the Kestrels a threat, such as this Eastern Kingbird (photo 7). While the American Kestrel was formerly named Sparrow Hawk and they will occasionally eat a small bird, their diet more commonly consists of mice and voles, grasshoppers, and other insects.

American Kestrels are the smallest of American falcons, (Merlin, Peregrine and Gyrfalcon are the others) but that does not mean they have a small personality. They are fascinating birds and difficult as they are to get close to, they are very beautiful and very much worth the effort.

As with so many species American Kestrels populations are severely on the decline and it is fortunate that so many birders are making the effort to help them make a comeback. Kestrels may not be quite as difficult to photograph as Kingfishers, but getting close to them still takes quite an effort. Perhaps not serendipity as with Kingfishers, but perhaps the word for Kestrel photography is persistence. Yes, the harder one works at it the better the chance of getting a shot. Come to think of it that works pretty well for everything in life. Persistence, like serendipity, also helps make the world go round.

HART BEAT: SERENDIPITY!

Many birding photographers have found that two different species are particularly difficult to photograph. Belted Kingfishers and American Kestrels seem to sense when one wants to take their picture and promptly leave the area.

All a photographer needs to do when seeing either species in a promising location or striking a unique pose is slow down his or her vehicle, never mind coming to a stop, and the bird is gone. And on foot a photographer doesn’t have a chance to get a photo as the birds will be long gone out of the area well before the photographer even sees it. However, with the introduction of newer high resolution cameras and super-fast longer lenses distant birds now have become easier to photograph from a car which serves well as a photography blind. (Just be sure not to open your car door, a common mistake that many have made.)

Recently I have been fortunate to photograph a number of Belted Kingfishers admittedly at great distances and with sometimes severely cropped photos but nevertheless resulting in relatively satisfying results. For example this female, with the colorful and patriotic red, white and blue bands, was photographed on a distant bush at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this past December 22nd as an unexpected Christmas present (top of page). Similarly, this male, with only the single blue breast band, was photographed last winter also at MINWR on a much more distant bush and an even more severely cropped photo (photo 2).

While I have often preferred not to photograph birds on man-made objects (long time readers of this column will remember that I have previously referred to this practice as the 11th commandment on Moses’s Mount Sinai tablet: “Thou shalt not photograph birds on man-made objects!”), sometimes birds just seem to prefer such perches.

For example, Belted Kingfishers love wooden posts (photo 3); and at the T. M. Goodwin Wildlife Management Area in Fellsmere, Florida, one of our favorite birding sites even though it is only open for birding on Thursdays, a male Kingfisher sits on this one particular pole virtually every time we visit (photo 4). At the Viera Wetlands Kingfishers love to sit on top of the dead palm trees, occasionally even sharing them with other species at the same time, such as this nesting European Starling (photo 5).

As one might expect, Kingfishers primary diet consists of fish. Sometimes the fish they catch seem almost too large for them to even carry, much less swallow (photo 6). While fish are certainly their main food source, that doesn’t mean they can’t also enjoy their own form of a lobster dinner when they are fortunate enough to capture a delectable cray fish (photo 7).

A very common method of fishing is to hover for some time over a likely spot and wait for a fish to come into striking range (photo 8). An even more common method they utilize is to sit on a bush or small branch overlooking clear water and dive when a fish comes into range, usually within 6 or 7 inches of the surface (photo 9). Studies have shown that they are more successful with the branch technique (50 %) than with the hovering method (20%).

Difficult as Belted Kingfishers are to photograph, when finally successfully catching one in the camera it is immensely rewarding. As I write this I think about a full day of birding just yesterday at Apopka Wildlife Drive where we saw a zillion birds and took another zillion photos, and saw several distant Belted Kingfishers. However, I took not one single photo of a Kingfisher. Of course, the Drive is extremely popular (lots of alligators) and only open to vehicles on a limited basis, so the Kingfishers stay well away from the road when all that traffic is present.

Yes, our most successful Belted Kingfisher photo opportunities occur when we are pretty much alone without much other traffic around to spook the birds. Even then, as with so much of birding, great sightings are often serendipitous and therefore ever more satisfying. Almost like being out on a first date and realizing this could really be the one. Well maybe that’s a stretch, but you get the idea. Serendipity! It makes the world go round.

For more information about Belted Kingfishers, see: www.charismaticplanet.com/belted-kingfisher

Study of Belted Kingfisher fishing techniques and success rates of each type: https://core.ac.uk/display/48449247.