Birds Birds Birds!

Since starting this wildlife field methods class back in April I have become greatly aware of birds everywhere. I learned just a couple of bird songs in one of the beginning weeks and this exercise opened my ears to bird songs and calls everywhere. I have found a desire to become a bit of an amateur bird watcher; which is where this blog post will be taking you.

I started out at Padden Creek in Fairhaven Park. If you live in Bellingham and have yet to go to Fairhaven Park, I highly recommend you do. It has incredibly easy access by car but a super neat network of trails within it to allow for more exploring. As mentioned, a portion of Padden Creek is located within the park. I sat near the creek and after about 15 minutes of silence I spotted some robins. Not just flying around or sitting in a tree; but washing themselves in the water! The robin was wading in the water and then would dip its head in, rise up, and shake its feathers. In an attempt to not disturb them, I didn't take a picture when they were washing themselves and instead just enjoyed the moment not through a camera lens.

Where I saw the robin washing themselves! The calm and low-level 
water of the creek makes a great place to wash themselves.

Bathing is incredibly important for birds; they do it regularly to maintain their plumage. Dirt and parasites can get stuck in the crevasses between feathers that needs to be washed off. Cleaning also helps to maintain the natural oils in bird feathers. Dirty and unkempt feathers are not going to keep the birds warm and protected.

A not-bird-related surprise I found when hanging out near the creek and looking into the water was a caddisfly larvae in a case. Caddisfly larvae are an excellent sign to see in water because they indicate high quality water conditions. They make their cases with anything they find in the benthic environment.

A caddisfly larvae and its case found in Padden Creek. I used my iPhone to take the picture directly over the caddisfly larvae which created the neat reflection and lack-of-reflection in the water.

Next, the second part of my mini bird hunt led me back to home base; my apartment. Every morning I am awakened (happily and reluctantly) by birds chirping outside of my window and have been casually observing them since. I spent a particularly long amount of time one afternoon in mid-May watching these birds. I quickly realized they are European Starlings and have created a nest next to a pipe and the outside wall of my apartment. You can hardly see the nest and I’m surprised they have made a home there. During the time I was watching them I saw two adults flying from the nest to a nearby tree.

A not-so-great photo of one of the starlings 

flying from the nest to a nearby tree.

I am still unsure if there is just an egg in the nest or if it is a hatched bird. Either way, I decided to take advantage of this discovery and report the nest I found to nestwatch.org. Nest Watch comes from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and it hopes to collect data on nests around the world to learn more about the reproductive biology of birds. To first be able to enter into the site you have to pass a ten-question quiz to make sure you know how to properly approach a nest and not cause more harm than good. After that, the site is easy to navigate and how to enter the data you collect is laid out in a simple way for anyone to understand. I have continued to monitor this nesting site every 3-4 days since this initial observation through the use of this website. I highly recommend this to anyone who might be interested in getting into birding! You get to have fun watching birds PLUS contribute to society as a citizen scientist.

A screenshot of what the nestwatch.org website looks like.