September 18 - oias.orgoias.org › Documents › Sept_2018.pdf · Xenox tigrinus This is a large fly! It has a beautiful black pattern that resembles tiger stripes! We spotted this

Vol. 30 No. 1 September, 2018, Pg. 1 Owashtanong Islands Audubon Society-far flowing water

Grand Haven, Michigan

September, 2018 Volume 30, Issue 1

Bee Fly/Tiger Bee Fly 2 Dangerous Fishing Line - Humans and Wildlife 6 Extremely Unexpected Yard Bird 4 Other Entanglements 7 Semipalmated Sandpiper 5 There’s an app for that! 3 This Season’s Programs 2

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September 18

LOUTIT DISTRICT LIBRARY 407 Columbus Avenue

Grand Haven

Birds in the City: Conservation needs, how to reduce threats, and how we can improve urban habitats

Presented by Linnea Rowse, Conservation Program Coordinator, Michigan Audubon Linnea is an avid birder, and though she doesn’t like to pick favorites, her unofficial favorite group of birds are warblers (maybe you can twist her arm and get a specific favorite bird someday!). Linnea grew up in Minnesota, and feels lucky to have parents who encouraged her to get outdoors and got her involved with birding (i.e., participating in Birdathons!) at an early age. Though Linnea was generally interested in birds as a young adult, her passion for bird conservation and birding grew after a college semester abroad in New Zealand, and grew again with her first seasonal bird job after she graduated; she has been working in the avian conservation field now for the past 10 years. Linnea is very excited to join Michigan Audubon, as the core mission aligns with her own values – to connect birds and people, and to do so by employing sound conservation science, research, outreach, and education.

Everyone is welcome to

OIAS’s programs.


Bee Fly Bombylius spp. One sometimes sees furry insects in spring hovering just above the ground. These native flies, resembling a bee, belong to a large family of flies, Bombylidae, known as bee flies. They imitate bees and are found throughout the northern hemisphere. A high-pitched sound is produced when they fly. They are very agile and can change directions very quickly, probe flowers for nectar and are moderately good pollinators. They differ from bees by having two wings instead of four, large eyes, skinny long legs and very short antennae. A long and stiff tongue is used to sip nectar while hovering. They avoid hidden predators (crab spiders) by not landing on the flower. Their larvae act as parasite feeding on immature (larva and grub) stages of various insects. References: Bee Flies (Bombylius spp.), A Pollinator with a Bad Reputation, By Beatriz Moisset, https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/bee_flies.shtml, Seeds of Diversity, Bee Flies, https://seeds.ca/pollination/pollinator-profiles/flies/bee-flies

Judi Manning

This Season’s Programs

October 16 – Wildlife Rehabilitation Allyson Swanson, a Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator with Wildlife Rehab Center LTD November 20 – Black Terns in MI, Caleb Putnam January 15 – South Texas Whirlwind, Curtis Dykstra, Naturalist and Avid Birder February 19 – The home energy savings pyramid: reducing bills and increasing comfort! Brett Little, Green Home Institute March 19 – Ottawa County Parks Update, John Scholtz, Ottawa County Parks & Recreation Director April 16 – A trip to Belize: Mayan ruins, Mot-Mots, and more, Dr. Michael Lombardo, Professor of Biology, GVSU May 21 – Business meeting, member slides, and potluck

Tiger Bee Fly Xenox tigrinus This is a large fly! It has a beautiful black pattern that resembles tiger stripes! We spotted this insect at Stu Visser Trail in August and had no clue what it was. iNaturalist identified it for us. (See Page 3) Females lay fertilized eggs in Carpenter Bee nests. Carpenter Bees bore a round one-half inch hole up to 10 inches deep into wood. If eggs are already laid when the female visits the bee nest, it will add some eggs. The Tiger Bee Fly larvae hatches and consumes the living Carpenter Bee larvae. Reference: Insect Identification, https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Tiger-Bee-Fly, Urban Wildlife Guide, Sunday, August 28, 2011, Julie Feinstein at 6:17 PM, The Carpenter Bee and the Tiger Bee Fly http://www.urbanwildlifeguide.net/2011/08/carpenter-bee-and-tiger-bee-fly.html

Judi Manning


There’s an app for that! In only a few short years, smartphones have changed the way we bird by bringing field guides, cameras, and citizen science apps to our pockets. There are a wide variety of apps, some useful, some less so; so, I thought a short review of some of the useful ones could be helpful. Beginning this month, I will try to shed some light on a few of what I have found to be useful. iNaturalist is a photo-based app for iPhone or Android that allows you to identify and log sightings of any living thing – birds, fish, trees, insects, butterflies…. The most exciting feature is the app’s uncanny ability to identify most anything you can photograph. You simply take a photo with your phone, start the app, transfer the photo to the iNaturalist app and ask it to identify. The app will present the top 10 choices, and I have found it to be accurate almost every time. If you open an account (not necessary to use the app) you can realize the real power of the app by joining the community of other users. You can upload your photos, which then become part of a global database available to the research community, and visible to anyone so they can assist and confirm an ID for you. Currently, the database contains over 12 million entries provided by over 900,000 users. iNaturalist.org began as the Master's final project of Nate Agrin, Jessica Kline, and Ken-ichi Ueda at UC Berkeley's School of Information in 2008. In 2015, the app took a major leap when machine learning was added, similar to face recognition. In 2014 iNaturalist became an initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and a joint initiative with National Geographic Society in 2017. I’ve been using iNaturalist for about a month, mostly on moths, insects and butterflies, but have also added some birds, and the accuracy is astounding. Instead of looking through hundreds of pages of a moth field guide, a single photo can provide an ID in about five seconds! You can get more information at www.inaturalist.org. Next month, we’ll look at another app that uses machine learning and recognition specifically for bird ID. Merlin, developed by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is another free app that all birders will want in their arsenal of field guides. Reference: https://www.inaturalist.org/

Carl Manning

Unusual Bird Behavior Hank V had three Tree Swallow nest boxes in his yard. He noticed some unusual behavior at one of the boxes in June. One day when he saw the mouths of the young birds in the doorway he watched a Gray Catbird with a big yellow caterpillar go up toward the birds to feed them. The adult Tree Swallows did not like this and did their best to chase the catbird away repeatedly. The catbird was persistent. Another time the catbird flew to the door and no mouths appeared because the adults were doing their warning call so the youngsters stayed away from the door. Hank checked the box and verified it contained four young Tree Swallows. The catbird did feed some food to the young swallows over a three day period. Has anyone else noticed any behavior like this?

Bird Counters Needed!! The Christmas Bird Count is coming up in December. Two participants have moved out of Michigan and now there are two sections in need of two birders each. Email Carl at oias(at)oias.org if you know of anyone who would like to participate.


Extremely Unexpected Yard Bird Why am I writing about this species? Expect the unexpected!! About 5:25 PM on June 20th, I was sitting on the couch and glanced out the window. I saw a dove with some white on its wing land on the feeder. Brain said must be Mourning Dove with partial albino tendency. It very soon showed me its other side. Wow – it was identical to the first side. Grabbed handy binoculars which confirmed as I exclaimed to Carl “White-winged Dove”. Carl replied “What?” It ate a little more and when birders arrived, it was no where to be seen. We anxiously wandered around the inside of the house hoping to spot it. Eventually we went outside where it was spotted in a pine tree on the west side of our yard. Great looks by all. Saturday morning it was still there for others to see. It was resting in a tree and a squirrel jumped from another tree to the same branch and it immediately took off, never to be seen again. It was not reported anywhere else in Michigan on eBird. This is the second recorded sighting in Ottawa County. The first was by a fisherman in 1999.

Judi Manning White-winged Dove Zenaida asiatica This seasonally migratory large, semitropical dove is found from the southernmost U.S. and Mexico through

Central America and the West Indies. They breed in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico and now into Oklahoma. The northward expansion is probably due to increased agriculture and ornamental trees. Individuals can be found wandering across the continent from Alaska to Maine and places between. Adults are brownish/gray above and gray below and is the only dove with white wing bars on the edge of the wings. They have blue, featherless skin around each eye, red iris and a black ear spot behind each eye, red legs and feet and square tail. Mourning Doves are smaller with a smaller head and bill with a pointed tail and no wing patches and dark eyes. With its large bill and gape, they eat large seeds. It eats usually above ground and slower than a Mourning Dove. Hatchlings have dark

skin coated with off-white down feathers. The doves living in the Sonoran Desert eat the nectar, pollen, fruit and seeds of the saguaro cactus and time breeding the migration on its fruiting schedule. They are an important pollinator of the saguaro cactus. Due to habitat loss in their original range, this species has adapted well to cities and towns. They strike power lines, cars and buildings like many birds do. Predators include raptors, grackles, jays, crows, reptiles and mammals take eggs and nestlings. Sometimes ants swarm and eat the hatching or newly-hatched chicks. References: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Dove/overview; Kropp, R. 2002.

"Zenaida asiatica" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed September 09, 2018 at http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Zenaida_asiatica/

Judi Manning

Range Map: White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica), In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/whwdov

Mourning Dove

White-winged Dove


Judi Manning Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla This species is in the group known as “peeps”. These small shorebirds emit short, piping call notes as they fly and feed. The Semipalmated Sandpiper’s name is derived from the partial webs between its toes ("palmated" means webbed) which can be difficult to see when trying to identify peeps. The webbing helps it walk on mudflats without sinking in. The Western Sandpiper is the only other sandpiper with black webbed toes. This 5-6 inch bird is mottled black-and-brown during breeding with little or no rufous coloration. It is light gray with a lighter belly during non-breeding. Adults have black legs and a pointed, black stubby bill. The legs of juveniles may be olive-colored with no rufous in feathers. The Least Sandpiper has yellow legs. There are three North American breeding populations: western (Alaska), central (Western Canadian Arctic), and eastern (eastern Canadian Arctic). They breed near water in the Arctic tundra ranging from western Alaska to the extreme east (thousands of miles). During migration they are found on beaches and mudflats grabbing food from the surface of mud, sand, or moss. They feed on small crustaceans and aquatic insects, mollusks, and marine worms to build up excessive fat reserves for migration. During breeding season, they eat insects and other invertebrates. They first breed at two years. The nest is on the top of a low mound, under a small shrub or in a sedge tussock. The eggs are incubated for 20 days by both parents. Soon after hatching the young leave the nest and immediately find their own food. The male tends the young until they fledge. The young take their first short flight at 14 days. The different breeding populations of these long-distance migrants (1,900-2,500 miles) take different migratory routes. The Alaska population migrates along the coast to Vancouver, BC and heads inland to the prairies and then south with some central Arctic populations. The remaining central Arctic breeders and all eastern Arctic birds migrate south through the north Atlantic Coast of North America. The Western population winters farther west in South America. They migrate to South America each fall with most juveniles making their first northward journey their second year. In 2012 there were 1.45 million breeding birds with 810,00 in the central and eastern populations. Populations have fluctuated over the last few decades. The Alaskan and central populations are stable and the eastern population is declining 5% per year (estimated) and are classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. The biggest threat is habitat destruction at the key stopover points. Another threat is shorebird hunting by private gun clubs in northeastern South America. References: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Semipalmated_Sandpiper/overview, Seattle Audubon, http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/semipalmated_sandpiper, American Bird Conservatory, https://abcbirds.org/bird/semipalmated-sandpiper/, http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/semipalmatedsandpiper.htm, Unraveling the Mysteries of Migrating Semipalmated Sandpipers, Lesley Evans Ogden, April 05, 2017, https://www.audubon.org/news/unraveling-mysteries-migrating-semipalmated-sandpipers

Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper


Black-capped Chickadee We watched the parents bring food to the nest box what seemed like forever. As the birds grew, the food got bigger and the trips were more and more frequent. I worried about them in the box when we had the 90 plus temperatures as the house was in full sun from about 10:00 to 4:00. We were getting ready to go to Holland State Park at 9:12 AM June 19th when I looked out the window and

saw one of the chickadee babies sitting in the doorway of its house. Grabbed the camera and watched the first young fly to the garage roof. Parents came and fed another one that was in the doorway. After being fed, out came baby number 2 to the garage roof. Immediately after one left, the next young bird was in the doorway.

The adults brought food as each of the five young fledged. To our surprise, no. 6 appeared in the doorway. It waited and waited, but no parent showed up. It finally flew to a tree just to the west of our front door. Parents suddenly appeared. The young then flew across the front window to the roof, but missed and landed on the feeder in front of the window at 9:34 AM. Got a picture, then it flew to the garage roof. We were amazed to see six young leave home. The parents then looked in the house. We assume to make sure all of the young were out. The bird house is about 30 feet from our living room window and probably 5 x 5 and no more than 6 x 6. This is the first time we were fortunate enough to watch a Black-capped Chickadee nest box.

Judi Manning

Dangerous Fishing Line - Humans and Wildlife Strong currents swept a woman downstream and she nearly drowned while swimming in the Manistee River this summer. She became tangled in fishing lines, wrapped around a log, and hooks punctured her arm as she tried to pry them off. Her head was barely above water when two state conservation officers on a routine patrol found her. They cut the lines and she put on a life jacket. When she was holding onto the boat, her legs became entangled in additional hooks and lines that were also cut off. Fishing line, hooks, and tackle improperly disposed of is hazardous to thousands of birds and animals. Turtles and frogs become entangled in the line as well as the legs, wings, and beaks of birds. Ospreys line their nests with a variety of natural and manmade materials such as paper, plastic rope and fishing line, including hooks, that can be deadly. Small birds near water use fishing line in their nests which can also be deadly. When disposing of fishline, cut into pieces less than 6 inches long and dispose of the line, hooks, and tackle in the recycling containers at many of the county and state parks. A better alternative is to use biodegradable fishing line (dissolves in 5 years) but still dispose of hooks and tackle properly.

We have seen a few birds entangled in line or attached to their body at Holland State Park. A man at the pier told us about the gull caught in fishline at his home near Windmill Island. He was able to capture it and free it. Many are not so lucky. We, as well as others, pick up fishing line with hooks attached and tackle wherever we see it.

Judi Manning

Double-crested Cormorant with fishing line (References Pg. 7)


Other Entanglements Excerpts/Synopsis: Chicago Audubon, Annette Prince, Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, http://chicagoaudubon.org/content/untangling-hazards-fishing-line Birds and animals also get tangled in: Kite or balloon strings. Both can fatally trap a bird. The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors rescued a mallard suspended upside down, 50 feet above the ground by a kite string that was tangled on its leg. Never release balloons into the environment. Plastic six-pack rings. Always cut apart before discarded. Head or limbs of animals or birds could get stuck in the openings. Soccer goal netting. Nocturnal wildlife (owls and rabbits) do not see the net and can get seriously injured or

die as they struggle to free themselves. All netting should be removed when not in use. One day at a friend’s house, I spotted movement in a badminton net that was on the ground. We went out there and a starling was stuck in the netting. Their young daughter and I freed the bird. A few years later, her father told us she still remembered that.

Holiday decorations. Birds get caught if holiday Christmas lights are hung too loose. Sticky spider web Halloween decorations ensnare birds that feed or shelter in vegetation. They panic attempting to free themselves and get injured or die in the webbing. Netted cover for trees. If you have it to keep birds off fruit, check it often to make sure birds are not trapped. Landscape netting. This netting can also trap birds, small animals and predators that pursue them. It is very hazardous when placed where aquatic birds and the young leave the water. Check these areas frequently. Biodegradable netting breaks down faster.

If you find an entangled animal, call for help and advice. Here is the link to wildlife rehabilitators in Michigan: http://www.michigandnr.com/dlr/. N

. Capture then cut. If a bird is not completely restrained, it could escape with hooks and string still attached. Small bird and reachable. Wrap or cover the body in a towel or pillowcase to contain it while netting, line or string is cut or unwrapped. Larger entangled bird (heron, hawk, owl). Call a wildlife rehabilitation center for assistance or guidance. Bird suspended out of reach or cannot contain it. Be prepared to catch the bird as it falls when the restraining material is cut. It could escape, sustain further injuries, not reachable or drown if it falls into water while still tangled. Do not let the bird go after entangled. The bird might have sustained an injury so a wildlife rehabilitation center should assess the bird.

References: Tangled fishing lines, hooks nearly cost Michigan woman her life, Tribune News Service • Jul 28, 2018 at 11:00 AM, Grand Haven Tribune, https://www.grandhaventribune.com/Fire-EMS/2018/07/28/Tangled-fishing-lines-hooks-nearly-cost-Michigan-woman-her-life; Chicago Audubon, http://chicagoaudubon.org/content/untangling-hazards-fishing-line, Angler Alert: Fishing Line Can Kill!, https://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/pdf/fishingline2.pdf

Judi Manning


Summer 2018 One day I watched two very young Chipping Sparrows wandering around in the ant hills in a crack in a driveway. I checked this unusual behavior and was surprised to see them eating the small ants! A curious Mourning Dove ambled up the driveway to see what the sparrows were doing and they took off. They had been eating from the suet cakes and the sunflower heart feeder. We had a male Hooded Warbler in the front yard on top of the suet feeder. He soon took off hot on the tail of a Northern Cardinal. Five minutes later the warbler was in the back yard, again on the suet feeder. He soon chased after a male cardinal. I last saw the Hooded Warbler chasing yet another cardinal in the front yard. I never saw the warbler eating any suet. A young Hooded Warbler was infrequently bathing in our pond for the next week. An adult Red-headed Woodpecker was on our suet feeder one August day. The next day we had two adults. For the next six days we only saw one at a time. First time we have had a Red-headed Woodpecker for more than a couple of hours and only very rarely over the years. One evening I saw a hummingbird sitting on the grape feeder in the back yard. I assumed it was grabbing fruit flies off the grapes. To my surprise it was actually flying above the grapes and dropping down to the grapes inserting its bill into the grapes. It did this a few times and briefly flew out of site and soon it was back doing this again. I have never observed this behavior before. I do have hummingbird feeders out in the front yard. Somewhere it learned that grapes have sweet “nectar”. On August 25th we were at Holland State Park. We scanned the horizon with binoculars. Sometimes binoculars are not enough. Eric was scanning with a scope looking for Bonaparte’s Gulls for a birder who just came on the pier. Imagine his surprise and ours when he exclaimed “Common Nighthawks”. It was 10:30 AM on a cloudy morning. These were the first Common Nighthawks we have seen at Holland State Park. On the early evening of August 26th, there was a Gray Catbird flitting about outside the living room window. It landed on the sidewalk. Looking closer, I noticed an ant hatch. This is hard to describe. It swept its tail forward at a 60 degree angle sometimes standing on its tail. The ants climbed up the tail and some were eaten. Sometimes the bird was standing on its tail. It was grabbing the largest flying ants and eating them. At one point an ant flew up and the catbird flew up and caught it and ate it. It was also eating the smaller flying ants. After about five minutes, in came a female Northern Cardinal. She exhibited the same behavior as the catbird. A few minutes later a male Northern Cardinal came in and also stood on its tail and seemed to use it as an “ant block”. We have never watched birds exhibit this behavior before. The catbird came back and this continued until there were no more flying ants visible. We really enjoyed watching them. This was one of those “unexpected moments”.

Judi Manning

2018 CraneFest: Sandhill Crane & Art Festival October 13-14, 2018 CraneFest, sponsored by Michigan Audubon in partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Battle Creek, focuses to raise awareness and appreciation of our natural heritage and to support the ongoing educational and conservation efforts of Michigan Audubon and it’s Bernard W. Baker Bird Sanctuary. The festival is held at the Kiwanis Youth Area in Bellevue, overlooking Big Marsh Lake.

For more information: https://www.michiganaudubon.org/news-events/signature-events/cranefest/


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is a publication of the Owashtanong Islands Audubon Society, Grand Haven, MI All articles are copyrighted; permission is granted to copy any article in its entirety with references attached. Please contact Editor for other arrangements.

FAR FLOWING WATER

Welcome back to another season. Hope you had a great summer!

Cooper’s Hawk, Red-headed Woodpecker, Sanderling, Song Sparrow

Vol. 30 No. 1 September, 2018, Pg. Owashtanong Islands Audubon Society-far flowing water

7:00 Birds in the City: Conservation needs . . . …. Linnea Rowse

Owashtanong Islands Audubon Society Judi Manning, Editor P.O. Box 1654 Holland, MI 49422 PLEASE FORWARD ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Mission Statement Owashtanong Islands Audubon Society

a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation

Provide stewardship of local Grand River island wildlife sanctuaries owned by the Michigan Audubon Society;

Achieve through education, public recognition of the value and need for protecting and preserving wildlife, plants, soil, water and other natural resources as well as an understanding of their interdependence;

Promote an interest in our native birds and as well as native flora and fauna, and their habitats because of their great economic, cultural and recreational value; and

Aid the Michigan Audubon Society in its study, conservation and research efforts.