If you think peregrine falcons are the only birds who fight, think again.

On May 6 at Magee Marsh I witnessed a vicious fight between two common grackles on the deck below the bird feeders at the Sportsmen’s Migratory Bird Center.  They were the only birds on the deck.  Everyone else had fled.  And no wonder!

Grackles are powerful, muscular songbirds armed with long, strong beaks.  In this battle, beaks were their weapon of choice.  At the time, I was too stunned to use my cellphone camera so I’ll have to describe the fight in words.  To make it easier to understand I’ll label the combatants Jack and Joe.

When I first noticed them the birds were locked in combat.  Joe had grabbed Jack by the leg.  Then Jack got a hold of Joe’s beak and held on tight.  They shifted and fluttered and Jack somehow used his leverage to flip Joe on his back.  Both had their wings open as Jack pinned Joe to the deck for at least 30 seconds.  Ow!  Another shift and flutter and Jack grabbed Joe by his neck.  Joe tried to take the offensive but Jack was clearly winning.

I felt bad for Joe except… this fight was keeping them from harming other birds.  Nesting songbirds, from warblers to robins, are well aware of the grackles’ danger because grackles raid their nests and eat their eggs and chicks.  All the songbirds can do is scream, ineffectually try to hit the grackles, and watch in horror.  Perhaps this fight was weakening one of their enemies.

In the end Jack won and Joe escaped, much the worse for wear.  He was knocked down and nearly dragged out.

(photo of a common grackle by Steve Gosser)

When the peregrine chicks were tiny, Dorothy used to “chup” at them to get them to open their mouths.  There’s no need to encourage them now!  They crowd her at feeding time and whine and chup on their own.  And they actively grab the food she’s offering.

In this action shot, notice that Dorothy’s right eye looks almost closed.  During feeding time she covers her eyes with her nictitating membranes so a random peck from their sharp beaks won’t ruin her eyesight.  It’s an important safety mechanism.

Dorothy’s wearing goggles.

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at the Univ of Pittsburgh)

Watch this video on YouTube.

PixController, based in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, is famous for its wildlife video cameras, especially the Lily the Bear cam and Pittsburgh’s peregrine streaming cams.

This month PixController set up a videocam in a Murrysville wetland to see what sort of wildlife used the area.  In just a week the camera recorded a great blue heron, a family of Canada geese, an American bittern, a mallard, and a raccoon.

An American bittern is a great find because these birds are rarely seen.  Notice in the video above that the bittern looks like a short, striped-brown version of the great blue heron and has a similar hunting style.

For an even better look at the bittern, Bill Powers put all the footage into one video, shown below.  Near the end of the video the bittern successfully catches a frog.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Though I’ve seen American bitterns in the wild I have never seen them move. I always find them hiding in the reeds, standing motionless with their beaks straight up.  These videos provide a window on their world.

(videos from PixController)

Gray catbirds are mimics who sing whistles and squeaks and fragments of other birds’ songs.  Their phrases are short syllables and single notes punctuated by uneven pauses and mewing cat sounds.

Catbirds are not good singers.  However…

This month in Schenley Park there’s a catbird who must have taken singing lessons.  His delivery is loud and confident.  His phrases are longer and identifiable as bird song.  I’ve heard him give good imitations of cardinals, robins, blue jays, eastern towhees, Carolina wrens and song sparrows.  Song sparrows are hard for catbirds to mimic.  I am amazed.

Ornithologists would be amazed too.  Cornell’s Birds of North America says, “Laboratory evidence indicates that male [gray catbird] song results mostly from improvisation and invention, not via imitation.”

In other words, catbirds are jazz singers.  But this particular bird is trying out for an opera career.  He is so good I thought he was a brown thrasher until he sang from an exposed perch.

A virtuoso!

(photo by Shawn Collins)

 A mother Canada goose shelters her babies.

(photo by Lucy of Manchester, UK via Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the image to see the original.)

Here’s another beauty blooming now in western Pennsylvania.

Fringed polygala is only 3 to 6 inches tall so you’ll have to look closely to find it.

Dianne Machesney saw this one along the Butler Freeport Trail near Monroe Road. Today I’m going to go see it.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Watch this video on YouTube.

Many of us are know that peregrines are great hunters but we don’t often get to see the amazing fishing skills of ospreys.

This video from Arkive.org is certain to impress you.  Just look at the size of that last fish!

And, did you know…?
At the coast osprey nests are often within sight of each other. Like a loosely organized colony, they watch each other to see who returns with a fish and follow the successful hunters out to hunt the same area.

Osprey can even identify the fishes held by others and are more likely to follow a neighbor who returns with a fish that lives in schools. Schooling fish are never alone. There’s more where that came from!

(video from Arkive.org on YouTube)

I walked home through Schenley Park on Tuesday hoping to see a lot of birds after the rain.  As usual the birds were not very active in the evening but I found something so cute it made me laugh:  two baby woodchucks!

I call them woodchucks because the word “groundhog” doesn’t fit something so cute.  They were compact and furry, the size of large guinea pigs and very naive.

At first they were oblivious to my presence but when I paused to watch they froze.  I moved again and they retreated into their den but they were so anxious to come out and play that they didn’t wait long enough for me to leave.  I took their picture with my cellphone when they came out again.

Extremely cute!  But they’ll have to learn to avoid predators or they’ll become breakfast for the red-tail babies.

(photo by Kate St. John)

p.s.  I went back on Wednesday with a nicer camera but the woodchucks didn’t make an appearance.

Last weekend Dianne Machesney visited the Butler-Freeport Trail and found wild columbine blooming.  It’s also blooming at the Magee Marsh boardwalk in northwestern Ohio, the first time I’ve ever seen it there.

The hot weather in March put the plants ahead of schedule in Ohio just as they are here. Maybe I’ve finally seen what Magee Marsh vegetation looks like just after the warblers — and birders — are gone.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Back in the 1990′s when I attended the Rachel Carson Institute I learned that an important part of nature observation is to make a list of the species I encounter.  This creates a good historical record of those present and can be compared over time to discover which species disappeared.

During birding vacations list-making morphs into a challenge.  How many species did I see?  Did I miss an easy one?

At the Biggest Week in American Birding peregrine falcons aren’t easy to tally because they’re random fly-bys but before I left for northwestern Ohio I did my homework.  If I didn’t see a peregrine in the marshes I knew where to find one.

Sure enough by Sunday night I still hadn’t seen a peregrine and I was leaving Monday without birding so I stopped by the Ottawa County Courthouse in Port Clinton.  I had read that a pair is present this spring.  To be honest, I would have stopped there anyway because I can’t resist the opportunity to see a peregrine.

And here she is, perched below the courthouse clock.  She looks like a sub-adult to me.  Maybe she’ll raise a family next year in the nestbox provided on the south face.

I tipped off my friends Chuck & Joan Tague and Margie Kern so they could tally a peregrine too.  Thanks to Chuck for the photo.

(photo by Chuck Tague)