Gray Catbirds can’t pass up ripe fall berries. In this case native American Beautyberry berries. Gray Catbirds are not alone. Birds, especially migrants, use the high fat & nutrient content of berries they co-evolved with. These nutrients help resident species prepare for winter. They also aid migratory species successfully make their trips back to tropical […]
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This Veery is a forest thrush & Yard-Lifer for our urban yard deep in metro-Atlanta. Veeries are long-distance migrants. They spend the summer in the forests of Canada & northern U.S. (& a few at the highest elevations of the southern Appalachian Mts) & winter in central and southern Brazil. To make this trip, they […]
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There are barred owl behaviors that suggest they have a ‘loving’ relationship with their partners. This statement of anthropomorphism makes scientists squeamish and adamantly remind us we can’t decipher what the owls are really thinking or ‘feeling’. But to be fair, they struggle to scientifically establish their own feelings: “Love may be defined as an […]
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Biomimicry: Learning from and emulating nature’s forms, processes, and ecosystems to create solutions for problems in the human-made world. There are many examples of biomimicry in practice, e.g., sharkskin and antifouling ship hulls, termite mounds and efficient building ventilation, humpback whale fins and low drag wind turbine blades, burdock plant burrs and Velcro, ,,, the […]
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It is not a coincidence that the birds featured in this post are on a rotting stump in our yard. We leave stumps & snags – when safe – for the very reasons tree removal companies tell us not to: To attract ‘pests’. Pests like the wasps, beetles, spiders, ants and caterpillars that live in […]
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Eastern Towhees are sparrows and an exception to the sparrow look of ‘Little Brown Jobs’. Eastern Towhees and Spotted Towhees of the western North America were considered one species, Rufous-sided Towhee, until 1995. Famous for their “drink-your-tea” song, a group of towhees are called a “teapot”. Common and frequently heard across their range, but not […]
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Herons, like Great Blue, Green, Night, Little, are known for their slow and deliberate hunting and fishing styles. Then there are the Tri-colored Herons. Tri-colored Herons frenetically ‘dance’ when fishing. Their signature first move is the Canopy. They form a canopy by spreading their wings to create a large shadow on the water’s surface. When […]
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Large flocks of ‘Fall’ migrating Sandhill Cranes are no longer just using the farm fields of middle GA as a stopover, some are staying for the winter. Historically, eastern Sandhill Cranes fly to the Florida prairies for the winter. One exception is a population that winters near the Okefenokee Swamp & the Grand Bay Wildlife […]
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Different species of birds often stop their territorial bickering and competition to cooperatively forage together and improve one or both species’ success rate. This cooperation can take a variety of forms. For waterbirds it is often commensal, that is, one species benefits and the other neither benefits or is harmed. A common form of commensalism […]
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