Wildflowers at Bowman's Hill

Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve is a small tract managed for native plants near New Hope, Pennsylvania. The trails feature wildflowers and other native plants in the settings where they might naturally occur. Since the site is so well-maintained, it is pretty good for birding too. Yesterday I saw or heard about a dozen species of warblers there, including Worm-eating and Cerulean. A lot of other woodland migrants were around as well, such as Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. As one might expect in spring at a wildflower preserve, the trails were lined with flowers. The most numerous that I encountered were spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) like the one above, and bluets (Houstonia caerulea) like the one below.

Below are a few other wildflowers from around Bowman's Hill.

Wild Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides)

Pinxterbloom Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)

Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium pubescens)

Swallows

Even before I started birding, I enjoyed watching the aerial antics of swallows. The first that I learned to recognize was the Barn Swallow, a common sight wherever there are open fields and structures for building nests. A Barn Swallow may also have been the first bird I tried to photograph – when I was a kid I tried to photograph one with a fixed-prime-lens point-and-shoot film camera (needless to say, the results were not good). When I started looking closer at the swallows with binoculars, I realized that there were other types of swallows too. Tree Swallows, shown above, were probably the first I noticed as distinct from Barn Swallows. Tree Swallows are usually the first to arrive in the spring and the last to depart in the fall. During migration, they sometimes form impressively large gatherings, especially in coastal areas. In March, their sudden appearance at ponds and marshes is a sure sign that more insectivores are on the way.

I was slower to recognize Northern Rough-winged Swallows, probably because I had them confused with Bank Swallows when I first started looking at birds. At my local patch, Northern Rough-winged Swallows seem to form the majority on most days. It may be that the park has better nesting habitat for them than for the other swallow species. Tree Swallows are usually the second most numerous.

When I first started birding, it was a challenge to track swallows in flight with my binoculars well enough to see enough details of their plumage to identify. It is still not easy, but I have gotten much better at that over the years. These two Northern Rough-winged Swallows, though, did not present any such challenge. One seemed to be picking up nesting material from the parking lot, while the other just rested in place.

In addition to the Tree and Northern Rough-winged Swallows, I have also seen Bank and Barn Swallows at my patch regularly, though mainly during migration. Cliff Swallows started nesting nearby (at the Route 27 bridge) a few years ago. I have not seen them yet this year, but they will probably show up soon. Yesterday, I saw a Purple Martin at the park for the first time ever. I just happened to notice one swallow that looked darker than the rest, which was enough to make me take a closer look.

Loose Feathers #289

Mexican Amethyst Hummingbird and Green-Tailed Hummingbird, from A selection of the birds of Brazil and Mexico by William Swainson

Birds and birding news

• All this week, The New York Times has been running a Bird Week series on birds and birding in New York City. Some of the more interesting posts have included one on bird photographers in Central Park, one on ten particularly desirable birds, and one on John James Audubon's last home. There is also a list of suggested resources for birders in the New York area. To access the articles for free, look for the links on the @cityroom Twitter account (or mine).
• Hummingbirds use lamellae (i.e., hair-like structures) on the edges of their tongues to drink nectar; rather than curling their tongues into a straw. 
• A new, longer-lasting rat poison is killing wildlife, including hawks and owls, in California.
• One biology teacher is having her students post to Twitter whenever they observe an interesting bird behavior.
• Birders on a cruise ship off the coast of Chile have probably discovered a new species of storm-petrel. 
• A study of Giant Hummingbird metabolism suggests that hummingbirds might be able to be larger than currently known species.
• A doctoral student reports on his research at a Magnificent Frigatebird nesting site.
• Outdoor cats are the main predator of Northern Mockingbirds and their nestlings in urban areas.
• Guillemots nesting at St. Abb's Head in Scotland laid eggs at the earliest recorded date this year.

Birds in the blogosphere

• The House & Other Arctic Musings: Predatory Songbirds & Panegyric
• Earbirding: An Easter (n?) Phoebe

Environment and biodiversity

• A major pipeline leak in northern Alberta released 28,000 barrels of crude oil; it was the largest spill in Alberta since 1975. The leak was discovered on April 29 and has since been repaired, but it contaminated 8 acres of beaver ponds and muskeg. You can see photos of the area here and here.
• Approval for drilling permits in the Arctic faces several political obstacles, particularly convincing the Interior Department that oil companies can prevent a major spill and persuading Native Alaskans that drilling will not interfere with their subsistence hunting.
• BP was fined $25 million for a spill in Alaska in 2006.
• Gray wolves in the Rocky Mountains were removed from the Endangered Species List this week, on order from Congress. The Interior Department also moved to delist the wolves west of the Great Lakes. Their fate will now be in the hands of state wildlife agencies.

Blog carnivals

• Circus of the Spineless #62 
• Festival of the Trees #59
• I and the Bird #149

Bleeding Hearts

Among the more eye-catching spring flowers are the unusual plants known as "bleeding hearts." There are actually several species known by this name. The one in these images is one introduced from Asia, Lamprocapnos spectabilis (sometimes classified as Dicentra spectabilis). Bleeding hearts have an outer pair of petals, shaped like a heart, and an inner pair that hangs down past the outer pair. In some bleeding hearts species, the inner pair is colored dark red and looks more like a drop of blood.

The photos above were taken when the light was soft and diffuse. I took the one below under different lighting conditions, with strong backlighting.

State of the Birds on Public Lands

Yesterday the Department of Interior released its third annual State of the Birds report. The government picked up this yearly tradition from Audubon and other organizations that release their own annual reports on bird conservation. These reports typically make use of citizen science data, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Great Backyard Bird Count, and eBird's database. This year's report, on bird distribution on public lands and waters, combines distribution data from the eBird database with a comprehensive database of publicly-owned protected areas.

The report focuses on how public lands and the agencies that manage them can assist bird conservation. It includes both federal and state-owned land. This is especially important for those 300 some bird species that have a majority of their distribution on public lands. It identifies several areas where public agencies should improve their holdings and management, particularly grasslands and eastern forests, both of which have far lower rates of public ownership than other habitat types.

You can read the press release, the key findings, or the full report. The latter two links are pdfs.