I have been surprised by the dozens of robins all around our place at the south end. I’d be curious to hear the birders explain their sudden appearance in great numbers. Does this mean spring is really on the way?

(Posted with John’s permission.)

What do you think, Gabriola birders?

For two years, Simone Pika und Thomas Bugnyar investigated the non-vocal behaviour of individually marked members of a wild raven community in the Cumberland Wildpark in Grünau, Austria. They observed that ravens use their beaks similar to hands to show and offer objects such as moss, stones and twigs. These distinct gestures were predominantly aimed at partners of the opposite sex and resulted in frequent orientation of recipients to the object and the signallers. Subsequently, the ravens interacted with each other, for example, by example billing or joint manipulation of the object.

Ravens are songbirds belonging to the corvid family like crows and magpies, and they surpass most of the other avian species in terms of intelligence. Their scores on various intelligence tests are similarly high than those of great apes. Ravens in particular can be characterized by complex intra-pair communication, relatively long-time periods to form bonds and a relatively high degree of cooperation between partners.

This new study shows that [continue]

Slow-motion footage has revealed how a hovering hummingbird is able to cope with wet weather.

The cameras show that the delicate bird shakes its head with such acceleration that it can reach a g-force of 34 (Formula 1 racing cars typically reach less than 6g).

This mid-air manoeuvre takes just 0.1 seconds and removes almost all of the water droplets from its feathers. [continue]

How cool is that? Considering the amount of rain we get on Gabriola, we must have hummingbirds doin’ this crazy shake quite a bit.

Residents complain that the turkeys eat their shrubs and garden vegetables, frighten small children and snatch cookies out of their hands, wake families up before sunrise and cross the streets in indolent flocks that seem impervious to impatient drivers. [continue]

The nerve!

Now, by the way: are there any laws that would prohibit the catching and eating of wild turkeys on Gabriola? Sheila M’s comment about the bunnies has me wondering.

Wow.

(Dear photographer: last I heard, you didn’t want a photo credit. Please advise if you’ve changed your mind.)

If you’ve ever watched and heard them peck (or listened from your bed as they attack your metal chimney at 6 am), you might wonder how they manage to do all that pecking without addling their brains.

The BBC explains: How woodpeckers avoid head injury.

Have you ever heard of people catching and smuggling hummingbirds? Now you have. Tai-wiki-widbee has the story and photos: Hummingbird smuggler caught with his pants down.

Here’s Raven in the evening light, having just finished a snack of squirrel.

Meanwhile, Gabriola Bird Blog‘s Owl comes home to Gabriola post tells the story of an injured barred owl who was rescued on Gabriola, bundled off for rehabilitation, and returned to the island. The story makes a good read and the owl-in-flight photo is wonderful.

Meawhile, we are owl-less. Sigh.

Thank you so much, Elen. This is fantastic!

The compost is under a cedar tree at the back of the property. Low branches stretch out over the compost.

This evening I noticed an owl perched on one of those branches. Owl spent at least an hour staring down into the compost — waiting for dinner to arrive, I suppose.

I am quite pleased about this. I like owls.

Thursday July 7th update: owl is back, staring down into compost again. I hope this will (or has?) become a nightly ritual. Anyway. Got photo! I suspect this is a barred owl.

What do you think? Is this a normal juvenile hummingbird, having a snooze? Or is it a dead hummingbird? That porcupine-like appearance is a bit strange.

I’d like to know more about the birds on Gabriola, but I’m usually too tired to do the research to find out about them. But if somebody who knows is willing to present the info to me on a blog-plated platter, that is a Very Good thing.

Anyway. Here is more annoyed wildlife news: Angry Velociraptor Crows Terrorize Everett Police:

Collectively, a group of crows is known as a murder, and murder is apparently exactly what this particular flock has in mind. One lieutenant described how he got zinged by the birds and proclaimed that the force’s new airborne adversaries are like velociraptors. Even more troubling, the evil avians are reportedly targeting top brass and detectives in particular.

Of course, Everett’s finest aren’t ones to give up without a fight. One officer sounded his siren at the crows, hoping to scare them away. But alas, his police cruiser was promptly carpet-bombed with bird poop. [continue]

At the moment, the island’s turkeys are even more than usually interesting. Some of them are lurking near the bottom of the s-curve on North Road at Horseshoe, between the mailboxes and the Old A-Frame restaurant at Barrett. They hide amongst the bushes, peck things, cross the street, and hide amongst the bushes again.

But this time they have little baby turkeys with them. The chicks are adorable; take a look and see if you can spot any next time you pass.

Here’s a larger, zoomed-in view of the bird’s head, just because:

Well, ok, it’s because no other Gabriola bird has ever sat still to have his photo taken, and this one did.

Is that not a fine pattern of plumage there? ‘Tis a distinguished backside. I bet your hind quarters aren’t as well patterned nor as well feathered, which is probably a good thing.

American Scientist’s Flights of Fancy article explains:

The graceful aerial displays of starlings and other flocking birds have long inspired admiration and wonder. Lately they have also inspired serious work in mathematics, computer science, physics and biology. A theoretical framework for explaining the behavior of tightly clustered flocks emerged in the 1980s. The key idea, which came from computer simulations, is that purely local interactions between nearby birds are enough to hold the group together. Similar mechanisms are thought to operate in schools of fish, herds of grazing animals, swarms of insects and even crowds of people.

More recent work builds on this foundation. In particular, an ambitious program of stereoscopic photography and digital image processing has made it possible to reconstruct the positions and velocities of individual birds within large flocks. The new data suggest some refinements to the algorithms that are thought to govern the birds’ movements. The three-dimensional reconstructions have also brought some surprises about the overall shape and structure of the flocks, and show that the birds’ movements are even more delicately coordinated than casual observation would suggest. [continue]

As it is, I can’t even find my big tripod, so oh well. I see the serious Gabriola photographers go by with their serious equipment, and … well. I’m playing with the dog, ok?

I think the eagle understands.

The nesting cavity width at the top of the nest is only 4cm, so this thing is tiny. The outside seems to be moss and lichen, while the inner layer is made of softer stuff. I’m guessing, after looking at the photos and videos at hummingbirdworld.com, that this is a hummingbird nest.

Vegetarians will, I hope, be pleased that the turkeys are not destined to be somebody’s dinner.

Breakfast at Whalebone.

This is the latest one. It lacks a roof, and the usual fir-cone decorations; perhaps the birdhouse-builder will return to this birdhouse and spruce it up a bit.