October Meeting:
Wednesday, October 23rd.
Meet at 7:00 PM in the Bean Museum Auditorium on the BYU Campus.
Jack Rensel, long-time employee of the Division of Wildlife Resources,
recently retired supervisor of the Northern Region, will present the
program. He will speak on the history of the
white-tailed ptarmigan in
the Uinta Mountains. He will share details concerning the original
introduction of the birds from Colorado to the Uintas. He will also give general
information on the biology of the birds and, of most interest to the
bird watchers, will discuss where and how to find these elusive birds.
Anyone interested in this game bird, be it birdwatcher, hunter, or nature
lover, will find his discussion most informative.
The general public is welcome.
Field Trips:
Saturday, November 2nd.
Full Day
Meet at the Provo Temple Street parking at 7:00 A.M.
Destination and target species will be
determined by the Hotline reports.
Another "Winter of Our Discontent?"
by Dennis Shirley
Last Saturday night, after getting home from our Utah
County Birders field trip to Arches N. P. about 9:00 p.m., and realizing that
the BYU game was half over and there was no point watching the second half as
they had already been blown away, I chose to update my bird list for the year. I
realized that I had much birding work to do before December 31.
I checked my year's records and found that I have at
least sixteen rare winter visitors left to find. Since I didn't find them in the
early months of 2002, I'll need to scramble and have luck to find them before
the end of the year.
So the question is, "what will this coming winter
bring?" We've all heard the predictions of another winter of higher than normal
temperatures and lower than normal snowpack, but who knows for sure? We do know
that the drought conditions across the western states and up into Canada have
had detrimental effects on the breeding success of North American
waterfowl.
Across the board, all duck species that nest in the
Canadian provinces are down. As examples, northern pintail populations have
dropped 46% since 2001.
Others, such as the northern shoveler, blue-winged
teal, redhead, canvasback, and gadwall are down about 25% in one year.
I would think that the western drought conditions can
be either detrimental or beneficial to Utah winter birding. On the one hand, we
know that waterfowl numbers will be markedly lower because of poor habitat
conditions in the North, but who's to say that some bird populations may show up
in greater numbers than normal. Maybe this winter, we will again have an influx
of common redpoll or hopefully, bohemian waxwings. Maybe with poor prey
populations to the north, gyrfalcon, snowy owl, and even great-gray owl could
show up in Utah this year. Who knows?
Some early reports from birders could indicate things
to come. Steller’s jays are once again in the valleys at feeders, which seems
early. An unusual report already lists gray jays at a feeder in the Uintah
Basin. It seems we've already had an unusually high number of uncommon and rare
winter visitors reported in the state: golden-crowned sparrow, white-crowned
sparrow, and merlin.
So what's your guess? Will the winter be another of our
discontent, or will the sun also rise? Let's hope for the latter!
Georg Steller and the Steller’s Jay
by Tom Williams
If you want a new species to be named for you, you’ve got
a better chance with bugs than birds. Approximately one million six-legged
species have been described and estimates of the total number go as high as
thirty million. In comparison there are only some ten thousand species of birds
and any changes we can expect in that number will likely be through splitting
and
lumping.
So it seems a shame that some naturalists to have
multiple species. Georg Steller, for example, has the Steller’s Jay, Steller’s
Eider, and Steller’s Sea Eagle, not to mention Steller’s Greenling – a kind of
trout – and Steller’s Sea Cow, which is now extinct. In addition he described
two other species, Steller’s Sea Monkey and Steller’s White Raven, which have
never been seen by anyone else and probably never existed, at least not species.
Steller himself was a bit like the jay that’s named for
him – curious, quarrelsome, and at times obnoxious. He was born in Austria in
1709 and studied botany and medicine at Halle University. Hearing of a Russian
plan to explore North America from Siberia, he made his way first to St.
Petersburg and then across Siberia to the Kamchatka peninsula. There he
convinced Vitus Bering, a Dane who was in charge of the Russian ships, to sign
him on as a physician and naturalist.
Two ships headed east from Avacha Bay early in June
1841. The St. Peter, carrying Bering and Steller, soon lost contact with the St.
Paul but continued towards North America. Steller was in frequent conflict with
the crew and officers, both because he was not Russian and because, in spite of
his complete lack of experience at sea, he persisted in telling them
how to run the ship. Mockingly called “The Little Commander,” he complained
bitterly in his journal that “they commenced to ridicule sneeringly and to leave
unheaded every opinion offered by anyone not a seaman.”
In mid-July they reached the coast of what is now
Alaska. Bering had been ill most of the voyage and was eager to return to
Russia. Rather than explore the coast, he merely sent ashore a party to fill the
ship’s water barrels. Initially Bering would not permit Steller to accompany
them, but after an argument in which Steller characterized Bering as “a weakling
and an old woman” he gave permission.
It was during this ten-hour stop that Steller saw and
described a single specimen of the jay that bears his name. When the dead bird
was brought to him, he immediately recognized it as a close relation of the Blue
Jay of eastern North America that he had seen as a painting in Mark Catesby’s
book Natural History of Carolina, Florida, etc. in the library at St. Petersburg
Academy.
On the return trip, the St. Peter ran ashore on what is
now called Bering Island and the crew was forced to winter over. Bering died
during this stay but Steller at least partially won the respect of the crew by
brewing herbal remedies that cured the scurvy from which they suffered. In the
spring, after surviving the winter mostly on a diet of sea otter, they began
construction of a new, smaller vessel from the remains of the old one.
In August they sailed it back into Avacha Bay.
Steller’s ill feelings over the voyage and his natural
pugnacity brought him in to conflict with local authorities. He was arrested and
later released, but he soon began drinking heavily and died in November of 1742
at age 37.
If you are interested learning more about Steller, a
good starting point is Where the Sea Breaks Its Back: The Epic Story of Early
Naturalist Georg Steller and the Russia Exploration of Alaska, by Corey Ford. At
about 200 pages it’s an easy read and has an excellent bibliography. The book’s
not in either the Orem or Provo public libraries, but it is in the BYU library.
And
I’d be happy to lend you my copy – there’d be no fine if you returned it late.
Copyright ©© 2002 by L. Thomas Williams
I Once Saw A Bird ...
by Margaret T. Sanchez
One day, my daughter Bea and I visited Laguna Atascosa NWR
in Texas by the Rio Grande Valley. There we saw a Black-crested Titmouse, an
Olive Sparrow, and a Green Jay which I never saw again elsewhere. And years ago,
my cousin Gertrude drove me to Mount Diablo in northern California, and on the
way we found a Yellow-billed Magpie, which frequents the Sacramento Valley.
These are experiences which I will never forget.
On a trip to southeastern Arizona with the Utah County
Birders, led by Ned Hill, I saw many new birds—just once in my life. In Madera
Canyon, I saw a Bridled Titmouse, a Painted Redstart, and a Scott’s Oriole. I
caught only a glimpse of the latter two, not enough for a photograph, but enough
to identify them. An Elf Owl poked its head out of a hole in a pole by
Santa Rita Lodge. At other locations, I saw an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a
Rose-throated Becard, a flock of Scaled Quail, a Vermilion Flycatcher, a Gila
Woodpecker, an Elegant Trogon, a Violet-crowned Hummingbird (the most beautiful
hummingbird I ever saw, with its violet cap, red bill, and white underparts),
and the Zone-tailed Hawk flying high above Rustler Park in the Chiricahua
Mountains. Thanks, Ned, for these wonderful birds, and many others.
With my sister Alice in Kentucky, I saw a Swainson’s
Thrush, an Indigo Bunting, and a Carolina Wren. At the Lexington Cemetery, I saw
and identified my only Veery. When Alice and I visited Florida, we watched a
Pileated Woodpecker in Corkscrew Swamp, and a Palm Warbler, several Wood Storks,
and a Red-shouldered Hawk in the Everglades National Park.
When Bea and I visited the Upper Texas Coast, we saw a
Least Bittern at Anahuac NWR—I still haven’’t seen the American Bittern. And we
saw Neotropic (Olivaceous) Cormorants at Sea Rim State Park. (Which reminds me
that
on our Monterey birding trip, Ned showed us both the Pelagic Cormorant and
Brandt’s Cormorant side by side, as well as a Townsend’s Warbler.) When I was
with Bea in southern California at Bolsa Chica, one of my favorite places to
bird along the coast, I once saw some Brants. I visited the Rancho Santa Ana
Botanic Garden in Claremont on several occasions, and there saw one Nuttall’s
Woodpecker, a Cactus Wren, and a beautiful Hermit Warbler.
At Island Park, Idaho, I saw a Red Crossbill, and a
juvenile Great Gray Owl. This past summer, with Bea at Benton Lake NWR near
Great Falls, Montana, I saw a Chestnut-collared Longspur (unfortunately just
when my telephoto lens gave out), and an Upland Sandpiper. At Divide Picnic Area
in Yellowstone National Park, I at last saw a Gray Jay!
With its varied habitats at different elevations, Utah
is a wonderful state for birding. I appreciate very much the many opportunities
I have had to go birding with the Utah County Birders. Thanks to Robin Tuck for
getting this organization started back in 1993! I also owe to Robin my record
year of seeing and photographing some 200 species of birds in Utah in
1976—170 or so in Utah County alone!
Dennis Shirley pointed out a Short-eared Owl flying
over the fields west of Utah Lake. I managed to see the Northern Pygmy-Owl at
Zion National Park, and the Northern Saw-whet Owl in Alona Huffaker’s front
yard. I had a good view of a female Blue Grouse in Payson Canyon, and of the
Ruffed Grouse which posed for me by the picnic area of Shingle Creek Campground
in the Uintas. I glimpsed a Greater Sage-Grouse flying by at Deseret Ranch—and
saw a Sage Sparrow. Black Swifts flew over my head one night when I was up at
the Squaw Peak Overlook. At Lytle Ranch, I saw one Ladder-backed
Woodpecker and a Hooded Oriole. On the Provo River by Utah Lake I once saw a
Glaucous Gull…
What a joy it is to see a new bird clearly—even briefly—even once!