The Nature of Delaware

By Derek Stoner, Family Programs Coordinator

Running late on Wednesday to meet up with William Ryan, director of Bucktoe Creek Preserve, I turned onto Sharp Road and witnessed a stunning sight overhead:  an immature Golden Eagle flying at treetop level, circling tightly in beautiful sunlight.  I pulled the car over, grabbed the camera, and snapped off some photos as the eagle drifted to the southwest.   

Getting back to the car, I found my cell phone ringing.  William was watching the eagle from the top of the hill, where he’d witnessed the majestic bird glide across the hayfield in front of him, just  six feet off the ground! 

Golden Eagles are uncommon migrants along the East Coast, travelling through primarily in the months of November and March.  We have seen 12 Golden Eagles fly over the Ashland Hawk Watch so far this fall. 

 On rare occasions, a Golden will winter in the mid-Atlantic, usually in marsh or grassland habitat that offers plenty of small mammal prey.  The Golden Eagle’s smaller head, longer tail, and different flight style distinguishes this bird from the more-common Bald Eagle.  A Golden’s wingspan is an impressive 7 1/2 feet!

This Golden Eagle was a new bird for the long-running survey at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve, and became species #190 for the list.  What an exciting sighting!

By Derek Stoner, Family Programs Coordinator

An immature female Rufous Hummingbird captured and banded in Avondale, PA in October 2009. Photo by Nick Pulcinella

Continuing our story of wintering hummingbirds, the big question is: how do you attract one of these birds to your yard?

During migration, these remarkable birds navigate through the landscape of suburbia and manage to find tiny a tiny oasis of habitat that can sustain their basic needs.  If an ideal location is found, then that is where the bird may spend its wintering period.  

Blooming Pineapple Sage is very attractive to hummingbirds. Photo by Derek Stoner.

Of the backyard “winter hummingbird hotels” that I have visited(eight in total), there are four key components that each location has in common:

1.  A feeder that is kept full of fresh sugar water(and not allowed to freeze solid).  Heat lamps on the feeder are a way to solve the freezing issue.

2.  Thick cover for the bird to roost in at night.  Rufous Hummingbirds  seem to prefer to roost in an evergreens or thick vines.

3.  Late-blooming flowers such as sage, that provide a natural nectar source.

4.  Native plants that host a variety of insects and spiders for the hummingbird to eat.  Arthopods make up a large percentage of their winter diet.

Bruce Peterjohn, a professional bird bander, places a wire cage trap around the hummingbird feeder at Jim White's home. Photo by Jim White.

If you are so lucky to attract and host a hummingbird during the winter, you have the unique opportunity to have the bird banded for science.  A professional bird bander with special training in hummingbirds can use a simple trap to capture the bird, which is then weighed, measured, banded(with the tiniest of metal bands on its leg!), photographed and released. 

Through banding efforts, scientists have learned that some hummingbirds will return to the exact same backyard winter after winter.  This evidence points to the fact that we are observing a natural phenomenon, and not just the case of some birds getting lost and ending up on the east coast.  An example of adaptive behavior may the reason for this situation, as these hardy birds are finding suitable habitat here without migrating all the way to Mexico or Central America.

An immature male Rufous Hummingbird rest on a branch after being banded. Photo by Jim White, November 2006

So, keep your hummingbird feeders up, cross your fingers, and let us know if a little rust-colored hummingbird shows up in your yard this winter!

By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

Last Saturday, our Teen Naturalist group took in the sights at the Ashland Hawk Watch and watched Bald Eagles and other wildlife at Conowingo Dam, MD.  Our objective for the day was to create a video of our experience, have a lot of fun, and see a lot of wildlife.  We accomplished all three and saw over 100 Bald Eagles, Double-crested Cormorants eating fish, and fishermen catching Striped Bass and Walleye. By the way, don’t eat the paw-paws until they are ripe.  Enjoy the video that we created.

If you know a teenager, at least 13 years of age, that would like to join the Delaware Nature Society Teen Naturalists, please contact me at (302) 239-2334 ext. 115. The Teen Naturalists meet once per month, volunteer for Delaware Nature Society conservation projects ocassionally, and take a week-long adventure trip every August.

Abbott's Pond spillway working overtime

The generally slow and meandering Johnson’s Branch has morphed into Johnson’s Swamp, flooding all low lying areas.  While floods and storm surges may be viewed as unpredictable disasters, marine and freshwater edge habitats are inherently dynamic in nature and human land use often influences the severity of these events through increased run-off, reduced percolation, and expensive infrastructure located in these areas.  

Together again: the confluence of Johnson's Branch (top) and the Mill Tail Race (bottom)

This natural process has shaped southern Delaware’s streamside forests for thousands of years.  The periodic flooding of these areas made them difficult to farm or build on, which is the reason that many of these forests still line the floodplains of the region.  Indicator soils, plants, and animals in these areas are adapted to survive and thrive in this dynamic habitat.  The waters deposit rich soil and water-borne seeds, which in turn supports new plant growth, slowly building up the land.  Trees, uprooted by the high waters or wind, provide a damming effect.  All of these events contribute to the alteration of the stream channel. 

Johnson's Swamp? The bright leaves of winterberry and fringe-tree, two denizens of the swamp forest at Abbott's Mill, are visible at the typical stream boundary.

Abbott's Mill outflow. Note the submerged wall to the left of the bricks.

Take the time to look closer at the plants and animals that live along Delaware’s waterways and discover the unique adaptations that allow them to persist through floods and the other extreme, droughts.

The Eagles at Conowingo trip has been rescheduled to Friday, November 20th, 8am to noon.  If you would like to reserve a spot, visit www.delawarenaturesociety.org or call (302) 239-2334 ext. 134.

By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

Last week, I asked you to identify a bird in a photo that I took in September.  I gave you four possible correct choices, all of which can be found at Ashland Nature Center in September.  Here is the quiz bird…

What species of bird is this? It was photographed outside my office window at Ashland Nature Center in September. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

A Common Yellowthroat in winter plumage. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

Common Yellowthroat was a good guess, because the quiz bird has a yellow throat, but there are many differences between this and our quiz bird.  The Common Yellowthroat pictured above has yellow going way down onto the belly and if you looked in a bird book, the Yellowthroat has no wing bars.  The quiz bird has wing bars, which are the white lines on the wing.

A Red-eyed Vireo, by Derek Stoner.

Red-eyed Vireo was a guessed by very few of you.  This vireo has no wing bars , plus there is very little yellow on the throat.  Also, the wings are green, not blue, as in our quiz bird.

A female Orchard Oriole, by Joe Sebastiani

Another good guess was the Orchard Oriole, at least a female, which is pictured above.  (Males are brick red).  Female Orchard Orioles have wing bars, just like our quiz bird.  There is also plenty of yellow on this bird…but a little too much yellow.  Our quiz bird just has yellow on the throat.  Orchard Orioles are very rare in Delaware in September, but not out of the realm of possibility

What is our quiz bird?  A Northern Parula.   Northern Parulas are small warblers that migrate through Delaware in Spring and Fall.  A few stay to breed in scattered wooded areas around the state, including a few pair in the Red Clay Valley where Ashland Nature Center is located.  Hopefully you had fun with the quiz and learned a little about our local birds.

By Derek Stoner, Family Programs Coordinator

A young female Rufous Hummingbird sips from a nectar feeder in Avondale, PA. October 2009 photo by Kathy Weaver.

The 30-degree weather this past weekend did not faze the young female Rufous Hummingbird visiting a backyard in Avondale, PA.  Weighing in at 3 grams and possessing a stove-hot metabolism with a heart beat of 600 beats per minute, this tiny bird is thriving on the nectar of late-blooming flowers, tiny insects and spiders, and a generous suppply of sugar water offered by the owners of a vibrant backyard habitat.  

A young male Rufous Hummingbird perches on a feeder in Dover, DE. Notice the spider silk caught in his beak, as spiders are a key dietary component of hummingbirds in winter. January 22, 2009 photo by Derek Stoner.

A Rufous Hummingbird perches on branch on January 22, 2009. This bird survived overnight temperatures of 5 degrees! Photo by Derek Stoner.

A Rufous Hummingbird stretches his wings. December 1, 2006 photo by Jim White.

The Rufous Hummingbird is the most widely-distributed hummingbird in North America, breeding as far north as Alaska.  The Rufous has been recorded in every US state except Hawaii, and undertakes the longest migration of any North American hummingbird.  The majority of Rufous Hummingbirds spend the winter in Mexico and Central America, but new evidence points to the fact that more of these birds are wintering in the eastern United States than we may realize. 

A Rufous Hummingbird visiting Jim White's feeder in Winter 2006. Notice the silver band on the bird's leg! Photo by Jim White.

Other species of hummingbird are also being documented wintering along the East Coast, from Calliope to Allen’s to Broad-billed Hummingbirds.  Scientists and birders alike are re-thinking their ideas about hummingbird migration and the selection of wintering habitat.

There is a lot more to learn about these amazing hummingbirds.   Stay tuned for part two of this story!