Male house finch on my back porch

Last spring, I was working at my computer and heard the strangest noise, it was a rapid thunk, thunk, thunk coming from the back porch area. Baffled, I tiptoed to the back of our apartment and looked out and there was a tiny bird having a field day ripping off threads from this synthetic material that covers the back porch.

After spotting the bird during its nest gathering destruction, I started noticing that bird and its mate all over the place. They were a tight pair and seemed to go everywhere together. One had a pretty red head and breast and the other was mostly shades of browns. I never managed to figure out where their nest was and every time I tried to take a photo they immediately flew away. Then after awhile I didn’t see them any more and never bothered to figure out what kind of birds they were.

Now the bird couple is back and I finally got a photo! I’ve been seeing and hearing them for about a month and a half. Sometimes they are hopping around in the grass in front of the building and sometimes singing away in the tree next to our building. I’ve seen them watching me from the telephone wire that runs above where my car is parked and once the red headed bird landed on one of the window slats in our front window when I was standing only five feet away.

After the window landing, I finally googled “what type of bird has a red head” and house finch came up right away. After looking at many photos, the bird couple is definitely a pair of house finches. They’re really fun to have around and seem to be all over the place, in fact I hear them singing as I type this. According to the All About Birds website, the male has red coloring and the female keeps a lower profile with grayish-brown tints.

Last week, I was working on my computer again and what do you know…there’s that noise again coming from the back porch…thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Ah ha! I knew it was my house finch friends, so I grabbed my camera and slowly walked over to the screen door. There was Mr. House Finch sitting on the back porch keeping guard as Mrs. House Finch ripped out more threads for the new nest directly below.

Mr. House Finch on roof

Mr. House Finch got a bit nervous when he heard the camera clicking away and flew off, but I could still hear him. In the meantime, Mrs. House Finch kept thunking away despite the absence of her security guard.

Then I looked up and there was Mr. House Finch keeping guard from the roof of the neighboring building. No wonder the missus was undeterred, she knew he still had her back. As soon as I tried to get closer on the back porch, they both flew away.

I would love to know where their nest is, but maybe it’s best to give them their privacy. Either way, I’m really glad they came back for another spring visit.

Photo credit: Minette Layne

Not that long ago, I wrote a post called “Feeding gulls is for the birds,” explaining the pointlessness of feeding gulls bread crumbs because they will eat anything.

Now I have evidence! The above photo features a Western gull eating an ochre sea star. Dinner isn’t going down smoothly, but that doesn’t stop a gull. (Although his companion doesn’t look too impressed.)

I’ve seen photos of gulls eating sea stars before and there seems to be a fine line between eating and gagging when it comes to this entree choice. I would love to witness the entire process because I have several questions: How long does it take a gull to eat a sea star? Do they ever give up and spit the sea star out? And do they always go for the “swallow it whole” approach?

This may be the natural order of things, gulls eat ochre sea stars, ochre sea stars eat mussels, etc. But seeing a gull eat a sea star doesn’t seem natural, probably because the bird looks like it’s choking.

And you might be wondering if you fed the gull bread crumbs, could you have saved the sea star’s life?

No, that sea star’s fate was sealed. The gull will just eat your bread crumbs for dessert.

Western gull catching some wind

During President’s Day weekend, I decided it was time to head to El Matador Beach. It’s one of my favorite beaches near Los Angeles to just sit and stare at the waves crashing against really cool rock formations. Also, since it’s 10 miles north of Malibu, El Matador is much less busy than Venice or Santa Monica.

So there I’m sitting enjoying the sun, cool breeze, and fabulous view, when all of a sudden a flock of gulls starts making a racket. I heard them before I saw them and knew that only one thing makes gulls go that crazy: food.

Sure enough, a woman walks around the bend with a plastic bag in her hand with gulls following and screeching away as if she was denying them their last supper. Then she walked over, to what appeared to be a regular stopping point, and proceeded to throw bread crumbs.

Here’s the question: Do we need to feed sea gulls? The answer is: No, because we already are.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, one of my first destinations was the beach. As I was sitting there on the sand, taking it all in, I watched as a man sitting in front of me ran off to catch something that had flown off with the wind. During the few seconds he left his towel, I watched a gull quickly walk over, stick its head into a partially open cooler, take out a sandwich in a plastic bag, remove the sandwich from the plastic bag and eat it. This happened faster than you can say, “Hey, get out…”

Not only do gulls score food from beach picnics, but they also dig through beach trash cans, dumpster dive several miles inland and snatch bait off fishing boats. They even steal food right out of a pelican’s mouth, a fellow bird for crying out loud!

Since gulls are more than capable of finding food, there’s really no need to bother feeding them. And based on the size of some of the gulls I saw, the last thing they needed was bread crumbs, instead they should have been flocking to Weight Watchers.

Photo credit: Ciar

Alas, my hummingbird feeder project has been delayed.

Right after I wrote about scoring a hummingbird feeder during a white elephant gift exchange, painters showed up to “touch up” the apartment building and fix the roof. Both of these activities involve a lot of loud talking, ladder dragging, and stomping around on the roof. Basically, there’s a lot of noise everywhere around the building.

Hanging a hummingbird feeder during a ruckus doesn’t seem like the best strategy. Based on my observations, hummingbirds are skittish and it doesn’t take much to sending them flying off so quickly that sometimes I wonder if I really saw a hummingbird because it was such as brief encounter.

I asked our landlord how long this painting / roof project might take and he said he didn’t know. So there you have it…the hummingbirds will have to wait for an undetermined amount of time before enjoying sugar water off my balcony. A real bummer because I was looking forward to having them as guests.

Photo credit: Anonymous

One of the surprise treats I received during Christmas was a hummingbird feeder!

Technically, I didn’t receive the hummingbird feeder as a gift, I stole it from another person who opened it during a white elephant gift exchange. Thankfully, the person who opened the hummingbird feeder didn’t really want it anyway. (White elephant gift exchanges are a strange thing…stealing gifts just seems wrong, but it’s all part of the game everyone says, and in this case I ended up with a hummingbird feeder.)

Now that I have a hummingbird feeder, I keep wondering why didn’t I get one before? They’re obviously not that much money since the gift exchange had a 10 dollar limit, which was confirmed by a quick search for hummingbird feeders on the internet.

Plus, I’ve seen hummingbirds in my neighborhood and one time a hummingbird flew right through the tree in front of our window. Only once that I saw anyway, maybe they are constantly flying through and I just don’t notice.

After I scored the hummingbird feeder, someone gave me a box of hummingbird greeting cards as a true gift, meaning I didn’t have to steal them. It’s a sign! 2012 is the year of the hummingbird. The hummingbird feeder experiment will begin soon in a very urban area of Los Angeles…

Ocean aisle at Powell's City of Books

I spent the last week of 2011 in book heaven! It was a wonderful way to wrap up the year and start the New Year with new wildlife books to read and more fascinating information to absorb.

Book heaven happens to be Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon. If you love books, you have to go there! There are several Powell’s locations in Portland, but the biggest and most impressive of all the stores is the Burnside location in the Pearl District. It takes up a full city block, is three stories tall and is literally, a city of books.

The store has split levels that lead into different color-coded sections containing numbered aisles dedicated to subjects with labels categorizing books by specific topics. One of my favorite aisles was 663 in the rose section, where I perused books on oceanography, aquatic life, exploration and shells.

One of the best things about Powell’s is their massive collection of used and out of print books. Even better, they also carry new books, so many times you can inspect all the used copies and find a good deal or if the used copies are really beat up, then you can buy a new copy.

Also, there’s little signs all over the place with staff recommendations, which is how I discovered Amazing Jellies: Jewels of the Sea by Elizabeth Gowell. This is a tiny book packed with information on sea jellies (jellyfish) and for only $9.95 it is now part of my reference collection.

In the bird aisle, I discovered tons of bird books, entire books dedicated to owls, crows, ravens, herons, geese, ducks and on and on. There are also shelves dedicated to birding, bird photography, bird feeders, birds of North America, birds of South America, birds of Europe…well you get the idea. Among the bird books I found a great used copy of Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien, a memoir about raising an injured barn owl, with great information on owls since Stacey also happens to be a biologist. And I picked up a book on hummingbirds called World of Hummingbirds by Erik Hanson.

With some great books waiting to be read, I can tell 2012 is going to be a great year! Happy New Year everyone!

Photo credit: Lupin

Tomorrow is turkey day, but what if everyday was turkey day in the USA?

This almost became reality years ago when Congress was in the process of designing a national seal. Benjamin Franklin happened to be a strong proponent for the wild turkey to serve as the national emblem.

I first came across this bit of trivia while researching the bald eagle. It’s the first fact mentioned in the introduction to bald eagles on the Birds of North America database website: “Selected as the national emblem of the United States in 1782 by Congress, in spite of Benjamin Franklin’s arguments that the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) would serve better in that capacity.”

Very interesting I thought…and then forgot about it, but then I was reminded of this fun fact yesterday when a co-worker showed me this cool Thanksgiving quiz. Question #5 is, “What great American statesman lobbied to make the turkey the national symbol?” Answer is: Benjamin Franklin.

Congress doesn’t agree on anything these days and it turns out that members of Congress in 1782 didn’t agree on much either, not even what bird should be the national symbol. But at least their disagreement didn’t prevent them making a decision. (For more detailed information on how the bald eagle became the national symbol and other fascinating historical facts, check out this cool website baldeagleinfo.com. You’ll have the chance to read a pretty funny quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin explaining why he thought the bald eagle was a terrible choice.)

At first I was puzzled by Benjamin Franklin’s choice…I mean the turkey is a cool bird, but a national emblem? I just don’t see it. Then suddenly it made perfect sense! Benjamin Franklin and the turkey look alike, they’re both stout and portly.

Photo credit: Lupin

Benjamin Franklin

Based on a brief review of information on the internet, it’s not clear if Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of the bald eagle. He did serve on the first committee tasked with designing a national seal, but very little from that committee actually went on to become a part of the seal approved three committees later. But guess who else was on that first committee? John Adams and…Benjamin Franklin.

Photo credit: Paul Friel

Thomas Jefferson

Need I say more?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The way a tree was meant to be

One of my biggest pet peeves in Los Angeles is the way trees are trimmed.

I always think of a trim as a clip, clip here and clip, clip there, not a chop, chop here and a chop, chop there. But unfortunately for trees all over the Los Angeles area, the chop, chop is how it’s done, which is really a tree cut, not a tree trim.

Tree trimming first came to my attention about four years ago when my landlord had his gardeners trim the two trees next to our apartment building.

When I left for work there were nice leafy green trees and when I returned the magnolia tree had only a few leaves left and no flowers. On the second tree (which I still haven’t identified because I’m not a tree expert) all the branches were cut at the ends, but at least the leaves hadn’t been pulled off.

Even worse, we lost all our shade during one of the hottest months of the year…August. I called my landlord and asked him, “What happened?!” He explained that the trees had to be trimmed to prevent them from damaging the roof where the leaves fall and clog up the drainage pipes. I explained that instead of just trimming the trees near the roof, the gardeners had ripped off most of the leaves on the magnolia tree and now we didn’t have any shade. He said he would talk to the gardeners next time and ask them to trim the trees just near the roof.

We have been having this conversation once a year for the last four years. One time, I heard the gardeners outside and called my landlord in a panic, can you please tell them to just trim the trees near the roof? He said, since you’re there why don’t you just tell them. So I talked to them and it didn’t do a darn thing. Finally this year, I remembered two months in advance and I emailed our landlord asking him if he could talk to the gardeners about just trimming the trees near the roof and he did. They still ripped a lot of leaves off the magnolia tree, but not nearly as bad. (My landlord is the nicest guy ever by the way, and he actually invests money in the building and takes care of it, which is probably the reason I never noticed tree trimming issues at our old building because the manager was too cheap to bother.)

Not long after the first tree trimming incident, I was driving on a road in Venice, one block north of Venice Blvd., and I noticed that a whole row of trees had been trimmed so severely that there weren’t any leaves left, just a sad row of tree trunks with stumpy branches sticking out. What the…I thought as I drove by.

Since then I’ve seen tons of examples of “tree slaughter,” my nickname for this completely unnecessary and annoying phenomenon. The sun shines a lot in Los Angeles, so why on earth would you want to remove natural shade? And what about the birds? They live in the trees, trimming trees so severely could disrupt nesting and take away important habitat. But what’s a person to do? I really only have influence on the trees outside my window.

At least that’s what I thought until I found a booklet of Tree Trimming Guidelines in English or Spanish on the Los Angeles Audubon Chapter website! I was so excited to see this, it’s the first indication I’ve had that I’m not crazy and there really is a tree trimming problem in Los Angeles.

The 12-page booklet is excellent. It’s officially called “Bird-Friendly Tree and Shrub Trimming and Removal,” it discusses why trees are important, why birds need trees, what types of birds live in the Los Angeles area and also fly through, laws protecting birds, what phone numbers to call to report nest harassment or inappropriate tree trimming, and most importantly, how and when to trim trees. Please pay close attention to page five, which provides a detailed account of nesting time frames.

Thanks for reading my tree trimming rant! And please pass along the Tree Trimming Guidelines to every homeowner, building owner and gardener you know in Los Angeles to help turn more chops into clips.

Sequoia the bald eagle

During Cabrillo Marine Aquarium‘s Autumn Sea Fair, I had the chance to meet Sequoia the bald eagle.

Sequoia is an “animal ambassador” for the San Francisco Zoo, a job she is perfect for since she is already dressed to impress in the power suit of the bird kingdom. Her demeanor in the presence of many human gawkers was always calm and professional; this bird was not easily ruffled.

Of course, Sequoia didn’t necessarily plan on becoming an eagle ambassador to humankind, her story is actually much more interesting. Orphaned when she was a very young eaglet in 1988, she was rescued by humans and raised until she was old enough to care for herself in the wild. When she was released, she had all sorts of devices attached to her so researchers could track her whereabouts.

About four months after her release, the tracking devices showed no movement. Researchers headed out and discovered Sequoia had been shot! She was rescued a second time, but the bullet partially paralyzed her tail and damaged one of her toes. Thanks to these injuries, she can’t survive in the wild and is stuck with humans for the rest of her life.

Sequoia facing the wall

Does being rescued twice make up for being shot once? Doubtful. Especially if you happen to be a bald eagle built for soaring with a wingspan of 6 to 7.5 feet. But she seems to graciously accept her lot in life. Although, she did keep her back turned to everyone most of the time, which I thought was pretty funny. When the volunteers turned her around so people could take photos, Sequoia would immediately turn around and face the wall again.

It seemed to me she was saying, “Honestly, you think you can shoot me and then I’m going to pose for your pictures, get real!” I would have to agree with her on that, but I was very appreciative to have the chance to see a bald eagle up close and get a better sense of how powerful and magnificent they truly are. A huge thanks to Kathy Hobson and John Flynn, who drove down to San Pedro with Sequoia all the way from San Francisco and took the time to talk to me about her.

(For more on detailed information on bald eagles check out the column I wrote in honor of the 4th of July.)

Photo credit: Henry Jurgens

I finally have a great reason to write about owls!

Yesterday, two barn owls were released into the wild after being raised in captivity for nine months. The owls were orphaned when they were three months old and rescued by South Bay Wildlife Rehab.

Barn owls are also referred to as common barn owls or their scientific name: Tyto alba. I don’t usually think of Southern California as owl country, but the barn owl is the most widely-distributed owl in the world and Southern California is no exception. In fact, zoologist Pete Bloom is sited in an article on The Owl Pages website for helping tag 10,000 barn owls throughout Southern California in the last 40 years! (This article is also an excellent resource on the benefits of having barn owls around for pest control and how to entice them into your yard with a nest box.)

According to the Birds of North America database, there are 28 subspecies of barn owl and the subspecies found in North America happens to be the largest at around 14 inches long and is officially called Tyto alba pratincola. Barn owls don’t bother building their own nests, which is how they got their common name after frequently taking up residence in barn lofts. But they also feel comfortable moving into trees, cliffs, caves, riverbanks, church steeples, and haystacks.

Despite being so common, barn owls keep a low profile through their nocturnal habits. At night they leave their nests and use their excellent night vision and hearing to hunt for rodents of all types. If you happen to be out at night and hear a creepy raspy screech, it’s probably a barn owl. They don’t use the nice little “hoot, hoots” owls are famous for. To get a better idea of what a barn owl sounds like, the All About Birds website has a great recording of a barn owl call, which is referred to as a “hissing scream.”

Photo credit: Henry Jurgens

To tie in the ocean angle, the barn owls released yesterday took flight in White Point Nature Preserve in San Pedro,CA, a beautiful setting with ocean views where it’s easy to spot Catalina Island. (Barn owls are also found on the Channel Islands.) According to my friend Henry Jurgens, both owls landed on parts of the Preserve, an excellent habitat choice.

Barn owls have received extra attention recently from the Guardians of Ga’Hoole book series by Kathryn Lasky, followed by the movie, which came out last year. The books feature a fantasy world of owls and open with Soren the barn owl and his family. Really fun reading for owl fans of all ages!

I would love to have the chance to see a barn owl, but hear one…not so much. (A big thanks to Henry Jurgens for sharing such awesome photos!)