Posted under bird behavior & humor
The BBC has a nice video of a parrot running through part of its repertoire of sounds. My favorite is when it says “Exterminate! Exterminate!” like the Daleks on the old “Doctor Who” TV show. It also does a great little snippet of the Mission Impossible theme. I can’t figure out how to insert the video on my page, but you can see it here.
Posted under birds (general) & science
ScienceDaily reports: “Large flightless birds of the southern continents – African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi – do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. Instead, each species individually lost its flight after diverging from ancestors that did have the ability to fly, according to new research conducted in part by University of Florida zoology professor Edward Braun.”
I’m surprised that they’re surprised! Well, OK, they’re maybe not “surprised,” I guess the data are ambiguous and now the evidence leans the other way from what they previously thought.
Whatever. At any rate it looks like the similarities of these birds are due to “convergent evolution” rather than the geographic distribution of a single type of bird.
Posted under bird behavior & science
The New York Times has an article about recent research by John M. Marzluff, who studied whether birds can recognize people’s faces.
To test the birds’ recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristics, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as “dangerous” and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as “neutral.” Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the university’s campus in Seattle.
In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows.
The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock.
Posted under Uncategorized
Yesterday, my wife and I were awakened early in the morning by the sound of a dog chasing a panicked deer through our backyard. My wife went out back to try to control the dog; I went out front to try to find whoever was walking their dog and let it run loose. Sure enough, up the street was some guy with his (unleashed) dog, standing and talking with another dog owner. I said “do you have a border collie?” and he said “yeah.” I told him his dog was chasing deer in our yard; he said “oh, is that where she got to? OK,” and made no move to come get his dog! I insisted that he come down right away and get his dog; he said “oh, OK” and came down. But rather than show any interest in controlling his dog, he started trying to chit-chat: “Oh, that’s a nice gate, did you make that?,” and “Oh, you have a creek in your back yard, that’s really nice”, and so on. I said “listen, I have no interest in making nice, I want you to get your dog out of my yard right now.” He still didn’t care, nor did he apologize…unless you count “I can see you’re upset” as an apology. The guy’s whole attitude was that it’s no big deal if his dog is running around in our backyard and our neighbors’ backyards, and that he was just humoring us by removing his dog…which he eventually did. But I guarantee he didn’t learn any lessons or resolve to change his behavior in the slightest; in his world, it’s fine if his dog roams other people’s yards. I try to remind myself of the many good, responsible dog owners I know, but encounters like this make it hard not to hate the whole group of people. The sense of entitlement of some of these people is just incredible. (See the discussion of a previous post on this blog for more).
Posted under wildlife (general)
Interesting story in BBC News about a dolphin teaching other dolphins to “tail-walk” — thrash their tails so they can “stand” on water. Apparently this has never before been seen in the wild. No Bay-Area or bird connection, but I think it’s interesting.
Posted under Administration
OK, this is a big change. I finally got a spam filter working, and I’ve turned off “moderation.” No, this doesn’t mean I’ve become an extremist, it means I no longer have to “moderate” the discussion: your comment will be posted immediately. Of course I can still kill it if I have to, but I hope this will keep the spam away so I won’t have to deal with my daily average of 20 spam comments. I guess this is a bigger deal to me than it is to you, but hey, _I_ am celebrating.
Posted under Uncategorized
True story: I was at a party last night of a friend who has a huge redwood tree in his backyard. He said an arborist estimated that the tree is about 350 years old. A neighbor insisted that he cut the tree down, because it blocks the neighbor’s view of the Golden Gate. My friend refused, of course, but the neighbor insisted! My friend said “Your house has never had a view of the Golden Gate, the tree was here for hundreds of years before your house was built. If you wanted a view of the Golden Gate, you should have bought a different house.” The neighbor threatened a lawsuit; my friend said “Here’s my lawyer’s phone number, call anytime.” They’re no longer speaking.
I can maybe imagine asking someone not to plant a tree that will block your view, or even asking them to trim a tree that is growing to block your view, but to not just ask, but INSIST, that someone cut down a 350-year-old tree in their backyard because it blocks your view…the mind boggles. Or at least, my mind does.
Posted under science & volunteer
Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation cordially welcomes the California birding community and friends to help celebrate the 31st. Annual PRBO - Bird-A-Thon which supports the work of 120 staff and seasonal scientists with critical conservation science and education programs in the Pacific Flyway. Join an existing team, create your own team or bird individually! Whatever works best for you in 24 hours between
September 1- October 15th. To learn how you can participate visit - http://www.prbo.org/cms/389