Backyard ecology

We had a couple of visitors to our back deck yesterday afternoon:

More backyard ecology

A gray tree frog:

Missesmagette found this little guy hiding in our daylillies this afternoon. There are two species of gray tree frogs found in this area, the common gray tree frog, Hyla versicolor, and the southern (or "Cope's") gray tree frog, Hyla chrysoscelis. These two species appear identical except for their calls. Interestingly, Hyla versicolor is a tetraploid species, meaning that it has 4 sets of chromosomes as an adult (most vertebrates only have two sets of chromosomes and are referred to as "diploid"). Both of these closely related species can change colors to blend into their environment, which is why this little guy is such a pretty green.

Robin update III: Return of the prodigal son

Yesterday (Saturday) provided another encounter with the brood of robins that hatched under our back deck. In case you lost track, here's a rundown of the current statisctics: 1) four birds hatched two weeks ago, 2) the first one to leave the nest got mauled by Bailey (the Wonder Dog) on Thursday, 3) I saw the second bird fly out of our yard later Thursday evening, 4) Wonder Dog struck again on Friday and mauled the third fledgling in the middle of a thunderstorm, and 4) the fourth bird is no longer in the nest...I have no idea what happened to it.

Since all four of the fledgling birds have now left the nest and are either dead or flying, Missesmagette and I feel a little more comfortable about letting BTWD into the back yard...but we always go out first to make sure the coast is clear before letting her out. Typically, if the family of robins is around, Momma robin will start making her alarm call as soon as we're outside. If we hear that, then we know that at least one of the juveniles is in the area, and we'll keep Bailey on leash. If we don't hear it, then we assume that all is well and Bailey can go about her business untethered.

Yesterday I spent a couple of minutes on the deck and didn't hear anything, so we let the dog out.* Bailey hadn't gotten halfway across the yard when Momma robin suddenly showed up and started making her noise. Crap. Now there's 80 pounds of black dog in the yard with a pound or two of defenseless bird. But something funny happened...when Momma robin showed up, Bailey (the Wonder Dog) actually COWERED under the deck. My dog has actually learned to be afraid of a bird. I have to admit, there's that "manly" part of me that's embarrassed for my wimpy dog. But most of me is a little relieved that maybe she's starting to learn her lesson about eating poor defenseless creatures that show up in our yard.**

I still took a quick survey of the back yard to make sure there were no baby robins within her reach, just in case her courage returned, her instincts kicked back in, or both. I was rewarded with this:
There, perched in the maple tree next to our deck was one of the juveniles. Now I don't have any way of knowing if this is the bird that I saw leaving the yard, or if it's the 4th one that I wasn't able to account for. But whichever one it was, I'm grateful that it came back to spend a few minutes with us.

*So, to answer that age old question of "Who let the dog out?...it was me.
**GREAT story about a baby opossum that she got a hold of once. Good times with that one...

Sunday update: The birds weren't around nearly as much today. I did see Momma robin several times, and heard her several more, but never saw the juvenile again. At one point I thought I caught him flying back into his favorite maple tree out of the corner of my eye. I looked and looked*** but couldn't see anything to confirm whether it actually was the little robin or not. The little buggers sure are camouflaged well.

***I can only spend so much time starting up into trees before Littlemagette starts to worry that his daddy's gone off the deep end, or Missesmagette starts to make comments about me becoming "Tarzan of the Birds".

Robin update part II: More bad news, a death talk, and an empty nest

Bailey the Wonder Dog chewed up another of our young robins yesterday. We didn't mean for it to happen...it was an oversight to even let her into the back yard. You see, a pretty good line of storms moved through town yesterday afternoon and dropped about 3 inches of rain on us. For a little while, there was concern that the storms could become severe or even turn tornadic. And in the middle of it all I found myself back in the yard, in the middle of a downpour, gently scooping up the mauled remains of a second fledgling.

In all fairness to the dog, there's no way to know if the bird was dead before she got to her or not. I also think it needs to be mentioned that the fledgling had to be on the ground when Bailey got it. And a bird that small and defenseless stuck on the ground in a torrential downpour was probably doomed...BTWD might have just been speeding up the inevitable. But it still sucked.

This time I felt like I couldn't dance around the issue with Littlemagette. The "I have to clean up some Bailey poop" excuse doesn't really work when there's a storm going on. On the other hand, it could have come in handy when he goes to grade school:

Bully kid: My daddy's tough!
Littlemagette: Well my daddy's tough to!
Bully kid: Oh yeah? Well my daddy's bigger than your daddy!
Littlemagette: Oh yeah? Well my daddy runs out into thunderstorms to pick up dog poop!
Bully kid: Ooohhh....here's my lunch money...take it and please just don't hurt me.

So after conducting my second trash can solo funeral in two days, I got to have another "death talk" with Littlemagette. (As a side note, if I can handle these "death talks", the inevitable "sex talk" is going to be a piece of cake. I teach biology...I can talk about sex. This metaphysical death stuff, though, is hard.) The conversations went something like this:

Littlemagette (LM): What did you do?
Mistermagette (MM): One of the litte birds died. I had to go get it.
LM: One of the robins?
MM: Yes.
LM: Why did it die?
MM: Sometimes baby birds blow out of their nests in storms.*
LM: And they die?
MM: Yes.
LM: What happens when they die?
MM: Well, when something dies it goes to live with God.**
LM: How does it get there?
MM: I think sometimes God comes to get it.
LM: Did God come to get the little baby robin?
MM: I think he probably did.
LM: (Looking out the window at the pouring rain) How? I didn't see Him?***
MM: God usually comes when we're not looking.
LM: Did you ever see him?
MM: No.****

Notes on this conversation:
*This may make me a liar, but I don't have the heart to tell Littlemagette that our dog is a vicious killer of baby birds. He can learn the whole "nature red in tooth and claw" stuff when he's a little older. (Maybe I'll work that into the sex talk.)
**I don't wish to argue about whether or not animals go to heaven. I'm trying to explain something to a 3-year-old.
***I remember having this exact conversation with my parents when I wasn't much older than Littlemagette. A calf had died on the farm, and I spent the next morning waiting for God to fly down in a helicopter and get it.
****For the record, I see God every time I look at Littlemagette...but I'm pretty sure his head would explode if I tried to explain THAT one to him.

When everything was said and done, I decided to check the nest one last time. Empty. All four birds were gone. I can confirm that two are dead. I saw one leave the nest. I'm not sure what happened to the fourth...I hope the little guy made it.

Robin update Part I: Bad news, Good news

Yesterday morning I let BTWD (Baily the Wonder Dog)out to do her thing while I ate breakfast. Typically, she'll go out, run around for awhile, and show up at the back door begging to be let back in within a few minutes. Lately, however, she's been content to stay outside and sniff at the deck boards above the robin's nest that I've been telling you about. Yesterday, she didn't even come back up on the deck...she was content to stay down in the yard. In fact, I had to call her several times to finally get her to come in. This was clue number one that something wasn't right.

I noticed clue number two when she finally came in. She was literally foaming at the mouth. Not the mad-dog-Atticus-get-your-gun type of foaming, but the frothy spit that means she's been nibbling on something pretty excitedly. Those of you with big dogs will know what I'm talking about. Those of you with cats won't.

Clue number three came when I got home from school yesterday afternoon. Momma bird was setting on the fence making her alarm call before I even let BTWD out into the yard. When I finally did let the big black beast out, momma bird was as bold as I've ever seen her, making repeated dive bomb swoops, and diligently sharpening her beak on her perch between attacks. That's when I finally realized that I should probably check things out.

Sure enough, right at the bottom of our deck stairs was what remained of one of the fledgling birds. While it's impossible to know if the bird was dead before Bailey got to it, or if it died of lab attack, what was left post-mortem was pretty torn up. So I had an impromptu little solo birdie funeral, wrapped the poor little guy up in a baggie, and gave him as dignified a burial as I could in our garbage can. All the while telling Littlemagette (who was quite curious about all of this) that I was scooping up some really messy Bailey poop.

After the Weldon Enterprises burial, I returned to the back yard and heard a new sound. It was momma robin, setting in her usual spot on the fence...but instead of the shrill alarm call I've grown used to, I heard a much deeper, throatier call. It was almost as if she was asking us a question. I listened to it for a minute before realizing that it was a searching call. She was vocalizing in an attempt to locate her missing chick. It was truly a heartbreaking sound.

Almost as if on cue, though, her searching call was answered by a short little peep which sent her zooming across the yard. When she landed on our shed, I could hardly believe my eyes. There, clinging desperately to the sloped roof, was a second fledgling robin! I got to watch him for a couple of seconds before he flapped his wings twice and disappeared over the fence and out of our lives. Momma bird followed right behind him, and while I can't be sure, I like to think that in that moment she and I felt a common emotion of grief overcome by joy.

I don't know what happened to that second little bird. The odds are definitely against him. But I have to think that being able to get out of that nest, past BTWD, and over the fence means he's a survivor that has at least a chance.

My feathered friends

I just wanted to take a minute and update you on the family of robins that's taken up residence under our back deck. The young are either fully fledged or close to it, and will probably be leaving the nest in the next few days. I guess that's a good thing, since they're just about to outgrow it:


The mother, for her part, still doesn't like me, and at one point this afternoon I actually thought she was going to come after me. Bailey (the wonder dog) pretty much lets momma robin push her around...and after watching the bird sharpen her beak on the fence I can understand why. She can be a pretty intimidating little bird when she wants to be. The father was keeping a close eye on me also, but he isn't quite as bold as the momma. Both of these pictures are of the bird I'm referring to as the mother...

Our new housemates

Like a lot of homes in this town, we have a walkout basement, which means that the back deck off of our kitchen is about 6 feet high. This weekend we discovered this tucked into the framing under the deck:



There has been an abandoned nest down there since last spring, and I never got around to removing it, so I never really noticed that a new tenant had moved in and was remodeling. In fact, we didn't realize there was a viable nest there until we caught our black lab (Bailey) furiously sniffing and pawing at the deck floorboards yesterday. I can only imagine how terrifying it was for the poor family of birds to have 80 pounds of canine just a few inches over their heads. They should be pretty safe where they are, though...unless my dog develops the sudden ability to chew through treated 2x6's.

The other problem with this nesting site is that Littlemagette's sandbox is also under the deck, and while we pose no threat to the birds (Littlemagette can't reach the nest, and Missesmagette and myself have no plans to disturb it), momma robin still isn't too comfortable sharing space with us. While we were out there she spent a lot of time circling the yard with a small grub, waiting for a "safe" chance to feed her brood:



I guess I should say that I assume this is the mother bird. After awhile, a second robin appeared and began nervously circling my back yard and watching us. Like most people, I kind of take this species for granted and so I don't know a whole lot about their mating or nesting habits...so I did some quick research:

In feeding the young, both the male and female robins assume responsibility. They feed their nestlings with earthworms, insects and berries. Both parents are very protective of their young and feed them until they know how to fly by themselves. In protecting their offspring, adult robins emit alarm sounds and dive on predators like domestic cats, dogs and humans that may go near their nest.

Evidently the mother bird is the only one that sits on the nest, which is why I'm comfortable in identifying the bird in the photos as the mother, since it seems to be the same one that I've seen on the nest. The second bird to show up, then, is probably the father, who hangs around to help feed and protect the young. (The dive-bombing thing has me a little uneasy, though...)

When I took the nest pictures this afternoon, it was remarkably quiet in the back yard. Typically, anytime we're close to the nest, the parents' alarm calls are easily heard and difficult to ignore. Today I assumed that both mom and dad were out gathering food. After about 15 minutes, however, the mother returned to the nest...I heard her long before I saw her, which gave me a chance to get the camera ready.*

The chicks' eyes will remain closed until they're about 5 days old, and they'll be ready to leave the nest in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, of those birds that survive to leave the nest, only about 25% will make it through their first year.** Robins can produce up to 3 broods each year, but will build a different nest for each. Only about 40% of nests are successful.

*I don't own anything close to a fancy camera...just a little Canon PowerShot. If you're wondering what to get that special biology teacher in your life (besides this, of course) he would really like a Canon EOS Rebel XSi (or, if you really want to show him how much you love him, a 40D) with a 55-200 mm telephoto lens.

**If you're in my biology class hopefully you'll recognize this as an "r" strategy species. If not, please go reread section 4.1 in your textbook...