Saratoga Springs, New York

News on the Fly

An Old, Old Bird and Backyard Wonders


by Howard Youth

THE WORLD'S OLDEST MODERN BIRD ANCESTOR

Any student of dinosaurs or birds eventually reads about Archaeopteryx, a prehistoric feathered creature dating back to the Jurassic some 150 million years ago.  Archaeopteryx is considered the world's earliest known bird, but many other finds are helping to piece together a clearer picture of how birds emerged during the Age of the Dinosaurs.  One of the latest fossil discoveries was a modern bird ancester named Gansus yumenensis, which lived about 110 million years ago.  Found by an international research team in Gansu Province, China, the fossils of the loon-like bird show many similarities to modern birds.  Although Archaeopteryx had feathers, it had reptilian features that the new bird lacks, including teeth.  In recent years, fossil finds have smudged the lines between dinosaurs and birds, leading many authorities to believe that some dinosaurs, rather than vanishing, evolved over time into birds.  Other fossil finds have revealed, for example, that some small carnivorous dinosaurs also had feathers.

Broad winged Hawk


FALL BRINGS BACKYARD WONDERS

Fall begins early for the backyard birder.  Just as the summer doldrums bring a paucity of bird song and the drifting away of local nesters, the migration action begins anew.  Fall migration may not be accompanied by all the song and flash of spring, but it is more drawn out -- basically stretching from early to mid-August through November -- and involves far more birds because it includes the migrating young of the birds that returned to nest in spring.  Keep a good field guide and binoculars handy as you go about your fall yard work.  You may be richly rewarded, both at eye level and overhead.

The schedule varies depending upon how far north or south you live, but generally from mid-August through mid-October, neotropical songbirds are on the move.  That's when your vines, trees, and bushes may harbor insect-gleaning warblers and berry-picking thrushes and grosbeaks.  Many shorebirds that winter to the south have passed through by the start of October, the month when hawk migration peaks.  As hawk migration trails off in November, arriving waterfowl start to appear on their wintering grounds.

Even within groups, different species have different schedules.  Take, for example, the eastern warblers:  Gems such as golden-winged warblers and Canada warblers start to quietly flip through eastern foliage starting in the middle of August, followed by a stream of birds that extends into October, when blackpoll and palm warblers peak.  If the winds and/or thermals are right in October, you may see an impressive hawk flight over your house, the likes of which you may not see again for years.  On the afternoon of October 22, 2004, I snatched my binoculars when a dozen vultures glided over my house headed south.  In less than one hour, I counted 40 turkey vultures, up to 16 black vultures, four Cooper's hawks, one sharp-shinned hawk, one merlin, four red-shouldered hawks and six other raptors that kept me guessing -- a total of up to 72 raptors.  I've yet to see such a spectacle since.