Mandy, Feisty, the Mandarin Duck

Mandy, Feisty, the Mandarin Duck

By Linda Swanson

 

My story begins on November 17, 2014 in Golden Gate Park at the inlet curve of Stow Lake. Annually, one or two Wood Duck arrive and take residence among entwined branches at this spot. It was a pleasant surprise to see there was a female Wood Duck on that sunny morning. My thoughts were to post this sighting to the SF Birds forum. As I took confirmation iPhone photos, a walker stopped to see what I was doing. We chatted about her sister’s fondness for Wood Ducks and how nice it was to see one here in our city. I dashed home to compose my posting, reviewing my photos alongside the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, but the ID markings around the eye were not a match for Wood Duck.

I was perplexed.

I turned the pages to the exotic ducks section and was surprised to see this appeared to be a female Mandarin Duck. My ornithology instructor, Joe Morlan, taught us a critical thinking approach to IDing birds. He saved me from a hasty and incorrect report.

Here’s a mantra Joe includes beneath his public postings about birds: “It turns out we’re very good at not seeing things” – Jack Hitt

One of the first iPhone photos taken of Mandy, the Mandarin Duck near the Boathouse at Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park, Monday, November 17, 2014 at 10:11 am.

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The Wood Ducks that populate Stow Lake each year are only there for summer months during while they molt. Then they migrate on. But this Mandarin Duck could not be a naturally occurring species as its range is scattered from Russia to Japan. (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Birds of the World”).

So the question remained: how and why did this female Mandarin Duck arrive at Stow Lake?

In the days that followed, the Mandarin Duck took up residence on the opposite side of Stow Lake that provides a nice habitat for the many ducks living there. It became the highlight of my daily run to see the Mandarin (whom I named Mandy). Eventually, I discovered her missing left wing feathers. I brought up the Mandarin in my ornithology class for discussion and learned of previous occurrences of Mandarin Duck nearby, one a decade prior at the Palace of Fine Arts, and in Sonoma County in the 1980s. Where had Mandy come from?…

Backyard Birding

Backyard Birding

By Carol Oakes

 

We all need positivity in our lives right now, which is why I’m encouraging everybody to start noticing the little joyful beings flitting around just outside your door. Birds are everywhere! One of the most fascinating aspects of our sheltering in place has been witnessing our local birds in unobstructed action. They are oblivious to the virus that has stopped the human world and are still going about business as usual. Nature continues and she is thriving with little interference from people.

While we have all become experts at social distancing, and many of us are limited in our movements in and out of home, we ourselves are also becoming experts in our neighborhoods. Never have I seen so many people walking! It’s actually a pleasure to step outside and see families, children, and dogs, all strolling along the streets and chatting with neighbors from six feet away.

Since I can no longer drive to my favorite Bay Area birding spots, I’m contenting myself with birding in my backyard, around my house, and around my neighborhood.

Here are a few of the birds that have popped by to say hello in the past week.

 

A colorful Spotted Towhee. Check out those bright orange eyes.

 

Anna’s Hummingbird.

 

The clown-like Acorn Woodpecker. Approximately nine inches long.

 

Love that red beret!

 

Nutall’s Woodpecker. Approximately seven and a half inches long. This picture was taken through my window, so it’s a bit blurry!

 

California Scrub-Jay wondering when I’m going to add more suet to the feeder.

 

A Golden-crowned Sparrow wondering the same.

 

American Goldfinch.

 

Beautiful male Hooded Oriole. Always a pleasure to welcome the Orioles back!

 

An Oriole in the rain…

 

A female Wild Turkey casually cruising through my backyard. This is a first!

 

Beautiful tail feathers.

 

One last look before disappearing into our unsuspecting neighbor’s backyard.

So take a look around.

Like it or not, we have extra time on our hands these days. We all have hobbies and interests of our own to occupy our hours. But I’d like to encourage you to set down your paintbrush, walk away from your jigsaw puzzle, glance up from your laptop. Go outside and take a moment to really look around your backyard, your front yard, out your window, and down your street.

Check out the trees, the bushes, the grass.…

Earth Day 2020: Reflections

Earth Day 2020: Reflections

Editor’s Note: Some of our GGBA staff and board have compiled their reflections on what Earth Day means to them and the actions we can collectively take to continue to protect the environment—and birds—we love.

 

 

Pam Young, Executive Director

I am very fortunate to be alive on another Earth Day, to take stock of our collective wellness, and recommit to foster actions that promote more biodiversity in every landscape, wetland, and seascape, big and little. My lodestar is native habitat. We need more of them. We need more clean air, more clean soil, and more clean water. From these actions, more habitat will follow, and healthy habitats that will help reduce the negative impacts of climate change.

Is Earth Day just a day on our calendar? Its meaning and value fraught with layers from politics, to religion, to economics, to no meaning whatsoever. Is Earth Day weighted down by sound bites and branding? Let’s take today to re-elevate Earth Day. Make today a real opportunity to celebrate the Earth, even if for a moment. Even if just to go birding.

Marbled Godwit by Briton Parker

Let’s set aside that glaring reminder of the angst many of us share at what’s been plundered, abused, and killed by a thousand cuts.

Earth will prevail – with or without us.

From one of my favorite nature writers, Gary Lopez: “But for ….the keening of fifty species of birds, it is as quiet as the moon….you turn your cheek to the source of light and feel sheltered; you see amid the dwarf birch and dwarf willow at your feet speckled eggs cradled in birds’ nests. The grace so apparent in first life seems nowhere else so tender….”

I am in love with our Earth!

 

Melissa Ramos, Communications Manager

I still have a lot to learn about how to better care for our Earth. Today I am contemplating ways I can help our planet by taking actions such as reducing my plastic use and eating a predominately plant based diet. I am also reflecting on my own personal history. Like many Dominican-Americans, I too am descended from native Taino, Indigenous and African populations that once occupied the island of Hispanola (now the modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti). Although I am two generations removed from the Dominican Republic, I am more interested than ever in reclaiming my heritage. A large part of this is learning how Tainos loved and cherished the planet.…

Earth Day at 50

Earth Day at 50

By Maureen Lahiff

 

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, famous for the burning Cuyahoga River in summer 1969. There had been several fires on the water before that one, the largest in 1952. There were steel mills, chemical companies, and lots of other manufacturing in the Flats along the river.

Here on the West Coast, more than three million gallons of oil spilled off Santa Barbara when a Union Oil well blew out. This disaster in January 1969 was a major catalyst for the first Earth Day. The US did keep President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth before the end of the 60s, but in 1969, our home planet was in dire straits.

1970 is before the landmark environmental legislation, before there was an EPA, before DDT was banned. As I spend today in reflection, I am in awe at the power of what young people coming together can accomplish.

The famous Apollo 17 image that John McConnell used for the Earth Day flag.

The first Earth Day: April 22, 1970

Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin usually gets the credit, but several legislators, including California’s Representative Pete McCloskey, and environmental activists made the first Earth Day happen. It is estimated that over 2,000 colleges and universities, over 10,000 high schools and elementary schools, and communities all over the country marked that first Earth Day. Mayor John Lindsay agreed to shut down 5th Avenue in New York City and made Central Park available for Earth lovers. Over 20 million people, one-tenth of the US population at the time, participated in Earth Day in some way.

In February 1970, students at San Jose State held a Survival Faire and buried a new yellow Ford Maverick.

University of Michigan students put the 1959 Ford Sedan on trial. Image courtesy of University of Michigan.

In April 1970, I was a student at the University of Detroit. That’s close to Ann Arbor. As part of a four day teach-in in March, a “trial” (called, The American People vs. the American Sedan) was held. Of course, the trial was rigged, and the 1959 Ford sedan was executed. The April 2020 edition of the Smithsonian magazine has a story with more details.

What happened soon afterwards

President Nixon proposed the EPA in July 1970.

The agency was up and running before the end of the year, with William Ruckelshaus as the first administrator.…

Now Is The Time To Garden For Birds

Now Is The Time To Garden For Birds

By Kathy Kramer

 

Birding from home has become more important than ever in our current sheltered situation. Many of us are learning that it is possible to bird from our windows, yards and sidewalks. There are easy ways to make your home (and surrounding areas) hospitable for birdlife, even while sheltering-at-home. When we learn to include in our gardens the plants that provide food, shelter, and nesting areas for birds, we can watch native wildlife thrive.

California Swainson’s Thrush by Pam Young

Gardening for birds is crucial to helping the birds we love. You have likely heard that bird populations have plummeted over the last five decades, with a decline of nearly three billion birds across North America in that time period. The causes of this decline are many but include habitat loss, non-native ornamental plants, outdoor cats, roadside mortality, climate change, and building lights (which disrupt bird migrations and reduce birds’ food supply when moths exhaust themselves on outdoor lights). The current shelter-at-home orders have allowed some local wildlife to flourish again, but there’s so much more we can do to continue to encourage native populations to grow. This is especially true for birds.

Black-headed Grosbeak by Mark Rauzon

The link between bird health and native plants is also becoming clearer. On the subject, wildlife ecologist Douglas Tallamy writes, “We must abandon the notion that humans and nature cannot live together… In order to have functioning ecosystems, we need to redesign residential landscapes to support diverse populations. Native plants support much more life than other [types of plants]. Choosing the best plants for your area is the key to [nature’s] success.”

The backstory behind the native versus ornamental non-native plants issue is fairly simple: while in the nest, and even after they leave it, almost all baby birds feed primarily on caterpillars. Baby birds do not live on seeds, or berries, or sugar water. Caterpillars are not optional in a baby bird diet. Simply put, if we don’t have caterpillars, we won’t have baby birds.

Female Red-winged Blackbird by Alan Kraukauer

Here’s an example: it takes 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars, collected by both busy Chickadee parents over the course of sixteen days, to raise a clutch of Chickadee babies. And Chickadees are tiny birds; just a third of an ounce. How many caterpillars does it take to raise a Woodpecker, a bird about eight times heavier? Caterpillars come from the eggs of butterflies and moths, creatures who have specialized laying their eggs on just one or two types of host plants.…