September 09, 1982 - Labor Day: Swallows and Summer People Move OnPage 14 The Ouffolh Ttaito September 9, 1982
Labor Da y: Swallows and Summer People Move On
The other day I noticed flocks of
immature starlings searching the pasture
over for what looked like seeds or insects.
They reminded one of a well - trained army
for they frantically moved all in one
direction as if searching out the enemy. In
their impatience, the ones in the back
would leap -frog over the others to the front
row to pick up the frantic search. This was
their life -- a continual seek out and
capture. This replacement from the rear
guard to the front lines is one of the
characteristics that makes them one of the
most efficient species of birds we know
and perhaps accounts for their great
numbers.
Another efficient group of insect eaters
are the cowbirds. They have the same rear
guard tactics as the starlings but to .
lesser extent. To make up for this they
have an ally to help them in pursuit to seek
out and devour. At this time of year you
can look and see two horses in our pasture
grazing with the cowbirds about them. As
the horses graze, moving their heads back
and forth and their slow moving hooves
ahead they continually stir up insects that
the cowbirds pounce upon immediately. It
is these insects that keep the birds around
the animals.
In the olden days it was the buffalo and
in those days they were called buffalo
birds. Then came the cow from another
generation and it is from them that
today's name comes. Who knows that in
the future the name shall change again to
horsebird for we now have more horses
here on Long Island than during Colonial
times and hardly any cows.
The cowbirds go one step further in their
pursuit of food and that is they occasional-
ly fly up on the backs of animals to pick off
ticks and other insects. So we can see that
these plain - looking cowbirds have many
good features.
Cowbirds Let Others Raise Young
Yet if we look at the other side of this
bird's disposition we'll see that it has some
very poor habits. Like the European
cuckoo it shuns the responsibility of
rearing its young. The birds are very
clever. Stalking other birds nests that are
ready for incubation, they lay their egg in
the nest, thereby putting the responsibility
of incubating and rearing the young on the
other bird.
This wouldn't be half bad but the
cowbird's young usually hatch first and
therefore grab most of the food and grow
the biggest and strongest. This is so
devastating that the other young often die
from lack of nourishment. Often you'll see
a warbler or sparrow feeding a juvenile
cowbird that has monopolized the nest and
all the feeding. It's most disheartening to
see for if the true story be known the other
young of the parent bird were probably
overpowered by this fast growing much
larger young to such an extent that they
perished somewhere along the way.
In studies it has been found that over 206
species of birds have had the cowbird lay
its egg in their nest. Yet some birds do
have the ability to fight back. Some will
actually remove the unwanted egg and
continue their own rearing while others
will rebuild a nest right over the cowbird's
egg. In this way they try to overcome the
nasty habit of the cowbird but the cowbird
is persistent and will often lay another egg
in the new nest.
I can remember a photo that Dr. Allen of
Cornell Dept. of Ornithology showed
years ago in a National Geographic
Magazine of a yellow warbler that had
rebuilt its nest three times over cowbird's
eggs in an effort to outsmart it.
We see the adult male cowbird as a
small glossy black bird with a brown
head. Both the female and the young are
very common in their appearance with a
more or less overall gray color.
Labor Day Weekend Perfect
I'm writing this article while on a trip on
our boat over the Labor Day weekend. The
first day of our three -day voyage was to a
secluded cove on Shelter Island. The sail
down couldn't have been better. We
literally flew over the waves with a brisk
northwest wind.
Anyone knowing about birds knows that
at this time of the year with a northwest
wind, we're bound to have migrating
o
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COWBIRDS - -Look for these small gray birds around the feet of animals.
The movement of the animal while grazing, stirs up insects that the
cowbirds feast on. Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
birds. So it was when I awoke Saturday
morning to the flight of swallows around
our boat.
Of all the boats in the cove, for some
reason they had picked mine as their focal
point. They were everywhere, flying about
or perching on anything from the anchor
line to the top of the mast. It looked like
some sort of celebration -- a Christmas
tree kind of event. Looking out the ports,
we could see the little white - bellied birds
with their sharp bills and beady eyes
peering at us from only inches away. We
could hear their tiny squabbling calls as
they fought over a perch or just played in
the air above us. On closer examination we
found they were mostly tree swallows, but
every once in a while there was a barn
swallow or bank swallow amongst them.
From about a half an hour before sunrise
until an hour after, they used our boat as
their center of activity. They would sit and
preen themselves, scratching once in a
while or just resting. Every now and then
something would scare them and the air
would be alive with wings. But then they
would swing back and settle down again. It
was a delightful sight.
Soon they left in a cloud but behind them
there were tiny feathers all over the deck
that they had preened and, of course, there
were also their tiny calling cards that
birds are famous for. But these were of
little concern for such a glorious show that
early sunny morning.
It was a great treat for Barbara and I to
witness in the cool early hours of our
second day out. What with a brisk sail
down, a beautiful evening meal with
friends, a peaceful night's sleep under a
full moon to be topped by this exhibition of
swallows, our trip was well on the way to
perfection.
PAUL STOUTENBURGH
ALL ISLAND
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