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June 17, 1993 - The Birdwatcher's Back in'FocusJune 17, 1993 • The Suffolk Times • SA The Birdwatcher's Back in'Focus By Paul Stoutenburah I'm sitting in the garden after a long time away from its charm and subtle beauty, and "how sweet it is." Not 100 percent operative as yet, I must sit around while others do my bidding. Beside me, under an old pine tree in the garden, there is a spot where king devil and daisies have escaped the lawn- mower and their wild vigor gives them something special that makes me won- der why we don't invite more of these wayside wanderers into our garden. Over in back there are 30 acres of yel- Focus on Nature low king devil that have taken over a fallow farm field. The song sparrow sings from the hedgerow in back that I have let grow wild. Somewhere on the ground, I am sure, its mate sits on her grass -lined nest awaiting the moment there is movement in the eggs, signaling hatching time is near. I see a cowbird fly up from the pasture and wonder if the song spar- row's nest has been visited by her, for it is her trick to lay her eggs in other birds' nests that gives the cowbird her bad name. The cowbird was originally from the great prairie country out west. It followed the buffalo along and profited from its grazing, for as the hoofs moved, insects flew up and became fair game for the cowbirds. After the buffalo were practically eliminated and the plow took over, the cowbirds took to following the cattle that grazed and again profited from the slow- moving hoofs. Cowbird Heads East As land was cleared and our forests cut up into easy access, the cowbird moved east. In some places the nasty habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests nearly did in some species of birds. A perfect example is the Kirtland's warbler that nests only in a small area in the state of Michigan. So disastrous was the cowbird's habit there that the warbler was on the verge of extinction until some concerned birders put on a campaign against the cowbirds. What they did was to track down every Kirtland warbler's nest and take out the unwanted cowbird's egg. In so doing the population bounced back and there is now hope for the species. The real problem is not only that the bird lays its egg in someone else's nest, but when it hatches it becomes most aggressive and therefore grows the largest of the young in the nest and gets the lion's share of the food. Most often the natural young are pushed out of the nest or merely smothered by the huge baby cowbird. The odd part about this whole operation is that the parent bird, whether it be a song sparrow, redstart or Kirtland's warbler, doesn't seem to know the difference and just keeps on feeding the first and biggest mouth in `It is so good to be home and enjoying our great outdoors.' Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh YOUNG ORIOLES —Any day now young orioles, like the ones pictured above, will leave their hanging nest and be ,fed in the trees until they are mature enough to make it on their own. the nest. Yet a few birds seem to evade the cowbird's egg - laying in their nest and literally toss them out, but these are the exceptions. One yellow warbler out- witted the cowbird by an ingenious tactic. When she found the cowbird's egg in her nest she merely rebuilt over the old nest and started laying again. She did this five times before the cowbird finally gave up. I know the cowbird I saw today was probably up to no good and I wondered about the other birds nesting nearby. From our patio I watched a Baltimore oriole build its nest in one of our hickory trees. I've report6d this in other years and the nest is always in the same locale. To think this bird spends its winter in the tropics, and then makes its way north to my backyard each year, makes it sort of special to me. Barbara cut up some knitting yarn and hung it out by the bird bath for them to use as nesting material. Sure enough, with my binoculars I can see it woven into their characteristic baglike hanging nest. By now I'm sure the female oriole is sitting tight for I see the colorful orange- and -black male chasing any intruder out of the treetops. I sure hope he chased that cowbird away. I'd check it out if it were lower but orioles usually build 30 to 40 feet up and it's a bit high for me right now. As I write the deer flies are trying to give me a hard time but my bug spray foils them and they just boil around keeping their distance. Deer flies are sort of dumb. They fly around your head and arms and finally light where you usually take a swat at them. Should you miss, they'll be right back the next moment for you to surely finish the job. They don't have the quick getaway of the house fly. You can tell them by their dark color and house -fly size. They land with their wings out and on them you'll see some dark markings. I looked at the cows when I got home and they were really being bothered by the deer flies. Around their faces and necks the flies were just filling up on the cow's blood I'm sure. These are females and must have blood before they lay their eggs. The cows' swinging tails, I'm afraid, couldn't reach that far and therefore the head and neck suffered. You can tell when the cows have had enough though, for they head for the barn lickety- split. Inside the barn they get relief.' Like the notorious horsefly, these deer flies make an incision and then drink the blood. Sounds pretty gruesome but I can assure you few ever get that far on us as they are easily detected and eliminated. It is so good to be home and enjoying our great outdoors. Summer is the time of the year that makes the East End what it really is. There are few places that can equal it. 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