Been a while since I’ve had time for birding, odonating or writing. I’m going to be a bit more diligent about writing, even if I don’t have much to say. Kind of like being a FOX News commentator. Nothing intelligent to say but we can fill up our time slot with it as long as we have Obama to blame for everything. It’s probably his fault we don’t circle the sun in exactly 365 days so we need to add a day every four years. Surely it’s part of his progressive agenda to have an extra day in the year so illegal aliens have one more day to come across our border and do the nasty jobs no one else wants to do. We don’t want them coming in here and becoming productive citizens. Unless they’re Canadians. Them we like. They’re almost as good as us Americans. They just talk a little funny. Kind of like Kennedy did.
I had one last vacation day for the MSU fiscal year so I took it on June 27. Lise and I went up to the Mio area to get Kirtland’s warblers and a few other species in that area. We got the Kirtland’s as well as Brewer’s blackbird, upland sandpiper and vesper sparrow. Lise got her brown thrasher too. Hoping for Lincoln’s sparrow too, but we missed that one.
Kirtland’s warbler is an interesting species. They summer in the Mio, Michigan area and winter in Bermuda. Not a bad gig. I could live with it.
Species fall into two groups; generalists and specialists. When times are good it’s better to be a specialist. One can better take advantage of the resource you specialize in. When times are bad, it’s better to be a generalist. You can make do with anything. Not as efficiently, but there are more resources and opportunities available to you.
Kirtland’s warblers are a specialist species. They only nest in large blocks of young, 10 – 20 year old, Jack pines. Since no competing warblers use the same habitat niche this is a good thing as long as there is a lot of that particular habitat. Jack pines require fire to propagate so they tend to grow only in areas that are built to burn. Like the Mio area. That place is the ecological equivalent of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Periodic wildfire would sweep the area, killing off mature Jack pines and making a huge seed bed for new Jack pine regeneration.
Then along came Europeans. We suppressed wildfires, which allowed Jack pines to mature and repressed new growth. Kirtland’s lost their breeding habitat and almost went down the tube. About 50 years ago they were about extinct. Now that we understand their habitat needs, and the dynamics of the system, we manage for them and the species is rebounding nicely. But, they still only breed in one small area in Michigan. So if you’re doing a North American big year, figure on a night in Mio, Michigan.
One of the more bizarre parts of the Kirtland’s warbler story is the involvement of an ornithologist named Nathan Leopold. He did early research on the Kirtland’s, including filming the warbler on its nesting grounds. Unfortunately, in 1924 Leopold and his friend Richard Loeb decided to kill a boy just to show they could commit the perfect crime. It wasn’t so perfect a crime and they were caught. Loeb was killed in prison. Leopold served over 30 years in prison, was paroled and moved to Puerto Rico. He eventually published a book on the birds of Puerto Rico. Weird.
Today we popped over to a local park where we got sedge wren. That brings my total up to 218 for the year and Lise’s up to 213.
So the main reason I haven’t gotten out to play or written much is senior photos. I’ve been working with Molly and Lindsay on their senior photos. I can muddle my way through landscape and general nature photography but I’ve generally avoided taking formal pictures of people. Partly because it’s hard. Taking a good portrait requires knowledge of lighting and subject placement. There are a lot of nuances to portrait work and it takes time to get a good one. Especially when you lack portrait experience as I do. So you are usually dealing with impatient people that just want you to just take the picture and be done with the whole process. The girls have been patiently working with me to get the perfect photo. Or at least one good enough for the year book.
So we turned the garage into a temporary studio and made a trip to the MSU gardens. A couple more trips are planned too. A sample follows. Note that these are all pre-touch up. The magic of Photoshop has yet to come into play.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 