Western Grebe

Western Grebe aka. Dabchick aka. Swan Grebe aka. Swan-necked Grebe
Lake Merritt, Oakland, California, USA
December 2018
Member of the Grebe Family
★Largest North American Grebe★
§A Waterdance of Grebes§ (and you should really check out that waterdance. These are technically different Grebes (Clark's), but these guys do the same thing, and were once thought to be the same species actually)

Chain-smoker
The type who wants to reach the peak of his hobby or interest. Driven
Zine contributor


You know, there weren't that many fun facts about this guy, aside from that water dancing (which, again, you should really take a look at), so that means there's time for a Naturalist Profile!

Sir William Lawrence

(1783 - 1867)

A busy and complicated guy, William Lawrence was a surgeon and author. He helped found The Lancet, a really important medical journal, and wrote a bunch of medical textbooks. He might have even been coined the term Biology. He's more famous, however, for his pre-Darwinian takes on evolution and human development. His wikipedia page is long and dense, but the long and short of it is he was right about a lot of things that few people were right about at the time, wrong about a lot of things, and also was declared blasphemous by the English court at the time. It is said that the level of caution with which Darwin published his early work could be attributed to what happened to Lawrence. He bounced back from this ignominy eventually and was made a Baron by the queen shortly before his death.

What does any of this have to do with birds? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is no mention of this Grebe, or indeed of birds, birding, or even naturalism in his wikipedia page. It almost makes me wonder if I have the wrong 'Sir William Lawrence', but multiple sources describe him as the original describer of this bird, despite it being a bird of the American West, and him being a British Surgeon. A mistake? Who knows! If it were, this would certainly be the first time this blog has been wrong about anything, that's for sure.

Young Birds, Tricky IDs

Lately I've had this experience a lot, where I get a picture of a cool looking bird that I don't think I've gotten before, and wind up stumped. After lots of time intensive searching I discover that the bird doesn't match anything in my guides. Did I just discover a new bird? Well, no, of course not. I'd be lucky to discover that I've remembered to bring my camera with me these days. Mostly what I run into is juvenile birds. Let's go through a few examples, shall we?

Here's a guy who has fooled me twice lately. And you know what they say..
Yes, I know he's just a sparrow, but your amateurnithologist is so hard up for birds lately that even a new sparrow can be a source of excitement. It's going to happen one of these days. Anyway, you'd think the markings here are quite distinctive, and on the head too, which is really the sweet spot for sparrow identification. Rufous streaks on either side of the crown and behind the eyes. Simple as that. Well, turns out this guy is actually a White-crowned Sparrow, who kinda looks nothing like this in adulthood.

Do you see the resemblance? Nah, neither do I.

Here's another great example

Wow, now that is a cool bird! Check the distinctive coloration- and also of note, this guy is big, and a bird of prey to boot. Should be easy as can be to identify. Well, it actually sort of was, once I could do a little searching around. Turns out in their younger days White-tailed Kites are quite colorful. Actually got a picture of him sitting next to an adult, for contrast.

Hey bird? Where'd all your coloration go? Gosh.

So, like, what are you supposed to do about identifying these guys? Well, for me, the most important tip was paying attention to the other birds around them. In both cases, the adults of the family were nearby. Also, if you start to encounter something that looks truly unusual, just start google image searching for "juvenile ______", where the blank is birds that you know are in the area, and belong to the family of the mystery bird you've spotted. I know I'll be going to the juvenile well much more quickly in the future, after these misadventures in bird spotting.

In conclusion, birds are weird. I hope you've enjoyed these birds for what they are. They may not be new, but they look new, and in it's own way, isn't that almost the same thing as being new? The answer is 'no, not really', but a blogger can dream.

Wrentit

Wrentit
Solstice Canyon Park, Malibu, California, USA
July 2018
Member of the Sylvid Family

[Etymology Corner] As you might expect from a bird with a name from the 'we don't know what this bird is' school of naming, there has been some dispute about exactly what family the Wrentit falls in. Is it a Tit? No, but we used to think so. Is it a Wren? Not even close, but it does have an upturned tail like one. For a while we thought that Wrentits were the only member of their own family, ala Limpkins. It turns out that Wrentits are the only representative of a family of birds mostly found in the Mediterranean and Asia, which include parrotbills and babblers.

~True Bird Fact~ A remarkably sedentary bird, Wrentits live only in the narrow stretch of land on the North American coast between the Sierra Mountains and the Pacific. Even more shockingly, these birds barely leave the immediate area of their nest, usually making their own homes only 1200 feet away, on average, from where they were born.

If you want to know where this bird lands, politically speaking, I got one word for you: Chemtrails
Specific junk-food tastes (i.e. only ruffled potato chips)
Collects old magazines and newspapers with 'significant' headlines. Will happily explain his collection to you

Nanday Parakeet

Nanday Parakeet aka. Black-hooded Parakeet aka. Nanday Conure
Solstice Canyon Park, Malibu, California, USA
July 2018
Member of the Lorie, Parakeet, Macaw, and Parrot Family
§A Chatter of Parakeets§

Native To: Central South America. Namely, South-western Brazil and Bolivia, Paraguay and the northern tip of Argentina. A really hearty parakeet, and a popular companion bird, they've made stable breeding populations in a lot of places. You can find Nandays in LA, San Antonio, Phoenix, various Floridian cities, Puerto Rico, and even Haifa, Israel. They're so good at surviving that they've been banned as pets in some states, since they can have a negative impact on native species.

~True Bird Fact~ Popular pets still for their temperment and intelligence. They live up to 20 years, learn to speak, and can do tricks. They're also known to give their owners a shock by sometimes falling asleep on their back with their feet sticking up in the air. I wonder if this behavior happens in the wild...

A blogger
A new father, sporting a trademark sense of discomfort from not really knowing what he's doing
You know, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that posts on his blog would decrease pretty significantly, at least during the first few months of his son's life.
And I'm sure his readers won't mind and will be totally understanding, and maybe even prefer pictures of the baby over pictures of whatever he was posting before

You know, there's something about this bird and his personality that feels... familiar to me. Probably nothing. Either way, look for more exciting bird blog posts, probably like, once a month.