Maggie's Farm

Except for the twitterings of some migrating warblers and thrushes, the morning bird chorus here has suddenly gone silent.

That's because the local breeders have now laid their eggs, and no longer want to draw attention to their presence with their territorial calls. 21 days for a bird egg to hatch, and then comes the long hassle of feeding, protecting, worrying over, and keeping track of the bird babies.

All parents know what that is like.

Everybody is showing this one, so we might as well too. The old guy is shameless, isn't he? A good thing he prefers elephant-style to missionary style or her riders might be in a heap of trouble.

She is a cute lil' thing, if a bit on the heavy side. They both seem to be smiling, and that's what matters.

 

We have posted many times about the tragedy of the commons here. This handy concept goes far beyond the original meaning.

It is the most basic human nature to take care of your own. Unless you have a close, small, closed society with strong affinity and who are on the same page, people will rape the commons for their own purposes.

We posted the other day about plans to try to maintain the fisheries.

John Stossel discusses Eat the Tigers! Same point. Most people need a sense of ownership to really care about stewardship.

Wizbang has a piece on the Osprey today. Can you name that fish?

 

From the NYT article:

Honeybees can tell their sisters how far away the food is up to a distance of about 15 kilometers. For good measure, they can also allow for the fact that the sun moves relative to the hive by about 15 degrees an hour and correct for this when they pass on the information. In other words, they have their own built-in global positioning system and a language that enables them to refer to objects and events that are distant in space or time.

Photos from the NYT piece.

Of the three white egrets that breed in New England (American, Cattle, and Snowy) the largest is the Great Egret, which I persist in calling by its old name, American Egret.

A reader sent in these photos of one from this weekend in salt marsh in CT. You can see some of their fancy breeding plumage, for which these birds were hunted to near-extinction through the 19th and early 20th Centuries until the Audubon Society was created to protect them. More about the Great Egret in CT here.

The populations recovered fairly well, as long as they have safe places to nest in their tree colonies - usually on small islands or the tip of a peninsula.

 

 

Out my window early this morning (35 degrees F): Two fat Easter Bunnies (Eastern Cottontails), four Grey Squirrels, one flock of Blue Jays, one flock of Grackles, one hen Wild Turkey, two Carolina Wrens, a pair of Cardinals, a number of sex-addled, amorous Mourning Doves, and a few Song Sparrows, Robins, Red-wings, Cowbirds, and White-Throated Sparrows. And one pair of lingering SC Juncoes.

Phoebe had a baby boy. h/t, LGF

 

When I was a kid, my babysitter would take me fishing for Blue Crabs off the dock. What it required was a string with a hunk of bacon tied to the end. When you gently pulled it up to just below the surface, you needed a crab net to scoop up the crabs clinging to the bacon. Otherwise, they would let go of the bacon.

My Mom was never disappointed to find a bucket of two dozen crabs when she got home.

We have posted, somewhat disparagingly, about the Blue Crab's natural history and the Blue Crab as dining material, (too much effort, basically) but we never have disparaged good Maryland crab cakes, especially when consumed in volume with volumes of bad beer in low-life Maryland tatoo pubs with dogs walking around, after a day of duck hunting.

The subject comes up because we noticed projects about the aquaculture of Blue Crabs. Very cool. Fresh water? Who would have thought it?

Here's how they raise them from broodstock.

What a clever country we are. Speaking of clever people, Sippican sends this recipe:

CRAB CAKES
            1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
            4 large eggs, beaten lightly
            6 tablespoons sour cream
            1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat-leafed)
            2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
            1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
            1 teaspoon paprika
            1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
            1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
            2 pounds lump crab meat, picked over
            2 cups fine fresh bread crumbs
            1/3 cup cornmeal
            1/2 cup vegetable oil

            tarragon tartar sauce as an accompaniment
            lemon wedges as an accompaniment

            In a bowl whisk together the butter, the eggs, the sour cream, the pa rsley, the
            lemon juice, the Worcestershire sauce, the paprika, the salt, and the cayenne and
            stir in the crab meat and the bread crumbs gently. Form 1/2-cup measures of the
            mixture into twelve 3/4-inch-thick cakes and transfer the crab cakes as they are
            formed to a baking sheet sprinkled with half the cornmeal. Sprinkle the crab
            cakes with the remaining cornmeal and chill them, covered with plastic wrap, for
            at least 1 hour or overnight.

            In a large heavy skillet heat the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but
            not smoking and in it sauté the crab cakes in batches, turning them once, for 3 to
            4 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, transferring them as they are
            cooked to paper towels to drain. Keep the crab cakes warm on another baking
            sheet in a 200°F. oven. Serve the crab cakes with the tarragon tartar sauce and
            the lemon wedges.
            Makes about 12 crab cakes, serving 6.

I'd skip the bread crumbs. They dilute the crab meat.

The Bald Eagle is technically a fish-hawk - never far from water, especially big water - and his favorite way of hunting is stealing fish from Ospreys. However, he likes to catch ducks too. This photo from a series of photos of two eagles fighting over a diving duck on Lake Tapps, a man-made lake in Washington State.

 

We'll quit putting out bird seed as soon as our diminishing supply runs out: the bugs are coming out despite our sub-30 degree nights (the earth is cooling, you know - climate change), so the birds can go off welfare for a while. What's been around ye olde feeder today?, you ask.

Cowbirds, Redwing Blackbirds, Mourning Doves (tons), White throated Sparrows (lazy ones - should have migrated north by now), Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Blue Jay, Purple Grackle, Cardinal, Goldfinch, Red Bellied Woodpecker, House Finch, BC Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, WB Nuthatch. All in their splendid breeding plumage. 

Plus some Chipmunks and, of course, Grey Squirrels working the system. 

Photo: A male Goldfinch, before fully changing into his Spring plumage.

Or maybe the angle of the sun. It surely isn't the temperature here (below freezing at 5 am) which made every local bird wake up this morning and begin singing or twittering his territorial song for the first time this year.

I heard Robin, Tufted Titmouse, Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Cardinal, and Song Sparrow singing. Most migratory breeders won't be here until the buds pop open, and the tree buds aren't even swollen yet.

Today was really just a warm-up for the welcome Springtime morning chorus to come. It will last the next 6 weeks or so. Once their eggs are laid, they tend to go quiet so as not to attract attention.

Photo is a Tufted Titmouse, a fairly common songbird in New England.

The blackbirds are now up from the South and back at the feeder: voracious Purple Grackles, Cowbirds, and Red-wings. Also visiting today: Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White thoated Sparrow,  Mourning Doves in droves, Tree Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, BC Chickadee, Goldfinch, Cardinal, Blue Jay, a few remaining SC Juncoes. Nothing exciting, but all comers are welcome.

With all of the snow and cold, it's been expensive keeping these critters on welfare this year. It's getting about time to cut out their free lunch anyway, although it was 29 degrees F. this morning.

Plus the dang fat squirrels eat half of the bird seed, thus resulting in healthier, more fertile squirrels producing more babies to eat even more of the bird seed next winter.

Photo: A male Cardinal. We have plenty of them here. They nest in the evergreens and brambles.

I saw a Right Whale with calf from a schooner in the Gulf of Maine about 20 years ago. I had no idea there were so few of them, or that the european Right Whale population had been long hunted to extinction.

Along our American coast, with a few conservation efforts, their numbers are slowly recovering. Still, 350-400 is about as close to extinction as a species can get. Whales are as easy to kill as cows.

Magnificent critters.

Photo from the NYT article.

Awesome underwater photography of dolphins and Gannets feeding on sardines. Those Gannets move like fish underwater.

Flocks of birds from Richard Barnes. h/t David Thompson's Friday Ephemera.

 

With video

The one in the air, not the Canvasbacks in the water. Photo from the Ducks Unlimited 2008 members' photo gallery.

 

Occasional commenter and blogger Retriever sent us this photo of American Robins eating old rotting apples last week, in Massachusetts. People talk about the first Robin of Spring, but these woodland thrushes, who like fruit and berries, winter in almost every state in the US.

They are migratory (Turdus migratorius), so our winter birds here probably breed in northern Canada. They all go south, but only so far. The cold doesn't bother them at all, nor does global cooling.

 

A reader sent a nice photo of a Cedar Waxwing in an apple tree in Lenox, Massachusetts, taken this past weekend. These birds can be seen in every state in the US either as breeders, migrants, or over-wintering.

These are usually flocking birds, and fruit is their favorite food. They have been known to get drunk or die from eating rotten, fermented fruit. They will roam the countryside all winter, stripping trees and vines of their remaining fruits and berries. That's why you will never see them at a bird-feeder.

You can read about this elegant songbird here. Interesting detail: the orange at the tip of the tail indicates that this bird ate plenty of Japanese Honeysuckle berries (an invasive alien species) when those feathers  were growing.

 

The "Can" is probably the most sought-after duck for hunters (but I know I have described Mallards and Black Ducks similarly). Not only is his 60 mph flight a challenge, but he is considered the most tasty duck at the table. He is probably tasty because, despite being a diving duck, he prefers plant material. He's fairly large, too.

He breeds in the West and Northwest up through Alaska, but winters all along the Eastern Seaboard. You can read about them here.

Gwynnie took this photo of a male Can in breeding plumage on Saturday in CT. The sloped head is diagnostic, even in poor light. I suspect that he used a long lens:

 

In the snow and cold (13 degrees F yesterday morning, 9 this morning), we had hungry Gray Squirrels but not much of a variety of birds: Cardinal, Chickadee, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, Song Sparrow, English Sparrow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White Throated Sparrow, SC Junco. Boring.

The problem is the rats at night, picking up the cherries fallen off the plate, as it were. It gives some fun for the pup, though. But you hate to get licked on the face by a pup who just ate a rat. Our Great Horned Owls need to get busier. I hear them at night. They like it here in the winter. Lots of rats. I think they ate most of the bunnies already.