Capital Giraffe – adventures of a washingtonian – Page 5

My Hunt for Tiny Treasure

April 30th, 2019

Ruby-throated hummingbirds were named for the look of the male birds’ necks, which are spangled with shiny red feathers. When I see a male ruby-throated hummingbird in good light, I think his throat looks just like Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz.

I have seen quite a few ruby-throated hummingbirds over the years, but do you know what I have never seen? I have never seen a ruby-throated hummingbird’s nest. And I have searched hard for one!

Hummingbird nests are made using spider webs. A female hummingbird builds with fibrous plant matter and then glues it all together with sticky spider silk. Isn’t that so clever?

The nests these three-inch-long birds build are teeny-tiny and therefore hard to find. It would be easy to overlook a hummingbird nest, thinking it was nothing but an inconsequential bump on a tree branch. To make things even more challenging, the nests are inhabited when trees are covered in leaves, so the little nests are most-likely hidden behind a curtain of greenery.

I will, however, not be daunted! I plan to continue my search for a ruby-throated hummingbird’s nest this year. Wish me luck, okay? I will need it!

In the meantime, I plan to re-watch this delightful two-minute video from the folks at PBS Nature, which shows a female hummingbird building a nest. If you have the time, you should definitely check it out!

XOXO,
Bernice
On the Move

April 23rd, 2019

Spring is the time of year when billions of birds around the world are on the move, travelling north to find good eats and nesting spots for summer.

Hector and I decided to go to Rock Creek Park, which is one of our favorite birding spots in the city. We were very quiet on our walk, hoping to see birds, not scare them away.

Well, we were as quiet as we ever are. Hector would be the first to admit that he is a pretty chatty giraffe! And guess what? We must have been pretty stealthy indeed because we saw a yellow warbler!

Yellow warblers are bright yellow, which makes them easier to see than many birds are, but we still felt very lucky to have found one.

“Do you think this little guy is looking for a good nesting spot or do you think he is just resting before he flies further north?” I asked Hector as we watched the bird eat an insect.

“This seems like a good spot to me,” Hector whispered. “It’s near the creek, there are a gazillion trees to build a nest in, there’s a great view of Boulder Bridge, and there sure are a lot of bugs to eat,” Hector huffed his breath in an attempt to shoo some tiny bug away from his face. “What more could a yellow warbler want?” Hector grinned at me. “Where is this bird coming from, do you know?”

“Somewhere in Central America, I think,” I answered, remembering to keep my voice to a very low whisper so we wouldn’t scare the yellow bird away. “He may have even flown here all the way from South America. Isn’t that amazing?”

“It is. I can’t imagine how such teeny birds are able to fly such long distances. It doesn’t seem like it should be possible,” Hector said in his regular speaking voice, forgetting to keep quiet.

Alas.

The yellow warbler was startled by the noise and flew away. But we hope to see him again very soon. I’ll let you know if we do!

XOXO,
Bernice
Let’s Talk About Wading Feet

April 16th, 2019

Some of the coolest birds I see when I am near the banks of the Potomac River are Great Blue Herons. Why do I find these birds so fabulous? I don’t know that I have an exact reason, but perhaps it’s because they have super-long necks, just like me. I hear long necks are considered très élégant and I find I quite agree.

Do you know what else is very long on a great blue heron?

Its toes.

Great blue herons are wading birds, which means they walk in shallow water to hunt for fish. Wading birds have long toes to help them walk on squishy, wet ground. Their special toes cover a lot more terrain than short toes would cover and distribute their bodyweights across wide areas. The birds are therefore able to walk over mud without getting stuck in it.

Have you ever worn snow shoes? The same principle is at work: the wide surface area of snow shoes distributes your weight across a lot of ground, allowing you to walk across snow, not sink into it.

Finally, for this week: I am thrilled to tell you about a great blue heron you can watch live right now. It is incubating two eggs in its nest as I type this. The awesome people at the Chesapeake Conservancy and Explore.org have set up a great blue heron nest cam on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It is simply fabulous. Be sure to check it out!
Avian Mail

April 9th, 2019

Two darling girls recently asked me if we have pigeons here in Washington, D.C. and the answer is: Why yes! Yes we do! You’d be hard-pressed to find a city anywhere on earth without rock pigeons.

You, dear reader, may think of the pigeon as nothing more than the pestilential soiler of your windowsill, but I am here to tell you that they are so much more. Pigeons are noteworthy birds with special skills.

Pigeons have a remarkable homing ability which allows them to fly straight home, even when they have been taken very far away. Humans have domesticated the bird and then used this special pigeon skill for their own purposes. Pigeons have carried messages home for people for thousands of years.

To illustrate how delivery-by-pigeon works:

Let’s imagine I have pigeons who live in birdhouses in my garden. Then let’s say I go on a trip with my family. I take my pigeons with me so that I can send messages to my best friend, Hector, while I am away.

When I want to send Hector a note, I can simply attach it to one of my pigeons and then release the bird. The pigeon will fly straight home to its own birdhouse in my garden.

Hector would need to know to go check the pigeons’ birdhouses so he could see if one of my birds had come home bearing a letter, but I would obviously have explained this to him before I left town.

Over the years the method of attaching a message to a pigeon has changed. During World War I soldiers attached messages to their pigeons’ legs with teeny metal cannisters. Modern scientists attach bird-sized backpacks to pigeons to gather climate data.
It’s Cherry Blossom Time!

April 2nd, 2019

My Dad, Mom, Louisa, Hector and I made our way to D.C.’s tidal basin to see the annual cherry blossom bloom. There are many places one can see cherry blossoms in D.C., but we feel the tidal basin is the most iconic and so we go there every year. The flowers, the water, the monuments, the big blue sky… what more can a girl ask for? It is simply beautiful!

We giraffes are too tall to walk under the canopy the trees make, but that is fine with us. The walk under the tree branches is mobbed with humans anyway.

Even though Washington D.C. is known for its cherry blossoms, the trees are not native to the area. The trees were a gift from the people of Japan to the people of the United States. Isn’t that interesting? The gift was given over 100 years ago so you might have thought they were always here, but that is not at all the case.

Do you have cherry blossom trees where you live? If not, what blooms in your neck of the woods each spring?
Hello Spring!

March 26th, 2019

Hector knows I love forsythia and suggested we go see Forsythia Dell at Dumbarton Oaks. I had somehow never even heard of it, even though I have lived in D.C. my whole life. I suppose the reason for that may be that D.C.’s famous cherry blossom extravaganza overshadows all other spring blooms.

The cherry blossoms are gorgeous and deserve to be well known, but if you have a chance, you must go see the forsythia at Dumbarton Oaks too. Two hillsides are covered in yellow blooms in early spring. It is spectacular!

I was so happy when I saw the plethora of yellow flowers that I gave Hector a big kiss on the cheek. That made him blush. It was so cute! But don’t tell him I said so.
Let’s Talk About Feet

March 19th, 2019

Have you ever wondered how some birds manage to sleep perched in trees? Wouldn’t you think that they would fall off their branches once their bodies relaxed into sleep?

Well, the answer is in the feet. Half of all the types of birds in the world are in a category called passerine. One of the defining features of passerine birds is the way the feet are shaped and function. Passerine (perching) birds have four toes on each foot. Three of the toes face forward. One toe faces backward. When a bird lands on a tree branch, its toes wrap around the branch and then lock into place. This automatic locking of the toes is a very good thing: passerine birds can relax and sleep without worrying their feet will stop gripping their perch.

You can tell a lot about a bird by what kind of feet it has. As another example, if you see a bird with webbed feet, you can bet it is a swimmer. Webbed feet are terrific for swimming because the large surface area of the foot is perfect for pushing water around.
What’s in a Name?

March 12th, 2019

I like American Crows and am lucky enough to see them all the time. Why just today, I saw a crow perched on a lamppost outside the market and then I saw two crows in an oak tree I passed on my way to NuNu’s house.

Did you know that crows are very smart? They are thought to be some of the smartest birds in the world. I like the way crows say “Caw! Caw! Caw!” and I like how big they are. Crows are much easier to spot than a teeny bird like a house finch.

When I see a crow, I stop to admire it. Before this past weekend I had never seen a large group of crows, even though I know they often gather in sizeable flocks. So when Hector and I came upon a murder of crows, I was very excited.

“Hector! Look at all these crows! I think this qualifies as a murder, don’t you?” I asked my best friend when we saw what seemed like 500 crows gathered in neighboring trees.

“Um. What?” Hector gasped. “A murder? Where? How?” He looked quite spooked all of a sudden.

“A group of crows is called a murder of crows, silly. No one has been killed,” I replied. “It’s a special name like a pride of lions, a conspiracy of lemurs, a bevy of swans, a swarm of bees, or a prickle of porcupines. It’s pretty old-fashioned to use those words but I like to. I think they’re both wacky and charming.”

“Nothing called a murder is charming, Bernice! I want to go home now,” Hector shivered with the creeps.

“Okay, Hector,” I said. “Let’s go home and have some tea.”

We headed back the way we had come, and soon I could not see the crows any longer. But I could hear their caw-caw-cawing for quite a long time and I found the sounds delightful.
Bird’s Got Skills

March 5th, 2019

“What kind of bird is that?” Louisa asked. Hector and I stopped walking and joined Louisa to inspect the river birch tree.

“What bird? I don’t see anything,” my eyes roved over the tree but I saw no bird.

“It’s right in front of you, Bernice,” Hector said. “Do you need glasses? I have a great eye doctor if you do.”

“I don’t think so,” I replied, understanding that I could not really know. Hector didn’t know he needed glasses for a long time before he got them. It was only after he started wearing them that Hector realized everything had been blurry before.

“Where is the bird? I just don’t see it,” I said, wondering if I really did need to visit the optometrist. But then I saw the bird and I don’t think it looked blurry at all. The colors of the white-breasted nuthatch were simply blending into the bark of the tree. Furthermore, the tree bark had a lot of texture, making the bird difficult to see among all the shapes the bark itself made.

“Ah, I see it now! It’s a white-breasted nuthatch! It is searching the bark for insects to eat.”

The bird walked all over the bark as though it were nothing. First it walked down the trunk of the tree, facedown, tail pointed to the sky. Then it changed direction and walked straight up the tree. It searched for bugs to eat the whole time and seemed not to notice we were watching.

“That looks scary” Louisa commented. “But I would like to be able to scale surfaces like that. Would you? It’s like Spiderman!”

Hector and I both thought it would be useful to be able to climb like a white-breasted nuthatch and told Louisa we would like to be able to, yes.

How about you? Would you like to be able to walk up and down the sides of things like a white-breasted nuthatch?
Grand Theft Nest

February 26th, 2019

Some birds build their nests. Some birds use abandoned nests other birds have built. I am going to give the latter category of bird the benefit of the doubt and assume that when they move into a found nest, they usually think it is uninhabited.

Louisa and I have been watching the National Arboretum Bald Eagle Nest Cam quite a lot and a couple of red-tailed hawks have recently been eyeing the bald eagles’ nest with the seeming intent of taking it for themselves. Scoundrels! It seems to me that the hawks know darned well the nest is not vacant.

Can you imagine how outraged the eagles must be? They designed, built and have maintained their nest for years. How irritating it must be to have to defend it from would-be thieves (don’t worry if you missed the livestream footage of the eagles defending their home – there is a video on YouTube you can still see).

Long ago I saw a similar scene: two downy woodpeckers came home to find their nest occupied by two tufted titmice. Alas, the woodpeckers appeared to be on the losing end of that conflict. From what I witnessed the tufted titmice were not going to move out. How frustrating it must have been for the woodpeckers to need to go peck a new nesting-cavity out of a different tree. Hopefully their new home was better than the one they lost – a possible silver lining. A girl can always hope!