Category Archives: Quick Guides

Enjoying Nature From the Comfort of your Phone

Posted on April 3, 2020 by kkeohane

While many of us are stuck at home, opportunities to explore nature are more limited.  However, there are many ways to engage with nature from your phone or computer, from sharpening your ID skills to submitting observations to a citizen science project. Below are five apps that will keep naturalists and non-naturalists engaged and excited.  

iNaturalist 

This app is like social media for nature sightings. The platform is designed to connect people to a community of wildlife and plant enthusiasts. Create a (free) account and upload photo (or audio) observations of living things. iNaturalist will give you its best guess based on your location and identifications of similar-looking species. Other users can comment on your observations and suggest an ID, which helps the program better identify future observations. Plus, iNaturalist observations can be scientifically useful: iNaturalist’s database has been used to redraw species range maps, and even describe new species.

  • DIscover nearby observations under the “explore” tab. Each are color coded by taxonomy.

Seek 

If you want to use iNaturalist’s identify tool without the rest of the app’s features, consider downloading Seek instead. This app has been described as “Shazam for nature” for its ability to ID a living thing by just pointing your camera.  

eBird  

This app is for bird-lovers and life-listers. Create “checklists” of any birds you see in a fixed location or on a walk. eBird tracks your distance and time and shows you a list of possible species based on your location. A half-moon orange circle notes uncommon species for the area and a red circle notes rare species.  

As with iNaturalist, eBird sightings become part of a database of millions of observations, helping scientists monitor large-scale patterns in bird populations.

Merlin Bird ID 

If you’re new to birding, consider downloading Merlin from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Browse a digital field guide of photos, bird sounds, and maps or answer five questions based on a bird you saw to have the app give you its best guess. 

Zooniverse 

Think of this app as digital volunteering. Instead of going out and monitoring nests, you can digitize historical nesting info (see below) that researchers at Cornell Lab of Ornithology will use for their database. Of course, this is only one of any citizen science projects on Zooniverse and topics range from nature to history and everything in between. The app will even track your progress, allowing you to see how much you’ve accomplished. 

Let us know if you decide to use any of these, have used them before, or have other recommendations for nature-based websites and apps you love! 

Finding Your First Whip-poor-will

Posted on May 14, 2018 by William Freedberg

 

Photo by David Larson

A drab bird with a startling call, the Whip-poor-will’s perfect camouflage belies its incredible voice. This nocturnal hunter can broadcast its loud, rhythmic whistle as many as 10,000 times over the course of one night. Wherever Whip-poor-wills live, their sound is as much a part of a summer evening as the familiar chirp of crickets and the whirr of cicadas.

Where’d All The Whip-poor-wills Go?

“Whip-poor-will” is practically a household name. But far more people have heard of them than have actually heard their call. This is no accident—the species has been in trouble since the turn of the 20th century.

Whip-poor-wills’ decline has largely followed the decline of large moths, their favorite food. Recently, a landmark study showed that Whip-poor-wills and other insect-eating birds have been feeding on less and less nutritious prey, as their choices are diminished by pesticide use and habitat destruction.

The Key to Whip-poor-will Habitat

Whip-poor-wills have two main habitat requirements. Firstly, their preference for the largest insects means they require healthy ecosystems that can support Luna moths, Catocala moths, and big grasshoppers. Whip-poor-wills will avoid areas with urban or suburban development, or where pesticide spraying reduces the numbers of large insects. This does not mean that they are averse to open areas—Whip-poor-wills are often found in small agricultural fields, as long as there is little or no chemical disturbance.

Secondly, Whip-poor-wills avoid forests with thick understories and midstory vegetation. While they prefer habitats with some tree cover, they need an open midstory to snatch insects on the wing, and they need bare ground to perch. They are often found in open woodland like pine barrens, as well as small open areas near denser wooded ecosystems—but rarely, if ever, in large tracts of dense thickets.

Sites to Search for Whip-poor-wills

Most places in Massachusetts no longer fit the above criteria with the exceptions of the southeastern and central-west part of the state.

In Plymouth County, try driving the roads of Myles Standish State Forest just after dark.

On Cape Cod, the pine barrens of Wellfleet and Truro often have high densities of Whip-poor-wills; roads through pine barrens between route 6 and the Atlantic beaches are reliable, and even residential roads adjacent to pine barrens can be productive. Crane Wildlife Management Area on the upper cape is also great.

Closer to Boston, you’ll occasionally have luck in the Blue Hills Reservation and on ranger-led programs at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island (which closes at dusk).

Most places around Quabbin Reservoir and the wilder areas of the Connecticut River Valley are excellent for Whip-poor-wills, but few human observers look there at night. If you see a Whip-poor-will out there, report it on eBird, or let us know in the comments!

 

Backyard Oddball: A “White-capped” Chickadee

Posted on March 14, 2018 by William Freedberg

In case our readers are tired of the endless news stories about the yellow Northern Cardinal in Alabama, a surprising color variant of a Black-capped Chickadee has shown up recently in our home state of Massachusetts.

A private homeowner in Charlton sent us some pictures of the bird, which was coming to her feeders.

©Laurie Dearnley

A partially leucistic Black-capped Chickadee in Charlton. ©Laurie Dearnley

In some ways, this bird looks more like a tit from the Eurasian genus Cyanistes—a group very closely related to North America’s chickadees.

However, Wayne Petersen and David Sibley confirmed that this bird’s body shape and plumage is indeed consistent with a partially leucistic Black-capped Chickadee.

What is Leucism?

Leucism is a genetic condition that prevents a bird’s body from depositing pigments in feathers, leaving some parts of the bird white or paler than normal. Leucism is not to be confused with albinism. Albino birds only lack a single pigment (melanin) responsible for producing blacks and browns, but the issue is not getting the pigment where it needs to be—albino birds simply do not produce melanin at all.  While these birds end up with no black or brown anywhere (even in the eye!) they might retain other colors like reds and yellows.  In leucistic birds, any or all colors could appear paler than normal, but their eyes (and often their skin) will be dark.

This bird is particularly fascinating because while it has retained some pigment in its feathers and its legs are partially dark, its toes are pink and unpigmented. Normally, a bird with partially pigmented feathers will have full pigmentation on its bare parts. Transporting pigment to living tissue (skin) is biologically easier than to dead tissue (feathers). It’s quite rare for a bird with partial leucism to have bare parts that are pale, and even rarer for a bird’s bare parts to be half dark and half pale.

Bird Pigments: Form Meets Function

Pigments often serve vital functions for birds beyond what we might expect. Feathers with melanin, for example, are stronger and more resistant to wear and tear than unpigmented feathers. This may be why some birds, like many gulls, have black outer edges on their otherwise-white wings. Female birds may also read certain plumage traits to indicate the physical health of potential mates. Several studies have correlated bright pigmentation with healthy immune systems in species from Zebra Finches to Red-winged Blackbirds (although never any chickadee species), and many birds with aberrant plumage show decreased mating success. Finally, birds with abnormally pale feathers tend to stick out visually, and run a greater risk of predation.

But even if this particular Black-capped Chickadee has a difficult (or short) life ahead of it, we think it’s beautiful just the way it is.

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