Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

I have had Hummingbirds on the brain the past few days. First because Dan at Wild Birds Unlimited in Corning gave us a beautiful feeder for our Bag the Blues fundraiser coming up (May 9th- call Tanglewood for tickets!) and second because someone asked me when to expect to see Hummingbirds again. They should be here soon, if not already. They are a true harbinger of spring and summer. Most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (the only kind of Hummingbird we have around here) winter between southern Mexico and northern Panama and make their way up to our neck of the woods in late April.

I don't know anyone who doesn't like Hummingbirds and look forward to their return from the tropics. What's not to like? They are really small, iridescent green, the males have bright red throats, and their wingbeats are so fast that you can't even see their wings when they are hovering! The wings beat 78 times/second when just flying around and 200 times/second when they are diving as a display to attract females. They are the smallest birds around and their eggs reflect that; they are 1/2the size of a jellybean!

Attracting Hummingbirds is pretty easy, you need a feeder, regular sugar and water. The feeder should be one that you can clean easily (clean every few days before mold forms) and it should have some red on it of course. Perches aren't necessary, but if you do have perches the Hummers will stop and use them and give you a better look. As for the food, go with simple. Take white table sugar (not honey, not artificial sweeteners) and mix it with tap water on the stovetop until it boils (the water should be "clear" when the sugar dissolves), cool it down in the refrigerator, funnel it into the feeder, and that's it. The official formula is 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. If you are trying to attract them early on you can add a bit more sugar, but once you've got them the 1:4 ratio is the best. Some people think that the water needs to be red, it doesn't. The verdict is still out on whether the red dye is bad for the birds, so please just skip it. And you don't need to buy the more expensive mixes either, white sugar from your cupboard works great.

If you are really into the little guys consider putting up more than one feeder (they tend to be very territorial about their food sources). You can even plant flowers to attract them. Consider Bee Balm, Bleeding Heart, Cardinal Flower, Foxglove, Hollyhocks, Petunia, Columbine, Zinnia, Dahlia, Geranium, Sweet William, Honeysuckle, Fuchia and Phlox (this is not a comprehensive list but all are easy to find around here).

Soon they will be here and soon we will be seeing one warm day after another- enjoy!

Honey Bees and One Queen Wanted

We have a wonderful beehive/apiary in our library that is a source of amusement and interest for the staff and for visitors. Life in the beehive is fascinating. There is so much going on from Spring to Fall that we can literally spend an hour talking about honey bees with school children. For example, kids are amazed to find out that most of the bees in the hive (40,000-60,000/hive) are workers and the workers are all females. The workers have critical jobs such as scouts, guards, nurses, cleaners-and of course, the one all-important queen. The drones, which are the only males, have one main job- to mate with a queen, therefore in tough times, where food is scarce, the males aren't fed and don't survive. This time of year, workers are making honey and feeding the larvae that hatch out of the eggs the queen has laid.

We have a beekeeper who is a pretty great guy that donates his time and talent and money to keep the hive going. He shows up at all hours and makes sure our bees are happy and healthy and if they aren't, he fixes it. He recently added some more bees and they made a queen, but now she seems to have disappeared....The beekeeper thought maybe, hopefully, she is out mating with drones? But I am not sure how long that takes because she's been gone a few days. Without a queen, the hive has no chance of surviving in the long run. She is the only one that lays eggs, lots of eggs- up to 1500/day in the busy season. Bees live only 4-6 weeks during this time of year so no queen to make new bees is the kiss of death for a hive. Obviously our hive needs a new queen if the old queen is gone for good. The workers can turn a cell with a regular larva in it into a queen cell by making it bigger and feeding the larva inside a substance called Royal Jelly- voila, a new queen emerges! Royal Jelly is a substance that only bees make, in fact, humans have tried to duplicate royal jelly, but to no avail.

Honey bees are essential to human survival. Yes, I did say that, essential. Not only do they produce over $100 million worth of honey and beeswax each year in the United States, they are the main pollinators of agricultural crops that we rely on for food (which consequently adds another $10 billion to their overall value). Another "lowly" animal that we rely on for the lives we lead as fellow animals on this planet.

If you are interested in learning more about bees and beekeeping, come to Tanglewood on June 13th from 2:30-4:00 for a free program led by John Slechta, our beekeeper. He'll have much more information, pictures and some of his beekeeping equipment to share with you.

Antarctic Ice Loss and Other Loss on Earth

I was watching the tv news coverage of the shootings in Binghamton and one of the banners moving along the bottom caught my eye. It said something about Antartica losing another huge chunk of ice, but this one was to be the biggest loss yet. It was one of those moments where you are watching something important and tragic unfold and something else important and tragic is also unfolding, but to many it is not as important as the other thing, so it gets just a mention. I think that made sense? But since I am who I am, I noticed the announcement and it has been on my mind.

Delving deeper I found that because of the 4.5 degree increase in temperature over the past 50 years in the Antarctic peninsula, ice shelves have been collapsing and an ice bridge connecting Latady and Charcot Islands may be going soon. An area 10 times the size of Philadelphia could be lost (up to 1,400 square miles). The melting ice in large quantities over time can lead to higher sea levels and eventually devistation for many coastal areas. Warming temperatures also have profound effects on species distribution and diversity.

Time Magazine has a read-worthy article on "The New Age of Extinction" that discusses the mass extinction we seem to be going through. Yes, I know there have been other times of mass extinction on Earth, well before we had houses and cars. But the rate is the important thing here, it is astounding this time. It is estimated that we will lose 20-30% of ALL species by the end of the current century just due to global warming, not including the species we'll lose to habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and the like. So what? That's what some people say. Who cares if we lose all those plants and animals? It's not US. But it IS us. We are animals too. And we have spent all of our time on Earth relying on the natural world for our survival; for our food, our water, our medicine, our materials to build and clothe our human needs and wants. If we have an unhealthy and depauperate ecosystem, our lives will change drastically, and not for the better.

And what about nature just for nature's sake? I, for one, don't want to live on a planet with just people and maybe a few scattered scavenger-type animals and lots of cockroaches (cockroaches survive anything). Time's (April 13, 2009) article had a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with along those same lines: "...so if you care about tigers and tamarins, rhinos and orangutans, if you believe Earth is more than just a home for 6.7 billion human beings and counting, then you should be scared."

I know I have touched on global warming here before and I know it has been the most controversial and annoying topic I have brought up. No one has anything negative to say about worms or birds, but many people have opinions about global warming. Or climate change, whatever PC phrase you want to use. And I will stand by my belief that it is happening and it is mostly human-caused and we can't keep doing what we are doing and expect to get away unscathed. Not tomorrow or the next day, but in the future. Our children's future.

The Intelligence of Crows and Ravens

As I look out my window on another rainy day in the Southern Tier, I see several types of birds. Robins, Swallows, Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ravens and Crows. Most people don't like Ravens and Crows; they are loud and eat farmer's crops. But they are interesting and you can appreciate them more if you know a bit about their "private lives." Crows, Jays, Ravens and Magpies make up the Corvid Family of birds.

Corvids are a lot of things- fairly ubiquitous, numerous, loud, visible and smart. Smart? Those annoying creatures? Yes smart, especially Ravens and Crows.

I have first-hand knowledge of the intelligence of Crows. We had a crow that we used for programming at one of the places I worked. The Crow would let you pet him and encouraged it even by bending his head down when you came up to his cage. But when he was done, he let you know by biting you. And you couldn't keep a jess on him. A jess is a leather bracelet that is used to attach birds to a glove for programming or falconry. The curators tried many kinds of jesses and many types of knots and configurations for the jesses and the Crow figured out how to get every one of them off.

Ravens and Crows have been trained to count and Ravens to speak English words. Ravens have been seen playing by sliding down icy rocks, and the aerial acrobatics they are sometimes seen doing may be partly courtship and partly play activity. There are documented cases of Crows helping injured members of the flock by distracting predators, and of them using tools like twigs. They have been seen dropping clam shells and even small turtles from a height to break them and get at the meat inside. All are examples of higher cognitive ability. So next time you see or hear a Crow or Raven and think about how you'd like to eradicate or quiet it, stop and think about what may be going on in THEIR head, because likely something is.