[obol] Re: Nesting catbirds at HMSC
- From: Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx>
- To: joel.geier@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 17:11:55 -0700
Hi, Joel -
Some good points.
I do not know if you have come over to see the catbird(s), but I would like
to make a few comments about the location and the situation:
1..We have documented one fledgling. There easily could be more. No more
than one at a time was seen, but the way these birds are behaving, that
does not mean much.
2. The specifics of the location reduce the opportunities for excessive
disturbance. The core area where they are, is a very dense tangle of
Himalayan Blackberry with emergent Twinberry, Red Elderberry, a small
Holly tree, and a large Willow. Just to the west is a row of large Red
Alders. The catbirds are mostly seen in the Holly and Willow, and seen
disappearing into the lower shrubbery. Occasionally one is seen foraging
in the Twinberry. They do not seem to use the alders much. It would be
possible to leave the trail and wade into the thicket, but very difficult
and bloody, and I believe I would be able to see signs (broken or cut
vegetation) if anyone tried. Or, someone could climb down off the
footbridge and wade through the intertidal high marsh toward the Holly
tree. I suspect if someone did so, the birds would just move a short
distance back into the tangle ad go about their business. All of the
viewing I know about has come from the trail (west end of Nature Trail, the
footbridge, the road near the HMSC back gate, or a brushy area across the
road. The nature trail and the foot bridge offer the best views, but few
birders would be tempted to leave them for closer approach.
3. The trail is heavily used by birders, joggers, walkers, and
occasionally bikers, and the whole community of birds in that tangle seems
to be very acclimated to the presence of people on the trail.
4. Early on, some birders used song recordings on their phones to pull in
the male. At the time he was thought to be alone. He responded, but it
appears this did not reach a level of interfering with nesting. At this
point in the cycle I doubt they would respond much.
Wayne
On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 4:36 PM, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Good work by the birders this morning who confirmed nesting and with the
> observation of at least one fledgling being attended by an adult, by the
> Gray Catbird pair at Hatfield Marine Science Center.
>
> At the risk of being called a "scold" I'll stick my neck out now with a
> reminder that this now clearly fits into the category of "locally rare
> nesting species" as discussed on the American Birding Association's
> ethics page:
> http://www.aba.org/about/ethics.html
> Since this is a very heavily birded location, I hope that birders can
> give these birds plenty of room and resist the urge to do anything more
> than observe them from a respectful distance along the trail.
>
> I am not suggesting that anyone has done anything otherwise, up until
> now. However, this first breeding record for the Oregon Coast has
> created a lot of attention and a lot of birders are likely to be
> curious. This is a somewhat unusual situation where a first breeding
> record is in a very easily accessed location. In particular, it could be
> tempting to "add more documentation" to the record books.
>
> On the bright side, it helps that catbirds are secretive birds that
> spend most of their time inside dense tangles. That probably helped them
> in dealing with the amount of human traffic at this location (I've seen
> them using some similar situations farther east, even along one
> heavily-used jogging trail in the greater Washington D.C. area).
>
> Someone no doubt will point out that the presence of a fledgling
> indicates "successful" nesting despite lots of attention from birders.
> However, one fledgling is on the low end for a species that normally has
> broods of 3 or 4. At any rate, this stage -- when the fledgling has just
> left the nest and is still being fed by a parent -- is still a very
> sensitive stage.
>
> Good birding,
> Joel
>
> --
> Joel Geier
> Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
>
>
>
>
>
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