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Ruby-crowned Kinglets Eat Bananas!
I'll bet you've never read that sentence before, that is unless you read posts to the email list Oregon Birders OnLine, OBOL. Last week I posted this to the list, in case other birders might be interested in trying it.
Bananas are always one of the most popular foods on bird feeders in the tropics where I lead tours. Warblers, tanagers, sparrows, icterids, and of course more tropical things like barbets and aracaris swarm over them. But I've never seen them offered in the US, and it's never occurred to me. But in these stay-at-home pandemic times, we're all becoming a bit more creative and experimental, aren't we? My oranges have been pretty much ignored for over a year, and they are supposedly a well-known draw for orioles and tanagers. (I did have a young Black-capped Chickadee that took a liking to my oranges in July and August, but that lasted just a couple weeks, and then it was probably snagged by the family of voracious Cooper's Hawks that nested nearby.)
At $.79/pound for organic in my local grocery store right now, bananas at this price probably would be scoffed at and ignored in Costa Rica or Bolivia. For that money there, you could probably get a 25 pound bunch or more. I'm cutting up a single banana into quarters and once a week or so putting them out on my four orange feeders. I've been doing this since early spring, and until now I have seen only a single Yellow-rumped Warbler take a couple of experimental bites. Then about three weeks ago, I noticed a bunch of bites out of one, and it didn't take much waiting to see that the culprit was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. It's now one of his favorite foods. I say "his," because you can sometimes see the red in the crown, as in the video below.
Then the Orange-crowned Warbler that showed up in my yard on December 3 (a very scare winter bird this far north) began nibbling at the bananas just over a week ago, and it's now a regular there as well. It mostly feeds from the peanut butter suet cakes, but also gleans for insects.
Now, just a few times this past week, I've now seen Townsend's Warbler nibbling at the banana (it's the second most common wintering warbler here). Here's a video montage I made of all three species.
I have no doubt that starlings and robins would love banana, but I don't think they view these wood-and-nail feeders as the sort of place they'd like to perch. Let's hope it stays that way.
Posted by Birdernaturalist at 11:53 AM No comments:
My First Two Christmas Bird Counts of 2020
If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd be packing, getting ready to travel to Oaxaca today. Since that tour was canceled, long ago, I'm doing a bunch of Christmas Bird Counts. And if it weren't for the rather warm and very wet weather system flowing into northwestern Oregon right now, I'd be doing the Brownsville CBC today. Late last night though, as a result of the flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service, the compiler opted to postpone it for a week, so I have a moment to blog about the CBC's I have done so far.
The weather on both the Tangent and Roseburg CBCs was perfect, so I'm quite glad to have not been out in the rain all day today. There were very few brief breaks in the nearly constant rain here at home, and in the past 24 hours we have received 2 inches, twice as what was locally forecast. The foothills of the Cascades around the town of Crawfordsville, where I was to be, would have certainly been wetter.
Tangent, which I did on Monday, December 14, is an unofficial Christmas Bird Count – rejected because it overlaps a bit with an already-existing CBC circle. But since all the data goes into eBird and essentially the same protocols are followed, the data is just as usable as any other CBC, if not more so, considering that it's organized by an ornithologist who is a stickler for usable bird data. If a CBC's data is to be used to determine relative abundance and trends over time, there's no reason why circles can't overlap. But the CBC is largely a social event that involves some friendly competition, so this circle's data probably won't be useful in that regard. No matter for me, as one of the fun parts of any CBC, official or not, is that it gets you out birding in an area you wouldn't normally think of covering. Since pandemic CBC birding has been stripped of its social aspect anyway, I've committed this year to merely contribute to the database.
My assigned area had two distinctive regions: the north bank of the South Santiam River opposite the town of Lebanon, which I did in the morning, and the ag fields all around Peterson Butte, famous for being the first location where Ring-necked Pheasant was released in North America. Along the Santiam I checked for river ducks, Common Goldeneye being an easy target. (No Barrows this year, though they come this far downriver only very rarely.)
I also had plenty of Bald Eagles, but I was directly below this one before I realized it was there.
In the fields below Peterson Butte was where I was told to keep an eye out for Rough-legged Hawk, and sure enough in the afternoon I found two. This one was perched nicely next to the road.
There was a good southerly breeze, and as I scoured the skies above the butte for possible Golden Eagles, I saw a bunch of paragliders and a single hang-glider above the butte and saw that they had parked their cars on a ridge by some microwave antennae. Long story short: I found the road to the top, called the number on a sign for the land manager, and got permission to enter through the gate and drive up. From there I hiked to the top, and the views of the Willamette Valley to the west were marvelous.
I had seen two Prairie Falcons from the base of the butte, but up here I got great views of one flying right by me, though it was tricky to photograph.
There was no sign of a Golden Eagle, but the dozens of Bald Eagles that spend the winter in the flats feeding on stillborn lambs and the abundant afterbirth were having a blast joining the paragliders. I took this photo at eye level, though the shutter wasn't as fast would have been ideal.
It was interesting to find Wrentits on the slopes of Peterson Butte. I had also heard some on the N side of the river in the morning. They have clearly thoroughly colonized this region, starting probably over 30 years ago, so paucity of records from the Cascade foothills to the north, in Marion, Clackamas, and Multnomah counties is very puzzling.
Yesterday, December 19 was the Roseburg CBC. My area was the same one I did last year in the northern part of the circle, starting at the Sutherlin exit on Interstate 5, just barely over an hour's drive south of my home (I still have the cute little Nissan Versa that I've rented for a month). The highlight here is Fords Pond, an old log pond converted to a nature reserve. I started before dawn doing playback for rails and got answers from two Soras and two Virginia Rails. I wanted then to start very early on the oak hillside to the west of the lake, but on the way I heard a Swamp Sparrow calling away, a very good get for the count. I finally made it up to the top of the oaks as the sun was rising over the Cascades.
In this view, you can see the tremendous amount of habitat restoration work that is taking place: each white post is a native shrub planted in a protector in a field that last year was one massive patch of invasive blackberries. Fingers crossed they can keep it up. The Golden-crowned Sparrows certainly weren't happy to have lost their wintering habitat, but breeding Lazuli Buntings and Chipping Sparrows will almost certainly benefit, as will any native arthropods who prefer the native vegetation.
I happily entered there four Snow Geese to my list, wondering why they looked so white, but instantly dismissing it. It's their wingtips: Snow Geese have black wingtips. The bills and legs were also maybe a bit too yellow, but I convinced myself they were actually pinkish. The bill shape was very good for Snow Goose (eliminating Ross's), and they acted wary, moving off with wild Canada Geese as I approached. They didn't honk like domestic geese (of which there were three on the pond). It turns out they have been here for at least two years, and so there's something fishy about them. Note that there are also four Cackling Geese in this photo.
I birded a bit of some of town, and one pocket of willows and blackberries had some particularly bold birds. Wrentits are very common in this part of Oregon, near the northern limit of their historical range away from the outer coast. They love my whistled imitation.
And this Anna's Hummingbird was convinced that my pishing was something evil that needed vanquishing.
After lunchtime I birded the western part of my area, including a bit of the Umpqua River Valley at its confluence with Calapooya Creek (different that the Calapooia River that is a tributary of the Willamette). I was too slow with my camera to get a good shot of the Golden Eagle that flew right over me, but I think this one actually captured the wing shape and bill shape that distinguish it from the much more common Bald Eagle.
At Umpqua Landing I noticed a row of planted true cedars (probably Deodar Cedar) whose trunks were littered with sapsucker wells. I did a bit of playback, and immediately a Red-breasted Sapsucker appeared. These are HIS trees, and I let him have them.
Open fields near hillsides of Oregon White Oaks with mistletoe are the perfect place for Western Bluebirds. They can be surprisingly difficult to photograph well, but their blueness makes even a crappy photo like this take your breath away.
I finished the day with 92 species, sorry only that I couldn't share it with anyone at the time. Next year…
Posted by Birdernaturalist at 5:16 PM No comments:
Four Consecutive Days of Birding in Oregon
The weekend before last was a like a splurge of birding for me – I was out watching birds away from my north Eugene yard on four consecutive days. It pains me to imagine what rarities I missed adding to my yard list, but I had a memorable time. This spree was spurred essentially by a pelagic birding trip organized by Tim Shelmerdine's Oregon Pelagic Tours, for which I've been on the waiting list for over a month. But with a week to go, I was notified that a space had opened up. So, with the Christmas Bird Count season coming up and social distancing still an important way to prevent viral spread, I rented a tiny car for an entire month.
Weather this time of year makes pelagic trips prone to cancelation, and that's what happened to the October 24 trip. Luckily, this one on December 5th was declared a go, though the weather forecast was changing by the hour, and everyone was at least mentally prepared for a day's delay. We got out to 32 miles, where the best bird activity was at a larger fishing boat that seemed to be hauling up traps. Huge numbers of Northern Fulmars, several kinds of gulls (mostly Glaucous-winged, California, and Herring), a few Black-legged Kittiwakes, and good numbers of Black-footed Albatross were after the bycatch that the crew flung overboard. Among the birds was a single Laysan Albatross, but it didn't hang around for long. Here are just a few photos from that one spot.
Black-footed Albatrosses, Northern Fulmars, and a few gulls
Black-footed Albatross and Glaucous-winged x Western Gull
Black-footed Albatross
I stayed over at my dad's in Corvallis that night, and the next morning went up to Marys Peak with my friend Hendrik. The weather was amazing, and in conditions like this, the highest point in the Coast Range in Oregon is always a lovely place to be.
It's not every year in early December when the road to Marys Peak is still open and you're greeted with gorgeous weather.
We were really hoping to connect with a couple vagrants that have been reported in recent weeks, namely White-winged Crossbill and Black-backed Woodpecker, neither of which were documented by photos or sound recorded and haven't been relocated since. Hendrik's first attempt to re-find them resulted in his discovery of Pine Grosbeaks, which I also really wanted to see as it would be a state bird for me, but none of these birds seemed to be around in the late morning. We did see the 15 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches at the top, and a Northern Pygmy-Owl at the parking lot was nice to see.
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Northern Pygmy-Owl. Presumably the fake eye spots on the back of the head discourage mobbing birds from hitting it from behind.
Northern Pygmy-Owl
After Marys Peak, Hendrik and I continued to Dawson Road in the southern part of Benton County to look for reported Ferruginous Hawks, but it was too calm and sunny, and the field, though full of hawks (it's a banner year for voles in the Willamette Valley), was beset by a heat shimmer that made anything beyond 300 yards practically unidentifiable. Most of the bird were much farther than that, though we managed to pick out a few Rough-legs, Red-tails, and of course the constantly flying Northern Harriers.
I decided to stay another night in Corvallis and work my way back to Eugene via the Oregon coast, for a third day of birding. Little did I know that I would be spending the entire day birding in just Lincoln County, but you know that time flies when you're having fun. I checked spots in Newport and Nye Beach known to have hosted passerine vagrants in past years, then north to Devils Punchbowl State Park, a little headland offering some seawatching as well as the small community of Otter Rock with a chance of some stray land birds. A Rock Sandpiper below the parking lot, hanging out with Black Oystercatcher and Black Turnstones was good to see.
Black Oystercatcher
Rock Sandpiper
The neighborhood was full of birds, and Anna's Hummingbirds were especially abundant. My best find was an immature Rufous Hummingbird. In all honesty, I can't 100% rule out Allen's Hummingbird, but that would be a million times rarer, and I'd only be tempted to call it that if the bird had obviously narrow outer tail feathers and some rufous edging in the rump. I think one of my photos actually shows the little indentation near the tip of R2, the second-innermost tail feather, which is a good feature for Rufous Hummingbird as well.
presumed Rufous Hummmingbird
Another interesting bird I found was this sapsucker, which is at least mostly Red-breasted Sapsucker. The locally breeding (nominate) subspecies has a solid red head with none of these black areas or white lines, and this bird superficially looks like the ones that breed in the southern Cascades south through California, subspecies daggetti. That would seem very unlikely, and my guess is now that this is actually a hybrid (or intergrade) of our nominate subspecies with Red-naped Sapsucker, a combination that seems to be rather common and would originate anywhere on the east side of the Cascades of Oregon, Washington, or British Columbia. These birds surely have some southbound migratory movements.
sapsucker sp., quite possibly nominate Red-breasted x Red-naped
I made a few stops on the outer coast as I worked south towards Florence, but the pounding surf had created a salty fog-like mist at every viewpoint. I always like to check the gulls bathing in the mouth of Beaver Creek at Ona Beach State Park, and this is where I spotted this Iceland Gull (formerly split as Thayer's Gull).
"Thayer's" Iceland Gull
Unusually confiding was this native cottontail, the Brush Rabbit, Sylvilagus bachmani. Interestingly, this mammal has the almost the exact same distribution and biogeography as the Wrentit, even matching the Columbia River as the utter delimitation of its northernmost distribution. (There are a few erroneous iNaturalist submissions from Washington that I've attempted to correct.)
Brush Rabbit, Sylvilagus bachmani
My last stop was in Yachats, where a lot of humans found the pounding and frothy surf to be particularly attractive. I was pleased to spot a lone Bonaparte's Gull working the foam for tidbits and found a flock of about 90 Surfbirds on the rocky ledges. Scattered here and there were Black Turnstones, this one doing its own thing well above the waves.
Black Turnstone
When I got home that day, I read about reports of Pine Grosbeaks being relocated on Marys Peak, and it seems that like previous reports, getting up there early was the trick. So I left home at 6:00 a.m. for my fourth day of birding, arriving just after the start of civil twilight. And before it was light enough to see well, I heard the distinctive call of a Pine Grosbeak. For the next 40 minutes, I heard one off and on, sometimes even hearing wings hitting the needles of firs, Douglas-firs, and hemlocks. Finally, only after another birder (my friend Stefan Schlick from Portland) arrived did we hear them call repeatedly, and then we spotted them on top of a distant Douglas-fir. A while later, just after more birders arrived, they flew over the road and landed in another Douglas-fir right next to the parking lot, and five of us then enjoyed prolonged views of four birds nibbling on needles. This is an extraordinarily rare bird in western Oregon, but it's a huge finch year in interior North America, and there's a good chance these birds came from that huge exodus out of Canada.
Three of the four Pine Grosbeaks
There were more birds in Benton County that would be new for my ancient and limping county list, so I drove down the mountain to the Philomath Sewage Ponds, where it appears I missed seeing the Tufted Duck by just four days, though it had been seen almost daily for the past three weeks. However, I did finally catch up with Tricolored Blackbird, a rare bird anywhere in western Oregon, though one to a few have been found here in winter every year for some time (but all since I had moved to Arizona).
Tricolored Blackbird. Note the very slender bill and blood-red epaulet edged with white
The sparrow patch here has been faithfully seeded by several birders over the years, though this morning there wasn't much. When I pulled up in my car, there were only a couple Song Sparrows and no seed. They heard me coming though, and I was prepared with a bag of seed in the car. Within moments of my scattering a few handfuls, there were more Golden-crowned, White-crowned, Song, and Fox Sparrows than I could count, and a covey of California Quail also came right in.
California Quail
Golden-crowned Sparrow
The fog was starting to finally clear nicely, so I headed back down to Dawson Road on my way home and found one of the Ferruginous Hawks quite close to the road. It went after a vole, probably caught it, and then flew to a line of Oregon Ash trees to the north, where I watched it in the scope for several minutes. This species has occurred in Benton County only a few times; the last was in 1997, and before that 1990, and I didn't see either of those birds. This winter there were three seen in one day (two in this field and one by the airport), as well as one just a few miles east of here in Linn County, a truly unprecedented number for this short-distance migrant that typically prefers much drier climes and more treeless regions.
Ferruginous Hawk. The rusty wash on the shoulders is visible here, as are the distinctive patterns of white in the wing and tail.
Ferruginous Hawk. A much more massive head and bill than Rough-legged Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk. The gape that extends to the rear edge of the eye is barely visible in this photo.
Posted by Birdernaturalist at 3:50 PM 1 comment:
Oregon in Late Summer WINGS Tour
Recently I've had some not-so-subtle hints from friends that it's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. I've been staying quite busy, and the garden has occupied a huge amount of that time (including putting up the produce), but there's certainly no lack of bloggable topics from my little corner of paradise: lots of plant updates, interesting insects, and a burgeoning bird list. However, the meat of my blogging is usually my trips, and as you might imagine, I haven't been traveling much, with five of my tours canceled over the summer.
But I actually did lead a tour recently – my Oregon in Late Summer tour. This was the first WINGS tour to go since the pandemic shut everything down in March. The protocols were easier to follow with only four participants, all masked up in the van (mostly – I forgot sometimes when nursing a warm thermos of coffee) and as many meals outdoors as possible. I even prepared three meals at home in the days before the tour began, froze everything, and then brought it along in a new Yeti cooler and packed it with dry ice. On day 10, some of the food I brought out of the cooler was still partially frozen! I also bought a fancy two-burner propane camp stove and packed a lot of kitchenware. I'm not sure we would have been able to confirm that tour were it to be happening now, with such a surge of covid-19 as I write this in early December, but back in August and September, cases here in Oregon were actually still quite low, and no state was reporting a very big surge in cases.
Below is my day-by-day summary of the tour, with added photos.
The Oregon in Late Summer tour was like a breath of fresh air after nearly a half-year of restricted travel. Well, at least the first half of the tour had fresh air, and then smoke from forest fires from all directions was at least evident in the hazy horizon most places we went and barely tolerable the past couple of days. We were very lucky to be far from any fire's direct path and were not forced to make any deviations from our planned routes. Having not led any tours since March, I was reminded what a joy it is to show off my home state and its birds to a group of passionate, appreciative, and grateful participants. There was no agreement among anyone's top three favorite birds, though the birding east of the Cascades provided most of the memorable sightings:
Mountain Bluebird
Canyon Wren
Rufous Hummingbird
Black Rosy-Finch
Sagebrush Sparrow
Flammulated Owl
Fox Sparrow (Slate-colored)
Red-naped Sapsucker
Ferruginous Hawk
It was clear we were having a fabulous time every moment during the tour, and it was a sad moment when I realized we were at the end of tour so quickly. I briefly became a bit emotional when it hit me how much I had enjoyed being a tour leader and didn't know how long it would be before I would be able to do this again.
Weather was wonderful every day of the tour, especially that gorgeous first morning which we started in the greater Portland area. After a picnic breakfast at a Tigard City Park, where Pileated Woodpecker and the western White-breasted Nuthatch were some of the good sightings, we met up with two of the area's top birders at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, my close friends Shawneen Finnegan and Craig Tumer. They had staked out a Baird's Sandpiper for us, while flocks of Violet-green Swallows flew overhead, Lesser Goldfinches fed on the weeds below the viewing area, and a Wilson's Snipe fed furtively at the mud's edge. We then checked the bird-filled Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge (which just six weeks later would host the state's second record of Wood Sandpiper) and had lunch after a unique ride on the Buena Vista Ferry across the Willamette River.
Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge
There were just a couple of birding stops in the afternoon, one just barely still in Polk County at Luckiamute Landing where there was a flurry of activity, including a Western Screech-Owl tooting back from across the creek and a pair of riled up Red-breasted Sapsuckers who probably had an established personal relationship with that owl and were ready to take on this new one (my whistle).
Red-legged Grasshopper, Melanoplus femurrubrum at Luckiamute Landing
Shadow Darner, Aeshna umbrosa at Luckiamute Landing
The other stop was a slam-dunk Acorn Woodpecker oak grove in Adair Village before we finished the day with a stop at the Philomath Sewage Ponds.
Tule Bluet, Enallagma carunculatum at Philomath Sewage Ponds
Greater Yellowlegs at Philomath Sewage Ponds
The morning on top of Marys Peak was outstanding. The skies were still quite clear, and we could see north to Mount Rainier in Washington. Strangely, all galliform birds evaded us, and perhaps it was the large numbers of cars on the road to see sunrise and a full moon set from this perfect spot that kept the quail and grouse at bay. We had our first Varied Thrushes on the drive up, Band-tailed Pigeons were near the top, and a very confiding group of Western Bluebirds fed around the parking lot as we had breakfast. Scenery at the top is almost always amazing:
The Yaquina Bay Bridge at Newport from Marys Peak, 26.17 miles away
White-shouldered Bumble Bee, Bombus appositus
Seven-spotted Lady Beetle, Coccinella septempunctata
Willamette Short-winged Grasshopper, Melanoplus saltator
millipede species, family Parajulidae
On the way down the mountain, we stopped to look for Canada Jays (they showed well) and lucked into an early migrant Townsend's Warbler.
Canada Jay
Devils Club, Oplopanax horridus
Lunch at Alsea Falls failed to produce dipper, but we were treated to a very cooperative Northern Pygmy-Owl that came way out of the tallest trees, and we enjoyed spending the better part of a half hour with this bird, sharing it with some passers-by as well.
Alsea Falls
The abundant introduced Nutria, Myocastor coypus at an old logging pond near Alpine
We started our day driving to the coast with picnic breakfast at Philomath City Park, which is normally not anything special, but the stringer of willows here somehow had attracted a number of migrants. After we finished with the Acorn Woodpeckers over the picnic table, we caught up with very confiding Black-throated Gray Warbler and Warbling Vireo, among several other birds.
Another check of the sewage ponds preceded our drive to the lovely coast at Newport, and from there we worked our way southward to Florence with several stops.
Black Phoebe at Philomath Sewage Ponds
A Western Kingbird we found at the Hatfield Marine Science Center nature trail may have been just the second fall record for Lincoln County, but just as memorable were the more expected Harlequin Ducks at Otter Rocks and a very confiding Marsh Wren sitting up brave in the beach grass and willows at Sandpiper Village.
California Gulls and Caspian Tern at Hatfield Marine Science Center
Cedar Waxwing at Hatfield Marine Science Center
Pacific Coast Tiger Beetle, Cicindela bellissima at Sandpiper Village
Western Tiger Beetle, Cicindela oregona at Sandpiper Village
Sandpiper Village Beach in the fog
Our first day on the coast actually started inland a bit in the forests of Cape Mountain, where we hoped to run into some mixed flocks as well as escape the heavy mizzle that had settled in overnight. We found more Canada Jays, but a very tame Varied Thrush ended up being our best find there. A very close Gray Whale just below the Heceta Lookout was fun, and a walk to the lighthouse is where we ended up with our best views of Black Oystercatcher on the rocks below countless Brandt's Cormorants.
Brandt's Cormorants and Brown Pelican from Heceta Head
The view from Heceta Head lighthouse just before the weather began clearing.
Lunch was fortuitously under a Sita Spruce tree laden with ripe cones where Type 10 Red Crossbills were actively feeding and calling, but even more impressive were huge numbers of Cedar Waxwing, feeding on the abundant huckleberries, salal, twinberry honeysuckle, and especially cascara. A careful count of forty-nine Snowy Plovers at the beach was close to a record number; the resident docent who was there to help warn non-birding beachgoers to avoid flushing the birds had never seen so many at once and had no explanation for the sudden concentration.
A dead Costal Mole, Scapanus orarius, on the picnic area lawn was odd.
One of the few Snowy Plovers that didn't have leg bands.
What do you call a black-and-white yellowjacket? Should be a whitejacket, right? But this one is called Blackjacket, Vespula consobrina.
A Sanderling and two Western Sandpipers joined the Snowy Plovers
We finished the day's birding at the south jetty of the Siuslaw River where a very distant roosting Surfbird was less than optimal, while Black Turnstones, Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, and a very close trio of Harlequin Ducks were among the additional 25 species we saw.
A very fast flock of silent dowitchers. Could have been either or both species.
Harlequin Ducks
Today was a travel day from the coast to the Great Basin, but we had time to stop for birds and lovely picnics in gorgeous settings. Steller's Jays and Swainson's Thrushes were at our picnic breakfast at Whittaker Creek, while our only Wild Turkeys were flying (!) across the highway as we were approaching Eugene. We made stops at Fern Ridge Reservoir where Common Tern and Clark's Grebe were highlights as well as at my yard, which I call Calliope Corner. No calliopes were present, but we did have our most memorable views of Rufous Hummingbird here, and the feeders were busy with Bushtits, Lesser Goldfinches, and even migrant Black-headed Grosbeak and Western Tanager made appearances. Lunch was at the spectacular Salt Creek Falls, though mid-day in early September in the high Cascades is predictably nearly bird-free; however, this is where we finally got stellar views of American Dipper.
Salt Creek Falls
A Green Comma, Polygonia faunus, at Salt Creek
Less than an hour and a half down the road, and just as we were about to enter the treeless expanse of sagebrush steppe, we passed through a final grove of Ponderosa Pine that was alive with birds. It was a mind-boggling bonanza that started with Pinyon Jay and progressed through Clark's Nutcracker, Lewis's Woodpecker, White-headed Woodpecker, Pygmy Nuthatch, and almost 20 more species in rapid succession. We found it hard to tear ourselves away from this, but ahead lie more memorable birds.
Clark's Nutcracker with a crop full of pine nuts, off to cache
An earlyish Golden-crowned Sparrow
White-breasted Nuthatch, of the long-billed interior subspecies tenuissima
White-headed Woodpecker
All of the above birds were seen from the highway shoulder at this isolated grove of ponderosa pines
Sage Thrasher appeared as promised, Prairie Falcon posed nicely on a power pole, and stunning Mountain Bluebirds flitted along fence lines. But the best was yet to come with our picnic dinner of Thai green curry at the stunning Fort Rock State Park. As dusk began to settle, White-throated Swift returned from the far-off feeding areas to roost for the night, and then as civil twilight began to fade a pair of calling Barn Owls emerged like ghosts in the moonlight, foraging in the sagebrush slopes below the impressive volcanic tuff ring. It was a moment to savor.
Fort Rock State Park
A Western Black Widow, Latrodectus hesperus, greeted me at my hotel door after dinner and owling!
The masses of birdlife at Summer Lake State Wildlife Area took up almost all morning, and this place was a highlight of the tour. Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, Snowy Plovers, and Western Sandpipers were complemented by a single Sanderling, rare so far inland. We had three Great Horned Owls, including a pair that hooted in broad daylight, migrant MacGillivray's Warbler and Nashville Warbler, and our only Black-crowned Night-Heron.
This was the first morning we had any issue with smoke, this presumably from the record large fires in California. The big ones in Oregon were still a day and a half away from igniting.
A female Brewer's Blackbird at our picnic breakfast
An underwing moth, Catocala sp. notoriously difficult to identify
Aedes dorsalis was the mosquito we encountered at Summer Lake, a time of year when they are usually gone.
The Prairie Yellowjacket, Vespula atropilosa, was a new one for me.
Lunch at Marster Spring was rather warm and not full of birds, but that was followed by the impressive drive past Abert Lake with its thousands of American Avocets, Eared Grebes, and Wilson's Plovers, scattered to well beyond the heat shimmer and impossible to truly count.
Abert Lake
American Avocet
Avocets, phalaropes, and Eared Grebes as far as the eye can see
Crackling Forest Grasshopper, Trimerotropis verruculata, at lunch
Raptors were a constant distraction, and among the eight species of hawks and eagles we saw this day was a very handsome Ferruginous Hawk. We eventually had to break up the monotonous drive for safety's sake, and as luck would have it, the pullout was next to a very nice patch of Greater Sagebrush, perfect for Sagebrush Sparrow which came right in. With the weather forecast looking iffy for possible wind, we continued north of Burns to have a picnic dinner of vegetarian chili and polenta with mint pesto at Idlewild Campground, followed by a tremendously successful search for Flammulated Owls nearby. Few people have ever bothered to look for this tricky bird this late in the season, and even the regional eBird reviewer was apparently surprised they were still in residence.
Our full day in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was delightful. There were plenty of birds to look through at the headquarters complex, especially with so many Red-breasted Nuthatches raiding the spruce cones. A family of Ring-necked Pheasants as we drove up were one target bird, while two Lewis's Woodpeckers and a Townsend's Warbler were among the prizes to be found among the many migrants. Our stop at the Buena Vista Overlook featured both Rock Wren and a very close Canyon Wren before we continued to cover the rest of the refuge. We tried for the reported Plumbeous Vireo but instead had a rather dull Cassin's Vireo, our first for the tour, right by our picnic lunch table. The two Red-shouldered Hawks we saw as we worked back north through the refuge would have required a call to the RBA 15 years ago, and this came after a birder reported seeing a Red-tailed Hawk feeding on one just a day or two earlier. An interesting change came in the weather today, with a northern flow first moving out all the California forest fire smoke that had built up from the south. But then in the afternoon a cold north wind brought smoke from a Montana forest fire from the opposite direction as we ate our picnic dinner of takeout from Linda's Thai at a local park.
Dolichovespula sp. nest high in the cottonwoods at P Ranch
Red-shouldered Hawk at P Ranch
Sandhill Cranes and fall scenery at Malheur
The Striped Meadowhawk, Sympetrum pallipes, is the most common dragonfly here this time of year.
This grasshopper was at our lunch at Page Springs, a Circotettix sp. It has a very distinctive rattling song, so a species name shouldn't be too hard to nail down eventually. Blogger lets you add photos and movies, but not sound files, so you have to go to my iNaturalist observation to hear my recording. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58944945
By the next morning, all the smoke had cleared, and it dawned near freezing. We had a full day in the rich coniferous woodlands of Malheur National Forest of Grant County, hoping to fill in our gaps in the woodpecker list looking forward to chickadee and nuthatch flocks. Unfortunately, every woodpecker we saw had eight toes, but we did finally add Williamson's Sapsucker after many stops and searches. We also added the interior or "Northern" form of Canada Jay during our very chilly morning at Swick Old Growth Grove.
Canada Jay of the interior "Northern" group
A Dusky Flycatcher was a nice addition, as were many Townsend's Solitaires on our way up to the picturesque lookout on Aldrich Mountain where Ruby-crowned Kinglets were presumedly still on their breeding grounds in this bit of alpine habitat.
Cassin's Finch
Melissodes bee on top of Aldrich Mountain
The seeds of this boraginaceae were all over our pants, socks, and shoelaces
Also still on territory were the very local "Slate-colored" Fox Sparrows on Murderers Creek road, a good bird to have in the bank should they ever be split.
Slate-colored Fox Sparrow
After a dinner of takeout pizza, which we ate at a park in the presence of a mixed group of Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, we took advantage of the calmer weather to look for Common Poorwill, of which we saw one at a distance and heard another.
Our final day in the Great Basin took us to the top of Steens Mountain, Oregon's largest fault block mountain, the highest road in the state, and the only known breeding location of Black Rosy-Finch in the state. We started with picnic breakfast, this time including fresh scrambled eggs (thanks to the handy camp stove), at the very base of the mountain in beautiful western juniper woodland, which allowed us to arrive at the East Rim looking down on the Alvord Desert below by mid-morning.
The group on our way up the mountain on the south side of the loop.
Rock Wrens were migrating through, and we noted at least six in the small area we covered. Red-breasted Nuthatches and Townsend's Solitaires were also migrating through, as was a dashing Prairie Falcon that flew by at eye level.
We even saw a Black Rosy-Finch immediately upon arrival, but it was a very fleeting view, and we lingered with hopes of finding a big flock. There are few places more beautiful where one can pace back and forth hoping for a bird, and we were finally rewarded by good views of a small group of rosy-finches that came in to the rimrock above remnant snow fields.
There was some lingering smoke from fires to the south and east below us, but the atmosphere from about 9500 feet upward (we are at 9700 feet here) was beautifully clear.
Kiger Gorge
Slow Mountain Grasshopper, Bradynotes obesa
Lobb's Lupine, Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii
Spot-winged Pond Fly, Sericomyia flagrans, presumably hilltopping
Red-shanked Grasshopper, Xanthippus corallipes
A very distant Ferruginous Hawk in bad heat shimmer, but this is better than we could see it through the binoculars.
For what appeared to be a passenger jet, this was way too low – not far above us at 9700 feet elevation. We didn't recognize the colors from any airline either. It turns out to be a jet on its way to help fight the fires that at this point have been raging in western Oregon for the past two days, and the most likely route here would have been from Salt Lake City to Redmond. More and better photos of these jets can be seen on their website, https://www.10tanker.com/
We lunched among the quaking aspen groves at one of the campgrounds on the way back down the mountain and there we found our first Red-naped Sapsucker perched motionless and almost invisibly by a patch of much more apparent sapsucker wells.
We also caught up with the locally breeding, dark-lored oriantha White-crowned Sparrows that hadn't begun their migration to Mexico yet. With time to stop by Page Springs Campground at the base of the mountain, we caught up almost immediately with the stakeout Plumbeous Vireo that was singing on territory.
Plumbeous Vireo
Great Horned Owl in the Pete French Round Barn
We finished the long day back at the refuge headquarters where we had our final picnic dinner, this time a lamb curry with Nepali dal bhat and a dessert of chocolate mousse.
Where we had our final picnic dinner.
Osprey at Malheur NWR Headquarters
The last day of the main tour began with a freezing spritz from lawn sprinklers that were timed to go off by the picnic tables right at breakfast time. So we moved to the sunlight as icicles sparkled at a safe distance. Nevertheless, a pair of Red-naped Sapsuckers were a nice find here, and just down the road was our second Bald Eagle of the tour.
An icy morning at picnic breakfast!
The weekday closure of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument visitor center gave us more time to look for birds, which it turned out we needed.
At lunch we were treated to a show by a very curious and heavily molting Canyon Wren, and then just a few miles down the road we made a slight detour to look for a Summer Tanager that had been found just 16 days earlier (and ended staying on another nine) at a peach orchard. Patience was rewarded when the bird appeared with a migrant Western Tanager, and we then rewarded the orchard by buying a bunch of peaches and honey.
Canyon Wren and the Moon
Among the dozens of birders who saw the tanager, we had only the second local sighting of an Anna's Hummingbird, rare in this part of Oregon. Looking forward to an outdoor grill dinner at Multnomah Falls, we were instead greeted there by a wall of smoke pushing eastward up gorge from the fires that had blown out of control in western Oregon just three days earlier; out of health concerns, they had just closed the grill. We at least did see the falls, had a glimpse of our second American Dipper, and then continued westward to have our farewell dinner at the restaurant next to our airport area hotel.
The early evening sun through dense of forest fire smoke
Pelagic Addendum:
The pelagic extension went smoothly, though fog and smoke were a bit of a barrier to perfection. The first morning stop at Fernhill Wetlands was full of water birds, including views of both Sora and Virginia Rail. A small fire close to the coast had closed Highway 101 in the previous two days, but this morning it was opened, so we were able to continue directly to the Nehalem area and then work our way down the picturesque coast as planned. A highlight at Nehalem was a huge flock of 31 Baird's Sandpipers in one group; in Oregon even groups as many as 10 raise eyebrows.
Barn, Bank, and Violet-green Swallows at Nehalem Sewage Ponds
A very late Cliff Swallow, and the only one on the tour, at Nehalem Sewage Ponds
Eight Baird's and two Western Sandpipers are in this photo.
White-crowned Sparrow, a very common local breeder
Red-breasted Nuthatch, perhaps a southbound migrant.
It seemed like a lovely clam at the time, but later I learned this is the introduced Purple Mahogany Clam, Nuttallia obscurata, native to eastern Asia.
A Glaucous-winged Gull demonstrates the correct way to eat an Ochre Sea Star
South of Nehalem we drove into fog, which persisted into the next day. While it did mean that the pelagic trip was pleasantly calm with smooth seas, it also meant we didn't see many birds at a distance, which hampered the bird list. On the other hand, those that were there we saw extraordinarily well. Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is not rare, but it isn't guaranteed either, and sometimes it's missed, or the only sighting is a quick fly-by. It turned out to be the most abundant species on the trip with the leaders eBirding a total of 184, and other highlights were Black-footed Albatross, Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters, Sabine's Gulls, and Cassin's Auklet. A very quick fly-by of South Polar Skua was the boat's only skua or jaeger of any kind and was missed by most people, something that can be blamed on the fog. But as is always the case, in order to get to know those far-flung birds, you have to take many pelagic trips, always a learning experience.
Moon Jellies, Aurelia labiata, were abundant this trip.
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Most people politely kept their masks on, even though everything we know about the virus tells us getting infected in this environment is essentially impossible.
There was a bit of discussion about what this shark might be, but Blue Shark, Prionace glauca, seems to be the most common and likely species that behaves like this in this region. The lack of blue color can entirely be attributed to the dense fog.
Sabine's Gull


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I cried harder last night than I have in months, and definitely harder than I have ever cried because of a book.
This one was called "The Book Thief," and it took me nearly a month to read it after first checking it out from Van Belkum Branch Library.
It wasn't because the book wasn't a page-turner. It was. It wasn't because it was 550 pages. Although it was.
The reason it took me almost a month was because it was filled with suffering and pain, and I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it later, when I knew I'd be ready for it again.
The story was like none I've ever read before. It was about a girl named Liesel Meminger who lived in Nazi Germany in the middle of World War II.
Instead of a tale told from the perspective of the Jews, like so many other WWII books, such as "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl," "The Hiding Place," and "The Devil's Arithmetic," author Markus Zusak hands us a story from the point of view of Germans living under the terrifying rule of "the Fuhrer," as they called Hitler. We see and feel the constant terror running through German souls -- the things they had to do, the price for hiding Jews, and the way Hitler wielded words in his quest to rule the world.
**Such a powerful, sobering thought that was for me, a writer, an editor — someone whose daily life and breath is the food of words. Someone whose existence is intertwined with paragraphs and sentences. To think of the misuse of words, to me, is terrifying.**
The part that stunned me about this book is that the story itself was fictional, with the exception of its historical context, and yet I found myself wrapped up in Liesel Meminger's life, fascinated by her foster parents' odd ways of showing love, drawn to her best friend and hero, Rudy Steiner, heartbroken by the sorrow of the Jew they hid, Max Vandenburg, whose friendship to Liesel follows her throughout life, and sympathetic to Liesel's hunger for books, a pull that draws her into thievery and brings her face-to-face with Death three times.
For this book is narrated by Death himself. He sees human souls as colors and takes a sick pleasure in that which will shock, appall and disturb.
And yet, despite that, I couldn't help but sympathize with him, in the sense that it was clear he loathed his job and carried it out of a sense of fateful inevitability, knowing that nothing could stop the ebbing away of souls during that war. He carried each one lightly, respectfully, even on days when his task list numbered in the thousands.
I was angry at him for telling me ahead of time what would happen to each character. Angry when he revealed before it happened the specific manner of each person's death.
And yet, being prepared for their deaths in advance, and by extension the heartbreak they would cause Liesel, did nothing to soften the blow to my heart when they actually occurred.
"Why? Why?" I asked myself What made this book so difficult to read?
Part of it must have been because I knew that although Liesel and Rudy were merely products of Zusak's imagination, there were so many in 1943 with stories just like theirs that weren't fictional.
People really did follow Hitler in hypnotized, numb terror. And those who tried to resist met with suffering and death.
People died alone. They died not knowing hope. They landed in unmarked graves — whole families at once, so many that it's likely some families trees were obliterated — with no one left alive today who even knows or remembers they existed.
I don't want to forget that. I don't want to watch the ones around me die without hope like they did.
Wow. Powerful words, and a compelling review.
But I think I might wait a bit to read this one...
Yeah, that's probably smart with everything you're diving into right now. You don't need this kind of additional heaviness.
Leah Randelle said...
I may have to pick this one up.
:) You should! It's a good read.

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The term "gaming PC" can be misleading. These powerful computers are, indeed, optimized for gaming, but the demanding graphics and fast processing requirements typical of modern games have driven gaming computers to develop capabilities that easily transfer to other applications. Large active memory components and fast processors make this class of PCs a good choice for IT departments and general purpose home offices. Staples® carries a large selection of gaming PCs, laptops, and computer accessories for all your gaming and computing needs.
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News Markets News
The Santa Claus Rally
By Gordon Scott
The Santa Claus Rally Defined
In 1972, Yale Hirsch, a stock market analyst and author of the annually published book titled "Stock Trader's Almanac," identified and named an apparent stock market anomaly. He called it the Santa Claus rally because it usually occurred during a six-session stretch beginning with the first trading session after Christmas day and ending with the first two days of the next year.
The stock market's performance during these six-day periods includes the last few trading days of the year, which share a similar characteristic with Black Friday and Christmas Eve. While those days typically operate on an abbreviated session schedule and the Santa Claus rally does not, it is also true that such days have notably low volume. In fact, the final week of the year typically trades on the lowest volume of any throughout the previous year. With vacations and holiday activity, the only people who trade on these days must really have a need to do so. Those two facts alone make it worth consideration for a period of time that would have unique characteristics compared to the rest of the year.
The chart below shows an example of the timing of the Santa Claus rally. This example takes place from the end of the year in 2008 to the beginning of 2009, and it was a rally with the best historic returns.
Historic Santa Claus Rally Performance
While some have disputed that the Santa Claus rally is as much a myth as its jolly-old namesake, the data speaks for itself. Hirsch tracked the rally all the way back to 1896 using the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJX). However, anyone can download and check more readily available data. Simply reviewing the closing price data of State Street's S&P 500 Index fund (SPY) will allow the observer to calculate the return of holding from the close before that six-day stretch to the final close of those days. Doing so shows some very interesting returns.
Not all years produce a winner. The chart below shows the worst-performing turn of the year in the past three decades, that of 2007-2008. However, the Santa Claus rally does produce a gain more often than a loss. In fact, since the inception of SPY in 1993, the Santa Claus rally has produced a gain 17 out of 26 times (about 65% of the time).
A Special Case of the Turn-of-Month Effect?
Over the years, many analysts have tried to speculate about the reasons for the Santa Claus rally and why it should persist for over a century, and even show up so strongly in more modern, ETF-driven markets. One possible explanation may be found in a few academic studies that have documented the turn-of-month effect. This is the concept that stocks tend to rise after the end of the month and perform well in the first days of a new calendar month. There is ample data to suggest that this is a persistent phenomenon.
If we consider that the Santa Claus rally is a year-end version of this effect, it may be the case that the more determined crowd making trades during that period of time tends to generate more positive returns. Whatever the actual reason, a comparison of the returns from trading the rally on SPY over the past 26 years shows a pretty dramatic story.
The chart below compares the results of trading any random six-day period in the past 26 years with the results of trading two kinds of six-day groupings. The first is the turn-of-month effect, four sessions at the end of a month and two sessions into the next month. The second is specifically the returns from trading the Santa Claus rally.
Trading any random six-day stretch on SPY over the past 26 years produces a positive return 58% of the time. But trading the four days at the end of the month and two days in the next actually produces winners 64% of the time. The Santa Claus rally bests both of these with 65% winners and produces demonstrably better returns, as shown in the chart above.
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Futures & Commodities Trading
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Percentage Price Oscillator – An 'Elegant Indicator'
How to use Monte Carlo simulation with GBM
Santa Claus Rally Definition
A Santa Claus rally describes sustained increases in the stock market that begin on December 26th and extend through January 2nd.
What Does January Barometer Mean?
The term "January Barometer" refers to the belief, held by some traders, that the investment performance of the S&P 500 in January can be used to predict its performance for the rest of the year.
January Effect Definition
The January Effect is the tendency for stock prices to rise in the first month of the year following a year-end sell-off for tax purposes.
Anomaly Definition
Anomaly is when the actual result under a given set of assumptions is different from the expected result.
October Effect
The October effect is a theory that stocks tend to decline during the month of October.
Halloween Strategy
Halloween strategy is a trading tactic, which posits that stocks perform better between October 31 and May 1 than they do during the rest of the year.


text:
Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate The Music of Peter Green and The Early Years of Fleetwood Mac
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The members of Korn built an immortal bond back in 1993 the first time that Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Brian "Head" Welch decided to make music as a unit. They shed blood, sweat, and tears in the studio and on stage, fashioning an undeniable, unsettling, and unique sound that would permanently alter the course of rock music.
After six seminal releases, two Grammy Award wins, countless sold out shows, and eventually selling 35 million albums worldwide, Head left the group in 2004 to face down the demons of addiction on his own. Korn soldiered on, permanently adding drummer Ray Luzier to the fold in 2007and releasing four more epic full-length releases, most recently 2011's groundbreaking dubstep-metal hybrid The Path of Totality.
In 2012, a triumphant and tear-filled reunion happened on stage as the group headlined the Carolina Rebellion festival with Head reprising his legendary part on "Blind." The initial bond came back into focus, but it was time to change the game again. It was time for their eleventh studio album The Paradigm Shift. Recorded with producer Don Gilmore [Linkin Park], it melds the group's ever-present spirit of innovation with their signature metallic catharsis, paving the way for the future yet again.
Their 12th studio album, 'The Serenity Of Suffering' will be released on October 21st 2016.
@kornabout 3 days
Happy Birthday, @JDavisOfficial. 📷: @sebastienpaquet https://t.co/hHq8ZnVNSp
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about 6 hours ago@itbagency@ROAMse & @yourdreamnails will both play @2000trees Festival this July! Tickets ON-SALE Friday at 9am 👉… https://t.co/NTPaQePMrz
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What a beautiful way to start December. Thank you, Ann Tatlock, for allowing others to share the message of God's love.
For a number of years, I lived in Minneapolis where I worked as an editor for Decision magazine. Many afternoons at the 2:45 break, I'd take a walk through nearby Loring Park. A pretty little park with a small lake at its center, it was a good place to go and clear my mind toward the end of the workday.
One October afternoon in 1990, I walked along the paths that were strewn with leaves. The trees were almost bare now and another harsh Minnesota winter was closing in. I kept my eyes lowered and felt my shoulders hunch against the chilly air.


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Home > Series > Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle > Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos volume 31
Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos volume 31
Deep-Sea Crustaceans from Papua New Guinea
Edited by : Laure CORBARI, Shane T. AHYONG & Tin-Yam CHAN
Published on 09 July 2020
Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos, a continuation of Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, is a series dedicated to the inventory and description of the deep-sea fauna of the world, with special emphasis on the most extensive, yet remote and least explored, region — the Indo-West Pacific. The comprehensive series of marine expeditions undertaken by the French Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) continue to collect many new, strange and sometimes colourful crustaceans. The present volume includes for the first-time results from recent expeditions off and Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea always had a special place in the heart of marine biologists. Firstly, but barely explored during the expedition of the Challenger (1875), deep-sea fauna from Papua New Guinea remained a gap of knowledge until the recent series of expeditions launched by MNHN: Biopapua (2010), Papua Niugini (2012), Madeep (2014) and Kavieng (2014). From the amazing sampling of benthic fauna, the international network of naturalists and taxonomists, federated around the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos program, has described since 2012, more than 258 new species of molluscs, fishes, sea-spiders, corals and crustaceans. This special PNG volume comprises descriptions and new occurrences for more than 360 species including cirripeds, crabs, armoured shrimps, ghost shrimps and squat lobsters. Many are illustrated by spectacular colour images of freshly caught specimens. With 44 new species of crustaceans described in this volume, more than 300 new marine species will have been discovered around Papua New Guinea and its satellite islands.
Laure Corbari is research-scientist at the French Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Shane T. Ahyong is senior research-scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, Tin-Yam Chan is professor of the Institute of Marine Biology at the National Taiwan Ocean University.
Volume's quote :
CORBARI L., AHYONG S. T. & CHAN T.-Y. (eds) 2020. — Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos volume 31 : Deep-Sea Crustaceans from Papua New Guinea. Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 481p. (Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle ; 213).
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Number of pages : 481
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What Long Awaited Menu Item Is Returning to Central NY McDonald's?
Kaylin Published: October 16, 2022
We've all seen it happen one time or another. There's an item on a menu at a restaurant that you absolutely love. Then, without warning, the restaurant gets rid of that item. It's happened to me at a number of different spots, but one place I can tell you it happened with something I loved was at McDonald's.
There's so many different things that have been taken off of the menu at McDonald's over the years that people would love to see return. Snack Wraps are one of them. Chicken Selects are one of them. And, who remembers the burger that they had in the late 90s to compete with Burger King's Whopper? It was called the Big N' Tasty...and tasty it was.
Well, good news: McDonald's locations throughout Central New York are bringing back an item for a limited time that maybe you've missed and you want to see back on the menu. I know it's this specific item for me, anyway.
It has been confirmed by several different McDonald's locations that the Breakfast Bagels will be returning as of Monday, October 17 for a limited time. Yes, you'll be able to finally enjoy that bacon egg and cheese, sausage egg and cheese or steak egg and cheese bagels once again.
These bagels have been something I have been VOCAL about making a return to locations ever since they got eliminated from the menu during the pandemic. For me, the bacon, egg and cheese bagel is sort of nostalgic for me. I used to go to McDonald's for breakfast with my grandfather all the time when I was a kid, and that was our favorite thing to order. It gives me memories of him, but also is just really delicious.
So yes, beginning Monday morning, you'll see the return of Breakfast Bagels at area McDonald's locations. Are you just as stoked as we are? Let us know in our station app.
LOOK: Food history from the year you were born
From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.
Filed Under: mcdonalds
Categories: Daily Distraction, Food and Cooking, New York News
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Search civil and criminal court calendars at https://www.nccourts.gov/court-dates. Probate is in a separate index at this courthouse. Probate fax is same as main fax number.
All record inquires must be conducted with the Clerk of Civil Division, not the Magistrate (which does not hold files or records). Call 919-209-5400.
Contact the Johnston County Office of the Register of Deeds if you would like to find vital records, such as birth, death, marriage, divorce, and real estate records.
OnlineSearches.com - Search for Johnston County public records by town, record type, and/or state.


Extra-pair Mating: mating between an individual that is in a socially monogamous relationship and another individual that is not in that relationship.
Infertile: unfertilized; an egg is infertile when the male sperm do not reach the female egg cell. Infertile eggs will not have an embryo inside.
Monogamy: a type of relationship that occurs when males and females form a relationship with only one partner at a time. Neither the male nor the female has multiple partners.
Social Monogamy: when individuals pair up with only one partner at a time for raising their families, but sometimes mate with other partners.
Your crush enters the room and your heart immediately starts racing. Your face flushes as you start to talk nervously to your friend. But you aren't making much sense. Your friend tells you to stop acting so ridiculously.
How does picking your own partner affect your relationship? Couple image by Muramasa.
What is it that makes you feel attracted to this one particular person more than another? Why can't your friend understand what you see in your crush? Your friend is falling for some other person completely different from the one you like. How do these differences in preference affect the relationships we form?
Measuring the costs and benefits of mate choice is a challenging task. Scientists can't simply swap partners between two loving human couples to see how well they adjust. In the PLOS Biology article "Fitness Benefits of Mate Choice for Compatibility in a Socially Monogamous Species", scientists studied how mate choice affects reproductive success in a bird species.
A zebra finch couple rests on a perch. The female is on the left and the male is on the right. Click for more information.
Birds have beaks and wings they use to fly, which makes them seem very different from humans. But some birds aren't as different as you might think.
The zebra finch is similar to humans in some of their relationships. These birds bond with one partner for life and share the duty of caring for their offspring.
They choose their partners in a way that is specific to each individual, meaning different birds do not agree on which bird is most attractive.
Picking the right partner can be important in many ways. A specific partner can give direct benefits. For instance, if a chosen male brings a lot of food to the nest, this makes the work easier for his female partner. But benefits of mate choice can also be indirect. A wisely chosen partner can pass on good genes that allow offspring to survive better.
Overall, females prefer higher quality partners. Yet, in some species, females do not share their preferences. This suggests that females may choose males that match them best, because they are most compatible. How can one male be more compatible with a female than another?
There are four different benefits an animal can get from choosing a mate. Click for more detail.
The genes of a father and a mother mix in their offspring. This means the father's and the mother's genes have to work well with each other. Therefore, one possibility is that the genes of a female work better with the genes of one male than with those of another - an indirect benefit.
What about direct compatibility benefits? For instance, coordinating and sharing tasks could be easier with one male than with another. We will refer to the ways two parents interact directly as 'behavioral compatibility'.
In this experiment scientists wanted to find out if zebra finches that were allowed to mate with the partner of their choice would raise more young (i.e., reach higher fitness) than those that had to settle with a partner they did not choose. And, if this was the case, they wanted to know what caused these differences.
Scientists formed groups of 20 females and 20 potential male partners. Birds could freely choose a mate in a situation somewhat similar to a speed-dating event.
Scientists used three main steps to complete this experiment. Click for more information.
After birds formed pair bonds, scientists swapped the partners in some of the couples ("assigned pairs") but kept other couples intact ("chosen pairs"). The swapped couples had to settle with the assigned mate while the other birds stayed with their chosen mates. To force the assigned pairs to bond, they were put in cages for a few months until they agreed to become parents. Chosen pairs were put in cages as well.
After all birds had settled with their partners, they were allowed to raise as many chicks as they could over several months. Birds were set in shared breeding aviaries to make sure that they had a setting relatively natural for them to reproduce.
This graph shows the fitness of males and females from chosen and assigned pairs. Click for more detail.
Scientists monitored the fate of every single egg laid by inspecting each nest every day. They removed eggs that did not hatch and any chicks that died. Scientists also followed the growth of each chick until they were all out of their nests and independent from their parents.
Overall, parents from the chosen couples raised 37% more chicks than parents from assigned couples. This shows that getting a partner someone else wanted does not work as well as getting the partner you wanted.
In zebra finches, a developing chick, also called an embryo, can die while it still is in the egg. Embryo mortality is a sign of genetic incompatibility between the two biological parents. To the contrary, after a chick hatches, its survival is only determined by the behavior of the parents that raise the chick. At that point, survival does not necessarily depend on the biological parents. Chick survival therefore depends on behavioral compatibility between the parents raising the chick. Bird parents must work hard constantly to feed their chicks, and chick mortality can be surprisingly high.
Overall, the same number of chicks died before hatching in chosen and assigned pairs. This means the partner of choice did not lead to better genetic compatibility. However, chick mortality was 60% higher if chicks were raised by an assigned couple.
Mortality rates of embryos and offspring in chosen and assigned pairs. Click for more detail.
In other words, birds were not as good at raising young when they had to breed with a partner they did not choose. These results imply that, when choosing a partner, zebra finches choose behaviorally compatible mates.
So what makes a couple more behaviorally compatible? To answer this question, scientists watched each couple behind one-way glass. They measured behaviors, including how often they were close to each other and if their activities were coordinated.
Chosen couples were more 'lovey-dovey' but scientists did not notice more coordination of activities. Females of chosen pairs were more faithful to their partner while females of assigned pairs often were not very interested in mating with their partners. This likely explains why assigned females laid more infertile eggs. Chicks of assigned couples were a bit neglected by the fathers, which may have caused the higher chick mortality.
Overall, chosen couples were more committed to each other and better at raising their kids. The scientists concluded that when you are a zebra finch, what matters most is how your partner motivates and helps you to handle the challenges of having a family.
Additional images via Wikimedia Commons. Zebra finch chicks by Martybugs.
When zebra finches are young, they do not differ in their colors. As they grow, males and females will develop different patterns of coloration.