DIY Bird Feeder Science Project Ideas

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s current issue of “Living Bird News” encourages me to share ideas I’ve had about science projects involving bird feeders.  The magazine reported on a study of the times of day four species of birds feed in winter (black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, and house finch).  The results showed that the belief that birds feed heaviest first thing in the morning to recover from the long winter night might be wrong.   Birds did begin eating about a half hour before sunrise, but they ate more and more as the day progressed.  Another surprise was that most birds of three of the species stopped eating two hours before sunset.  This adds to the researchers’ thoughts that the birds are weighing the risks of exposing themselves to hawks at midday or screech owls in the evening against the risk of dying of hunger.   The chickadees, tufted titmice, and house finches might be choosing to avoid only the screech owls.  

That seems to be wise, since David Bonter, one of the researchers, did other fieldwork which showed large piles of dead songbird stashed in Eastern screech-owl birdhouses.

I was struck by his statement that we spend millions of dollars on bird seed without paying any attention to the results.

Here are two science projects that I can think of that could provide some of those results:

Bird Feeder Project 1:

Set up two identical bird feeders at a spot where you can see them while sitting down at your house.  Put in different feed in each feeder, for example, all sunflower seeds in one and a seed blend in the other.  For the seed blend, you could either buy one already mixed, or, do what I do, and design your own mix.  I designed my mix by going to a chart showing which birds ate which seeds and then assigning percentages of the mix based on the number of species eating each seed.  Then I translated the percentages into pounds based on a 20 or 40 pound bag.

But tonight I discovered a neat site at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s FeederWatch site:  http://feederwatch.org/learn/common-feeder-birds/.  You can click on your region of the country and then photos of birds common to your region are shown.  When you click on a picture of a bird you have or expect to have at your feeders, you get a list of foods they prefer.

As an example, using this web page, I took 12 species common to my feeders in central Ohio and counted up how many species at each food listed.  I got these results:

Hulled sunflower seeds: 12 species, 20% of 20 pound mix=4 lbs.

Black oil sunflower seeds: 11 species, 20% of 20 pound mix=4 lbs.

Peanut Hearts:  10 species, 15% of 20 pound mix=3 lbs.

Safflower seeds:  9 species, 15% of 20 pound mix=3 lbs.

Cracked Corn: 5 species, 5% of 20 pound mix=1 lb.

Suet: 6 species, not applicable to seed mixes

Nyger Seed: 6 species, 10% of 20 lb. mix=2 lb.

Mealworms: 6 species, not applicable to seed mixes

Whole Peanuts: 5 species, not applicable to seed mixes

Millet: 4 species, 5% of 20 lb. mix=1 lb.

Milo (Sorghum): 4 species, 5% of 20 lb. mix=1 lb.

Oats: 1, 1% of 20 lb. mix=1 lb.

Sugar water: 1 species, not applicable to seed mixes

Fruit: 1 species, not applicable to seed mixes (unless use tree fruit and nut mix as I do)

This gave me some surprises that make me want to re-think my current mix, which I designed by including all species in the list I think, rather than tailoring it to those in my region, or those visiting my feeders.  Here are the surprises for me:

·         Hulled sunflower seeds were a bit more popular than black oil sunflower seeds.

·         Peanut hearts were just below black oil sunflower seeds.

·         Six species ate nyjer seeds, while I thought only goldfinches did.  This makes me glad I include one pound of it in my mix, but makes me consider upping it.

·         I was also surprised that red bellied woodpeckers would eat fruit and drink sugar water!

Bird Feeder Project 2:

Compare different types of feeders.  The site I mentioned above allows you to see which birds in your region you’re likely to attract by the different types of feeders.  Of course, if you already have feeders, you can make a list of species that come to your feeder, even participating in Cornell’s FeederWatch project while you’re at it.   My first three weeks of participating in Feederwatch this season makes me think that platform feeders attract the most birds.  If you have a feeder that has Plexiglas or glass that slides out, you can turn that into a covered platform feeder by removing the glass.   You could also compare covered and uncovered platform feeders.

Links:

Living Bird News (By joining FeederWatch you get this newsletter which excerpts some articles from Living Bird magazine, which is available to Cornell Lab of Ornithology members.)

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Another Bird Feeder Project 

More Blog Pages:

Local Events  (includes Snowy Owl Alerts)

   

My New Website

Turn Your Smartphone into a $10 "Microscope"

I just got this e-mail about a way to use a smart phone for macro photography, from Sam Droege, a  bee and dragonfly expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which shares land with the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center (BARC).  I worked at BARC as a science writer until I retired in 2011.   Sam was also on the Christmas Bird Counts I participated in there.

It excites me because I’ve been wondering lately if there are inexpensive ways that middle school students could take macro shots of spiders, moths, and other bugs with their smart phones.  

For a while now,  I've had a digital microscope on my Amazon wish list  for my own possible use (SVP DM540(with 16GB) 2.7" LCD Digital Mobile Microscope/Magnifier with Build-in Camera
by SVP

This sells for anywhere from $68.24 to $99 from Amazon.    Now that I looked at this SVP site tonight, I see they have a lot of tempting gadgets like this.  I had gotten interested in digital magnifiers after reading about them somewhere, probably a National Wildlife Federation or Ohio Wildlife magazine.

I was also looking at a $7.99 tripod for cell and smart phones at Staples the other day, with an eye towards bug photography.

But, back to Sam's e-mail to the yahoo group I belong to:

  VA-MD-DE-Bugs] smart phone/field microscope/camera - $10.00 U.S. 

Droege, Sam 

To Bee United,VA-MD-DE-Bugs@yahoogroups.com

  Nov 18 at 8:27 AM 

All:

Someone recently showed me this very inexpensive platform for taking at least reasonable macro pictures with your smart phone

http://petapixel.com/2013/10/19/turn-smartphone-microscope-macro-photography-rig-10/

 

I have seen a number of similar ones, but this strikes me as particularly useful as it is:

1.  Inexpensive.

2.  Creates a stable platform for cell phone and specimen

3.  Allows focusing

4.  Would allow even the potential for primitive focus stacking (see free stacking software called combine-z)

5.  Would work well in combination with CO2 or chilled specimens

6.  Requires very low power to operate

7.  Pieces are readily available

8.  In addition to taking pictures it, in reality, would act as a microscope for identification or work on tagging/marking individuals

9.  Creates entry level possibilities for students and amateurs with no microscope

sam

Sam Droege  sdroege@usgs.gov                    

w  301-497-5840  h  301-390-7759  fax 301-497-5624

USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705

Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

Links:

 DIY Smart Phone-Microscope-Macro Photography Rig

Article on photo rig for taking snowflake images

Snowflake Guy's Blog

Sony Palmsized camcorder with 60X Optical Zoom  (When I worked for USDA, we used to mail these to scientists to record videos for our website.  An entomologist used one to send us a video of insects and he liked it, but now says it takes bad stills and says there are probably better models now.  One Amazon reviewer says he'll go with Panasonic or Canon handycams next time.)

My New Website

The Death of a Spider or My Girl Neoscona



Neoscona

I had been hanging around with a spider all fall, well she was literally hanging by a thread, upside down a lot, I think, but I was never quite sure where her eyes were.  As my own little citizen science project, I was photographing her to identify her, but also monitoring her and other life around my porch lights to see when they actually died as cold weather came on.

The books say that spiders live just one season.

I watched her busily wrapping up victims like mummies or wrestling bugs to death.  Sometimes windstorms blew her web away, but she would have it rebuilt in a couple of days.  After a couple of frosts, the web was down to a strand and then nothing at all. 

Eventually she huddled underneath the porch light.   Once, she was gone and I thought that was it.  Then she re-appeared in the same spot.  After that I could no longer tell if she was dead or alive.  I didn’t want to touch her to see, because I’m too much of a softie to distrurb any creature.

As it got even colder, she seemed dead, hers legs held tightly to hers body, like a clenched fist.  Then we had our surprise early snowfall of 1.6 inches.  I checked the next day and she was not there.  Then I had the wild idea of searching for her body.  If she literally dropped dead, her body might be right under the light.  I looked down and sure enough there it was.  It was easy to see on the white snow.  Then I touched her at last.

Then on November 15, I sent one of her photos to spiders.us.  The next day, I learned her name and gender, a female Neoscona crucifera.   Looking her up in my “Spiders and Their Kin” Golden Guide, All I could learn there was that she is ½ long and found in the eastern United States.

I need to find if a guide to Ohio’s spiders exists—I find it easier to identify creatures with local guides, and I’d expect more information than I get in the Golden Guide.  In the meantime, I’ll make my small contribution and gradually create a photo album of the 13 spiders I’ve identified in my yard and neighborhood since I started spending a lot of time in Ohio about 1 ½ years ago.  Nearly all the identifications were made by participants at spiders.us.

At times I thought most of the people seeking spider id’s were afraid of the spiders found in their homes.  But most of those doubts disappeared when I sent in my request for Neoscona’s id and mourned her passing.

Instead of laughing at me, this inspired others on the website to share similar feelings along with their id information, like these:

“And I grew attached to one this season as well.. Called her "orbi"... [I guess for orb weaver spiders.]

“Yep, she's quite the looker too. It's a shame she had to die like that, but alas, such is nature. To live, is to one day die. But to one day die, is to one day bring forth new life.”

I also got this informative response to my question about how long spiders live, since I was seeing spiders like Neoscona alive after a couple of frosts and I’m seeing ladybugs and other spiders still alive on a warm day after the first real snow of the season here in central Ohio:

“Bugs are cold blooded (that's a generalization - "blood" is a relative term as the body fluid in bugs varies). A lot of them just slow down or stop moving all together when it gets cold - many can survive this for short periods. A warm day, they all come out and stock up on nourishment. Most of them are hiding out in warm places like piles of leaf litter or under ground (or in heated, man-made structures, those clever beasts) (sighted a hungry looking wolf spider yesterday that's probably been camping out in our garage or in the wall). It's freezing they can't survive (some of them can actually!) - especially a long freeze like several days or weeks of snow or freezing temps. Other bugs have such quick life cycles that a warm day causes eggs to hatch and they go about their business while the getting is good.”

Which brings me back to citizen science or Nature science, wondering if students or adults could do a science experiment to see how long the bugs they’re observing live?  One of the things I’m hoping to do in this blog is to list ideas for science projects or science experiments anyone can do that will help professional scientists and further conservation of plants and wildlife.  I welcome any help in this.

Links:

Spiders "Citizen Science" Link

My New Website

 

A Beginner’s Guide to Buying Binoculars for Birds, Butterflies, and Dragonflies

Three of my teammates on last year's Christmas Bird Count at Apple Valley Lake in Howard, Ohio.

On a recent bird walk, when one of the participants mentioned she would like to buy her first binoculars, it made me think of an article I had inspired and edited for the Greenbelt (Maryland) News Review I contributed fairly regular Nature columns to when I was in Maryland full-time.  I was e-mailing a really good bird watcher, Peter Blank, for an article on how to choose binoculars.

At the time, I had only an old pair of binoculars I shamefully outbid a young boy for at a church auction years ago.  Peter suggested since he had practically written the story for me that he should write the article himself.  He did and it was published.  I was going to link the article but I couldn’t find it online at the News Review (http://greenbeltnewsreview.com/)

So all I can do for now is give the specs of the binoculars I bought and still have as my only binoculars, suggested by Peter for its wide view, which offers beginners a better chance of locating the bird in a tree:  Nikon Monarch, 8X42, 6.3^o

I don’t know what all the numbers mean, certainly not the degrees, but I know at least that 8X42 is excellent, and a beginner’s binoculars should be close to that.  I think you sacrifice magnification as the field gets wider, so a narrower field is suitable for a very experienced birder who can spot birds easily through binoculars and needs more details.

As an eyeglass wearer, I was relieved to find out that my new binoculars would fit my eyes better than my old, because I chose those suited to eyeglass wearers.  Dunkle says:  "Eyeglass wearers should look for a long eye relief of 18-20 mm or more, and retractable or fold-down rubber eyecups...Useful literature on buying binoculars is published by Canon, Eagle Optics, Nikon, and by Christophers of Norman, Oklahoma."   I had found out this information when I bought mine by reading the manufacturer's literature.
 

While I’m on the subject of binoculars, after I began using them to identify butterflies, I learned that there were books called “Butterflies through Binoculars: The East” by Jeffrey Glassberg and “Dragonflies through Binoculars” by Sidney W. Dunkle.

These authors recommend close-focus binoculars that focus between 4 and 8 feet.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the books when I bought mine, or I might have bought one of these, if it would also be good for birds.  It might be because the wider field of view of an 8X is one of the recommendations of both authors.

Glassberg suggests looking for binocular buying tips on the North American Butterfly Association's website: http://www.naba.org/binocs.html  The information there is only two years newer than his 1999 book, but it's a start.

Apparently the advent of close-focus binoculars has sparked new interest in identifying butterflies and dragonflies.  I like the fact that we can identify them without capturing them, recognizing that someone has to capture and even kill them for detailed examination, but not me, as long as I can resist.

So, now the old stereotype of old weirdos in shorts chasing butterflies with nets, will be replaced by the stereotype of old weirdos in shorts watching butterflies with binoculars, just like the old weirdos watching birds!



Golden Eagle Sighting near Apple Valley:



My birding friends and neighbors at Apple Valley have a recent documented sighting of a golden eagle feeding on deer carcasses on a nearby farm, along with 12 bald eagles, on Weber Road, near one of many bald eagle nests in the area.



I hope to use this blog and/or my future website for posting alerts like this for local birders, although I will do it faster than I did this one!  I'd appreciate hearing about bird sightings from local readers so I can let the whole neighborhood know and give local birders a chance to share in the sightings.



Snowy Owls in Ohio:



Jim McCormac's blog reports 141 owls in 48 counties in Ohio.  They've been seen in Knox County and all its adjoining counties, except for Morrow.  A recent owl sighting in Richland took care of that "holdout" county, now it's Morrow's turn!


News Flash:


Jim McCormac will discuss the eight species of owls resident in Ohio at a free webinar on January 15, from noon to 1 p.m.  Register at:  http://obcinet.org/webinar-on-ohios-owls-announced/  The seminar is presented by the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative ( http://obcinet.org/ ).  At the OBCI website you can also lisen to a recording of a previous webinar on Ohio's seven resident woodpecker species.




Links:

Jim McCormac  (Naturalist Jim McCormac also writes a column for The [Columbus, Ohio] Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month, one of my two must reads in the Sunday paper. )

Columbus Dispatch  [John Switzer writes a Nature column every week in the Sunday Columbus Dispatch, my other must read.  He is a model for the Nature columns I write and, like me, he veers off in a lot of different directions, including the Indians of Ohio, etc., while often writing about birds and referencing McCormac.)

 Brown Family Environmental Center, Kenyon College  (This is a great place that serves the campus and surrounding communities, is a model for natural land preservation, and coordinates the Knox County, Ohio, Audubon Christmas Bird Counts.)

Cornell Lab Magazine Reviews Binoculars :  Another reason to join the Cornell Lab--the current issue of their "Living Bird" magazine reviews binoculars.   

My New Website

Wooly Bears Only Predict Their Ages

An all black woolly bear just means a young one, or an underfed one.....

 

...and one with more brown means an older, well fed one!

I named this blog for the idea of Do-It-Yourself Science advocated by Miami University's Casey Tucker at a recent conference on avian research at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.   I participate in many citizen science projects and like the idea of expanding the role beyond monitoring and data collecting for researchers to doing the research ourselves.  I'd like to do my own experiments and inspire middle school students and high school students to do Nature science projects that would be better and more useful than the science fair projects I did in elementary school and high school.

Another speaker at the conference announced that in six months, the Winter Breeding Bird Survey of Ohio would be published, the first such winter survey in the country.   The speaker said the survey would be repeated periodically, always in January.  He said this is the best time to get an accurate census of winter birds, better than the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count which is done between December and February each year, with the exact date up to local counting organizations. 

 I'm splitting time between Maryland and Ohio currently and wherever I live I like to write regular Nature columns to inspire interest in Nature and to force me to learn.

This blog will give me room to write about the things that I can't squeeze into those columns, like the interesting fact I read recently explaining that the width of the brown bands on woolly bear caterpillars aren't predictive of weather.   They only reflect the age of the caterpillars--they're born mostly black and then turn more and more brown with age.

But it was actually an entomologist who started the myth based on limited experiments trying to correlate the brown band width with weather.  Others say if it reflects anything about weather, it's reflecting the summer’s weather when the caterpillar was growing, and how much the caterpillar got to eat.  The bigger they get the more brown they are.

After reading that, I later walked my dog and saw several woolly bears in the same vicinity, some all black and some with different widths of brown bands and I realized that alone should put to rest the myth, unless the woolly bears have different predictions!



And if that doesn’t show you how little it takes to excite me, how about this:  I’ve become very interested in moths lately because I realized that, at least in many parts of Ohio very few people are observing and identifying them.  I started sending photos of moths, mostly circling my porch lights, to butterfliesandmoths.org and soon found that almost every moth photo I sent added a moth to their database for Knox County, Ohio.  That fired me up and I’ve brought the total of moths listed for Knox County from 13 to 29 in a short time. 

That pleases me because I haven’t been in Ohio that long and I can hardly identify a moth.  The experts identify them for me from the photos and I absorb a bit about moths from osmosis.

It’s not hard to bring the total from 13 to 29 because the average county has about 500 moth species. 

I’m wondering if there are youngsters out there that would be excited by adding to this database, if not by moths themselves, and whether their smart phones could take good enough photos for the site—giving them a worthwhile Nature science project, if not a Do-It-Yourself Scientist project.

Sources/Reading:

"Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America" by Charles V. Covell, Jr., available from Virginia Museum of Natural History.  (It costs $30 on sale, but I don't regret buying it.  But maybe it, or the first edition, published about 20 years ago--which is the same book, except for a new introduction section--can be found on Amazon cheaper.)

Links:

Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America

Here are links to Casey Tucker's new website (still under construction) and the blog it will eventually replace:

American Avian Conservation & Research Institute Website

American Avian Conservation & Research Institute Blog

Here's a link to a 2011 NPR radio Science Friday program on citizen science:

Who Gets to Call Themselves a Scientist? 

Popular Series of Insect Articles by USDA entomologist   (I like these articles by Jon Lundgren, a research entomologist for USDA's Agricultural Research Service.  Go to  my new website, with temporary domain name of  "doncomis.simplesite.com" for the latest story I know of, his October 14 Halloween column on larder beetles, which he calls "nature's skeleton cleanup crews." )


My new website